Philip Marlowe – Who Played Him Best? Ranking the Actors Who Played Him!
Rory Doherty at Paste recently posted Every Philip Marlowe Performance, Ranked. Before you click over, here’s a comparison of our rankings and my thoughts on each.
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Doherty |
Zablo |
9. Robert Montgomery,
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* George Montgomery, The Brasher Doubloon (1947) |
8. George Montgomery,
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* James Caan, Poodle Springs (1998) – Haven’t seen yet. |
7. James Caan,
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* Liam Neeson, Marlowe (2023) – Haven’t seen yet. |
6. Liam Neeson,
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6. Elliot Gould, The Long Goodbye (1973) – This didn’t work for me. Gould wasn’t my idea of Marlowe and the film just didn’t resonate with me. |
5. Robert Mitchum,
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5. Robert Montgomery, Lady in the Lake (1947) – An experiment that failed. Shot so that the audience sees everything from Marlowe’s perspective, it plays like a modern video game with little action. |
4. Dick Powell,
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4. James Garner, Marlowe (1969) – Garner isn’t a bad Marlowe plus we get Bruce Lee too! I’d have like to have seen Garner play Marlowe again. |
3. James Garner,
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3. Robert Mitchum, Farewell, My Lovely (1975) & The Big Sleep (1978) – Mitchum plays an “older” Marlowe. He’s not in his prime, but Mitchum at any age is a winner. Plus we get Sly Stallone in Farewell, My Lovely. |
2. Humphrey Bogart,
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2. Dick Powell, Murder, My Sweet (1944) – Powell was best known for lighthearted musicals prior to this. Surprisingly he makes a cool Marlowe! |
1. Elliot Gould,
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1. Humphrey Bogart, The Big Sleep (1946) – Bogart is easily my favorite Marlowe. If only he had made more |
Although Doherty limited his rankings to the movie Marlowes, I want to make mention of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983 – 1986), a series that ran for 3 years on HBO. Powers Boothe played Marlowe. It’s been decades since I saw the series, but I remember it fondly. I need to revisit it. |
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