Most Inspiring Biopics
by BonaFideBOSS | created - 1 month ago | updated - 4 weeks ago | PublicWhich of these inspirational biography movies is your favorite?
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1. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
PG | 117 min | Biography, Drama
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Thandie Newton, Jaden Smith, Brian Howe
Votes: 433,860 | Gross: $163.57M
2. The Walk (II) (2015)
PG | 123 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
In 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Guillaume Baillargeon, Émilie Leclerc
Votes: 116,616 | Gross: $10.14M
3. Dangal (2016)
PG | 161 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters struggle towards glory at the Commonwealth Games in the face of societal oppression.
Director: Nitesh Tiwari | Stars: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra
Votes: 144,775 | Gross: $12.39M
4. My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
103 min | Biography, Drama
Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan, Kirsten Sheridan
Votes: 65,651 | Gross: $14.74M
5. Into the Wild (2007)
14A | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 556,658 | Gross: $18.35M
6. Schindler's List (1993)
PA | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,173,764 | Gross: $96.90M
7. The Pianist (2002)
AA | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 701,816 | Gross: $32.57M
8. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
PG | 228 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 259,405 | Gross: $44.82M
9. Amadeus (1984)
PG | 160 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was insanely jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 358,597 | Gross: $51.97M
10. Braveheart (1995)
18A | 178 min | Biography, Drama, History
When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 936,935 | Gross: $75.60M
11. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)
PG | 186 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The truth behind the ascension of Milkha Singh who was scarred because of the India-Pakistan partition.
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra | Stars: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Pavan Malhotra, Art Malik
Votes: 58,818 | Gross: $1.63M
12. Raging Bull (1980)
18A | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Votes: 311,324 | Gross: $23.38M
13. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
PG | 135 min | Biography, Drama
After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 821,906 | Gross: $170.74M
14. In the Name of the Father (1993)
R | 133 min | Biography, Drama
A man's coerced confession to an I.R.A. bombing he did not commit results in the imprisonment of his father as well. An English lawyer fights to free them.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Alison Crosbie, Philip King
Votes: 151,412 | Gross: $25.01M
15. The Elephant Man (1980)
13+ | 124 min | Biography, Drama
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud
Votes: 212,794
16. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
16+ | 139 min | Biography, Drama, History
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer
Votes: 413,127 | Gross: $67.21M
17. Rush (I) (2013)
14A | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The merciless 1970s rivalry between Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara
Votes: 419,515 | Gross: $26.95M
18. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
PG | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A seasoned FBI agent pursues Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully forged millions of dollars' worth of checks while posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a legal prosecutor.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen
Votes: 791,273 | Gross: $164.62M
19. Cinderella Man (2005)
PG | 144 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of James J. Braddock, a supposedly washed-up boxer who came back to become a champion and an inspiration in the 1930s.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger, Craig Bierko, Paul Giamatti
Votes: 172,771 | Gross: $61.65M
20. Lion (2016)
PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama
A five-year-old Indian boy is adopted by an Australian couple after getting lost hundreds of kilometers from home. 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
Director: Garth Davis | Stars: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Sunny Pawar
Votes: 204,358 | Gross: $51.74M
21. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 214,328 | Gross: $52.77M
22. The King's Speech (2010)
PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of King George VI, his impromptu ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 624,971 | Gross: $138.80M
23. The Imitation Game (2014)
PG | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Votes: 662,531 | Gross: $91.13M
24. Straight Outta Compton (2015)
18A | 147 min | Biography, Drama, History
The rap group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr.
Votes: 175,038 | Gross: $161.20M
25. Walk the Line (2005)
PG | 136 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick
Votes: 228,035 | Gross: $119.52M
26. The Fighter (I) (2010)
14A | 116 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Based on the story of Micky Ward, a fledgling boxer who tries to escape the shadow of his more famous but troubled older boxing brother and get his own shot at greatness.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Votes: 332,222 | Gross: $93.62M
27. Ray (I) (2004)
14A | 152 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell
Votes: 135,327 | Gross: $75.33M
28. Moneyball (2011)
PG | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 350,721 | Gross: $75.61M
29. 42 (2013)
PG | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and faces considerable racism in the process.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie
Votes: 81,670 | Gross: $95.00M
30. Rocketman (I) (2019)
14A | 121 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.
Director: Dexter Fletcher | Stars: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 120,610 | Gross: $96.37M
31. Invictus (2009)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
Nelson Mandela, in his first term as President of South Africa, initiates a unique venture to unite the Apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng
Votes: 146,835 | Gross: $37.49M
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