The 10 Best Lee Majors Movies And TV Shows, Ranked

A casual poll of younger audiences would likely reveal a lack of awareness as to who exactly Lee Majors is, but mention some of his best-known films and television? Well, most people still wouldn’t know him, but they all know how to use Google, so they’ll be fine. Majors’ peak of popularity was across the 1970s and 1980s, primarily due to two hit shows, but his filmography features more shows and movies worth seeing out, whether he’s new to you or you’re already a fan.

Majors would never be accused of having a wide acting range, and he’d probably be okay with that assessment. His niche was in playing casual heroes, laid back guys with the skills and reluctant drive to do the right thing, and there’s no one better when it comes to saying it all by saying nothing at all — aside from one well-timed eyebrow arch. Much of his best work is basically out of print these days, but used VHS tapes and DVDs (and the internet) are your friend.

Now, keep reading to see the 10 best Lee Majors movies and TV shows, ranked!

Sure, no sane person would call Richard Donner’s 1988 comedic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic a “Lee Majors movie,” but he still lands as one of the most memorable parts of the film. “Scrooged” stars Bill Murray as Frank Cross, the Ebenezer Scrooge-like network executive who gets a wakeup call in the form of ghostly visits warning him about his greedy and cruel ways. He’s the focus of the story, obviously, but Majors pops up in teaser for an upcoming TV movie, and the cameo instantly became a pop culture fixture. It’s a small appearance, but the film remains one of Majors’ (and Murray’s) best and most memorable films.

It’s Christmas Eve, and the North Pole is under attack by terrorists. Santa Claus, the Mrs., and all of the elves quickly arm themselves with automatic weapons as a lone hero rides up on a snowmobile. Lee Majors, playing himself for some reason, tells Santa to get to safety as a voiceover adds, “Seven o’clock, psychos seize Santa’s workshop, and only Lee Majors can stop them!” The title of the film then appears onscreen — “The Night the Reindeer Died” — and millions of people across America immediately wished this was for a real movie. It’s been 37 years, and we’re all still waiting and wishing.

It’s understood that most actors, when given the opportunity, will go for the more challenging and showier role. Characters who face real struggles can be more interesting to play, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re often on the receiving end of more critical acclaim as well. Lee Majors is top billed in 1977’s “Just a Little Inconvenience,” but he’s second fiddle to the film’s central character, a double-amputee war veteran played by James Stacy, who is himself a double-amputee Vietnam War veteran. Stacy plays Briggs, a man struggling with his new reality, while Majors is the good friend who helps him through the darkness.

The title refers to Briggs’ growing acceptance of his situation as less of a tragedy and more of an inconvenient new hurdle, and his journey hits the expected life-affirming beats. It’s a made-for-TV movie from the late 1970s, so don’t expect Briggs’ struggles to reach the big, brash extremes that Tom Cruise explored as a damaged war vet in “Born on the Fourth of July” (one of Cruise’s best), but the drama still lands. And yes, Stacy was nominated for an Emmy for his work here but lost to Fred Astaire.

When you think about the action-forward, B-movie thrills of Cannon Films, you probably think of talents like Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, and Abe Vigoda. 1990’s “Keaton’s Cop” is a lesser-known Cannon Films entry that tried mixing things up a bit by adding Lee Majors into something of a geriatric buddy cop romp. He plays a detective who’s a bit of a mess — he’s divorced, he’s bitter, and he’s prone to throwing guys he dislikes through closed windows — and is tasked with protecting an elderly mobster (Vigoda) being targeted by hitmen. It’s atypical Cannon, but atypical is Cannon’s wheelhouse (as evidenced by the terrific documentary on the studio, “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films”).

This is a silly movie that won’t be taken seriously by anyone who sees it (or even by the characters who are in it), but it’s a goofy good time that sees Majors playing a bit off his own tough guy persona. There are fights, shoot outs, and even a car chase that trades traditional action movie thrills for a low-speed pursuit aiming for laughs. Vigoda is the main source of laughs here — an odd choice seeing as Don Rickles plays Majors’ partner — and his presence as an aging contrast to what’s going on around him earns the chuckles and finds the heart of the film’s fairly light tone.

Cinema in the 1970s was preoccupied with a few things, but the argument could be made that plots and themes around paranoia were chief among them. (The decade’s films occupy fully half of our list of the best conspiracy thrillers.) Conspiracy thrillers were all the rage with stone-cold classics like “The Parallax View” and “Three Days of the Condor” still bringing the goods nearly half a century later. “The Agency” can’t touch those paranoid masterpieces, but while the Canadian feature was released in the U.S. in 1981, it began production three years earlier and feels every bit like a child of that most mistrustful of decades.

Philip Morgan (Lee Majors) is “a legend among copywriters,” but a new head honcho (Robert Mitchum) at his advertising agency has him doubting his employer’s integrity. He’s right to doubt as evidenced by the murders, abductions, payoffs, and eventual reveal. It’s never mind-blowing, and director George Kaczender struggles to real energy or suspense, but the ideas at play here are interesting all the same. People are easily manipulated, and the film argues that most of us like it — or even need it — that way. It’s a cynical take on audiences with more than a kernal of truth to it, and it makes for an engaging enough feature. Add in a fun early role for Saul Rubinek and the realization that “Scrooged” is actually a Majors/Mitchum reunion, and you have a film that’s worth a watch.

Shows about lawyers have seen a few high-profile hits including “L.A. Law” and “Law & Order,” but dig a little deeper and you’ll find some worthwhile series that seem to have faded from public awareness. “Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law” kicked off with a successful “movie of the week” on ABC before running for three 23-episode seasons. (Remember those?) The premise follows a prosecutor, played by Arthur Hill, who sees one too many injustices and decides to switch sides to become a defense attorney in a coastal California town.

Lee Majors plays a member of Marshall’s legal team tasked with supporting him on all manner of cases from theft and fraud to murder and a journalist’s right to protect their source. The series was unafraid to deal with some fairly edgy issues like police brutality, euthanasia, and sexual assault, and, unlike most modern shows, it continually approached the topics with sensitivity rather than salaciousness. The show also served as a training ground for numerous young talents including the likes of Steven Spielberg and John Badham behind the camera and Tom Selleck, John Travolta, Susan Sarandon, Mark Hamill, and future Mrs. Majors, Farrah Fawcett, in front.

When is a heist film not just a heist film? When it throws a reservoir filled with hungry piranha into the mix, obviously. If the title has you thinking that “Killer Fish” must be a lesser B-movie chasing the tail (and box-office) of Joe Dante’s “Piranha,” well, you’re not necessarily wrong, but don’t let that dissuade you from diving in for a deceptively good time. Thieves celebrating their haul discover that the big cheese has deposited the goods beneath dangerous waters, but their efforts to secure their share see them becoming human chum.

Lee Majors enters the fray as head of a team looking to secure the treasure without being nibbled to death, and director Antonio Margheriti sets the stage with a background in genre fare ranging from westerns and sword and sandal epics to sci-fi and horror. It lacks the wit of Dante’s film, but there’s plenty of fun and thrills to be had for fans of B-movies, bloody demises, and epic miniature work bringing a tsunami to life. The film won’t top anyone’s list of killer fish movies, but blending a heist film with horror thrills is enough of a winning combination to warrant a watch, as well as its inclusion on our list of the best oddball heist movies.

“Yellowstone” may have ended its run, but fans of sprawling family action/dramas in a western landscape can still look backwards for new-to-them shows that helped inspire the Taylor Sheridan hit. Chief among them is “The Big Valley,” an ABC series that ran for four seasons back in the late 1960s – which explains why only two of the main cast members are still alive — and follows the lives of the Barkley family, their huge California ranch, and the struggles that arise from their lives both public and private.

The great Barbara Stanwyck is the family matriarch tasked with keeping everything together after the death of her husband, and her two grown sons and a daughter are along for the ride. Lee Majors plays their father’s illegitimate son who joins the family proper even as his history leads to all manner of troubles down the road. The show is set in the 1880s, and while there’s a civilized structure to the Barkley family’s lives, it still delivers the kind of gunfighter action and frontier confrontations the genre demands. 

Of course, it also had over 100 episodes to fill, so the dramatic conflicts run the gamut to include deadly earthquakes, race relations, insanity, revenge, and more. It’s an engrossing, attractive show that balances the action and family drama well, and Majors enjoys arguably the best character arc of his career.

“Steel” walked so “Armageddon” could run, and that alone should be enough for you to seek out this late 1970s action/drama about construction workers racing to complete a building before a deadline. Is constructing a building like stopping an impending meteor collision? No, not really, but bear with me here. Lee Majors is a brought out of retirement as a legendary “ramrod” to help get a building finished before the bank seizes the property and hands it over to a mean competitor, and he gets to assemble his own team of wildcards and beer-loving madmen to do it.

It’s controlled irresponsibility and run through with familiar faces including Terry Kiser as an Italian ladies man, Richard Lynch in a rare non-villainous role, Redmond Gleeson as an ex-IRA bomber, Art Carney as a guy named Pignose, and more. There are plenty of antics and shenanigans as the team feuds and faces outside interference. A couple guys meet their end thanks to gravity, and the third act is a race against time managing suspense, thrills, and sacrifice. The film is dedicated to stunt performer A.J. Bakunas, who died after a high fall ended poorly, and it stands as a testament to both performers like him and high-rise construction workers of days past.

Lee Majors may not have become an A-list movie actor, but he was a steady face on television for a long time. While much of that work was in ensembles or as a guest star, he headlined two big hits in the title role. The second is below, but it’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” that truly made him a star. He plays Steve Austin, a test pilot who’s severely injured in a crash only to be saved through the use of high-tech bionic body parts replacing his legs, one arm, and one eye. His new abilities see him spearheading missions for a secret American agency over five seasons and several TV movies.

The show, more than anything else in Majors’ filmography, entered the pop culture lexicon in a big way with phrases, sound effects, and even slow-motion movements being instantly recognizable. Austin went up against spies, thugs, militaries, and even another bionic individual, but the highlight for any child of the 1970s and 1980s, was a two-part event pitting the bionic man against Bigfoot (played by Andre the Giant). Laugh if you must, but this was (and still is) pretty darn cool. 

Toys were produced, a spin-off was created with a bionic woman, and a later TV movie reunion even features a young Sandra Bullock as a newly enhanced bionic woman. It’s a fun show, and regardless of whether or not the long-rumored big screen reboot ever happens with Mark Wahlberg in the title role, it’s another one worth revisiting before what’s left of the main cast leaves their mortal coils.

The two top spots here could easily be swapped, and this list would still be an accurate ranking of Lee Majors’ onscreen work. While the series above ruled the 1970s, this action/comedy about a stunt performer named Colt Seavers (Majors) who pays the bills by also working as a bounty hunter was a TV mainstay throughout the first half of the 1980s. Majors’ amiable personality, a memorable theme song, lots of fun action beats, and some eye candy (it was the 1980s!) in the form of Heather Thomas helped make “The Fall Guy” a hit.

Last year saw a big screen reboot that ditches the bounty hunter angle in favor of some murder shenanigans, but it keeps the show’s tone and, more importantly, its vocal appreciation for stunt performers. (It also brought two of the show’s cast members in for a mid-credits cameo.) They’re an integral part of filmmaking, but only a handful of productions over the years have truly explored it with respect, thrills, and a genuine sense of humor including “Hooper” and “The Stunt Man.” This show helped expose these professionals to a wider audience, and it had a great time along the way delivering laughs, stunts, and fun confrontations guaranteed to leave our heroes battered and bruised but never beaten.