My Worst Movie Dads List

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A few months ago I did a list of the worst mothers in the movies...well, gotta give the guys equal time. As with the previous list, the number one prerequisite for making this list is the adverse consequences these movie dads had on their movie children. They could have been all right people in general, or even good husbands, but it's the way they treated their onscreen children or the way they shut their children out of their lives that will make them candidates for this list. So get ready for my list of Worst Movie Dads:



50.

Max Basner, Nothing in Common



Jackie Gleason, in his final film role, played Max, an abrasive retired traveling salesman who ignored his son and emotionally abused his wife for decades. A grown up David (Tom Hanks) is moving up quickly in the company where he works as an advertising executive, but Max doesn't give a damn about that and expects David to drop everything and take care of him when Max's wife (Eva Marie Saint) walks out on him.



49.

Wilson, Wilson



Wilson (Woody Harrleson) is a grumpy and bitter middle-aged man who wants to make up for lost time when he meets his teenage daughter, Claire (Isabelle Amaro) for the first time, but all he does is completely disrupt and almost destroys the very comfortable and secure home she has.



48.

Samuel Eaton, From the Terrace



Samuel Eaton (Leon Ames) is a wealthy businessman who has spent many years trying to prepare son Alfred (Paul Newman) to take over the business, just driving him further away while turning his wife (Myrna Loy) into an alcoholic.



47.

Felix Farmer, S.O.B.



Felix (the late Richard Mulliga) is a movie director who has a nervous breakdown after his latest film flops big time at the box office. When his actress/soon to be ex-wife (Julie Andrews) tells him that it's been suggested that he not see his children anymore, it doen't even make a blip on his radar. Felix ignores his children as they leave the house for the last time.



46.

Lenny Koufax, Big Daddy



The late Joseph Bologna plays a hotshot attorney who lives in Florida and offers no help or support to his son Sonny (Adam Sandler) when he calls to tell him that he found a young boy abandoned at his apartment door. When Child Services finds out that Sonny is not the child's legal father, they take him to court and Lenny flies from Florida to New York in order to testify against his son.



45.

Lance, World's Greatest Dad



Comedian Bobcat Goldwait wrote and directed this 2009 comedy in which the late Robin Williams plays a lonely and unpopular high school teacher whose obnoxious son dies under very embarrassing circumstances. Initially as a way to avoid his late son embarrassment, Lance sets up his son's death to look like a suicide which turns him into a media sensation, a tide of love and publicity that Lance decides he's going to ride the crest of the wave. There are a couple of people who know the truth, but for some reason, they just stand by and watch Lance profit socially and financially from his son's death.



44.

Kurt, Daddy's Home 2



Mel Gibson did a real scene stealing turn playing the long lost father of Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) showing up to spend Christmas with his son for the first time in decades, pretending to want to make up for lost time, but all he does is ridicule Dusty in his silly battle with co-stepfather, Brad (Will Ferrell).



43.

Donny, That's My Boy



Adam Sandler plays an aimless goofball who got one of his teachers pregnant while he was in high school. She had the baby and went to jail. Donny named the baby Han Solo and split. Twenty years later, Donny learns that his re-named son, Tod (Andy Samberg) is gettiing married and uses the excuse to reconnect with his son as an opportunity to see what he can get out of him since he's marrying into a wealthy family. I like Adam Sandler, but this guy was a jerk.



42.

Mr. Prentice, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?




This one might ruffle some feathers, but hear me out. Mr. Prentice, like it or not, is a bigot. He arrives at the home of the Draytons (Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn) prepared to hate Joey Drayton (Katharine Houghton) for no other reason than the fact that she is white. He is proud of son, John (Sidney Poitier) and everything that he's accomplished, but is prepared to shut his son out of his life forever because he wants to marry a white girl. It's possible that Mr. Prentice's behavior might have been different without the clock on the situation (John and Joey are leaving the country in 24 hours), but all he does is bluster at the top of his voice about the fact that what John is doing is wrong, never bothering to ask John if he's happy and if he's really in love with Joey. The man's bigotry overshadows the love of his son.



41.

Bernard Berkman, The Squid and the Whale



Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) is a college professor with two sons who has been in a sham of a marriage with Joan (Laura Linney) for years. They finally decide to end the marriage and Bernard seems to think this is the end of his responsibilities as a father. When he is forced to find a new place to live in order to get visitation with his sons, he moves into a dump and makes no attempt at renovations...he also allows one of his students to move in, with whom he's having an affair. This doesn't stop him from trashing Joan's affair with his younger son's tennis coach. He also commits the cardinal sin of divorce...trashing the kids' mother to them. No matter how ugly a marriage and divorce can become, no good can come from the parents trashing each other in front of the kids when the other one's not around.



40.

Alvin, No Strings Attached



Oscar winner Kevin Kline plays a self-absorbed actor whose son (Ashton Kutcher) is a television director. Alvin was the star of a sitcom about a 100 years ago, hasn't worked since, and is in serious denial about the fact that his career is over. While waiting for his career to re-ignite, Alvin has decided to spend his spare time having sex with his son's ex-girlfriend.



39.

Seth Lord, The Philadelphia Story



After self-absorbed socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) announces her wedding to George Kittredge (John Howard), her father, Seth (John Holliday) shows up wanting to play father of the bride. Seth abandoned Tracy and her mother when Tracy was a child because of his wandering eye and now wants to make up for time. He feels guilty about the bitchy ice queen his daughter has become and attempts to take some responsibility for the woman Tracy has become, but it's really a matter of too little too late.



38.

Frank, Parenthood



Oscar winner Jason Robards plays the father of a 35 year old sales executive named Gil (Steve Martin) who is now married with three kids of his own. Gil has never gotten over the fact that even when his father was there for him, he wasn't. Frank used to take Gil to baseball games and pay people to watch Gil while he went off to drink and gamble.



37.

Mr. Perry, Dead Poet's Society



Kurtwood Smith plays the hard-nosed father of prep school student Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) who constantly pressures his son to give up all extra curricular activities in order to concentrate on his school work. Shortly after Neil's triumphant performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he is so badly verbally and emotionally abused by Mr. Perry that he commits suicide.



36.

Brian Madison, Billy Madison


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The late Darren McGavin plays a multi-millionaire who has been coddling his spoiled son, Billy (Adam Sandler) for years. He even bought the kid's high school diploma. Brian has begun to face his mortality and decides to pass over Billy in favor of his slimy assistant (Bradley Whitfield) to take over his company when he's gone. He only agrees to let Billy have the company if he goes back and repeats his first 12 years of school. It's understandable to a point, but the only reason Billy is a lazy bum is because his father allowed him to be.



35.

Max Dugan, Max Dugan Returns



Jason Robards hits the list again as an ex-con who shows up on the doorstep of his daughter (Marsha Mason), who she hasn't seen she was a girl, because he wants to spend some time with his grandson (Matthew Broderick), after learning he is terminally ill. He thinks what he's doing is OK because he arrives with $687,000 that he stole from some Las Vegas mobsters. I guess this is one of those dads who does all the wrong things for all the right reasons (or vice versa), but he doesn't care how showering his daughter with all this money just complicates her life, not to mention her budding romance with a charming cop (Donald Sutherland). Max claims to want to make up for being absent from his daughter's life for so long, but the only person Max is thinking about here is himself.



34.

Oliver Barrett III, Love Story



Oscar winner Ray Milland plays the millionaire who makes it clear to his Harvard law student son (Ryan O'Neal) that the girl he has fallen in love with (Ali MacGraw) is not good enough for him. When Oliver IV marries her anyway, his father cuts him out of his life. When Oliver's new bride is diagnosed with a terminal illness, his father shows up when she's on her deathbed asking for his son's forgiveness, but Oliver IV is not hearing it.