The Top 10 Best Movie Doctors

Get Me 10CCs of Movie Doctors, Stat!

Before we get into who the best movie doctors of all time are, I have a terrible joke for you:

What do you call someone who graduated at the bottom of their class in medical school?

Doctor.

-Wise Sage I Met At a Dive Bar in Mouse Snout, Saskatchewan

As funny and depressing as that joke is, I think it’s time to honor the best healers from the silver screen. That’s why I’m counting down the Top 10 movie doctors of all time. In order to earn a spot on this list, a character has to be a medical doctor (apologies to all the movie therapists and dentists out there) and has to have appeared on the big screen (TV doctors would have been so much easier to do. After carefully combing through their credentials, I’ve managed to pull together a list of the best movie doctors of all time. You might not want to schedule an appointment with all these docs, but if push came to shove, you’d probably be in good hands. So, take a deep breath, because we’re getting ready to count backward from 10.

10. Dr. Benjamin Stone- Doc Hollywood

doctors
You deserve a fancy car after 8 years in medical school.

I’ve heard that a lot of surgeons have a god complex. That holding a person’s life in their hands goes to their head (a lot of body parts are apparently involved in surgery). That’s why this Michael J. Fox character is kicking things off for this list of movie doctors He plays an arrogant surgeon who finds himself trapped in a small town on his way to a new job in California. The reason I decided to include him is that the film focuses on the humbling of a young hotshot doctor as he learns that there’s a lot more to his oath than just patching people up. It’s a feel-good film that teaches audiences to find joy in the insignificant. Plus it’s Michael J. Fox, how could you not like it?

9. Dr. Rumack- Airplane!

Surly, you can’t be serious?

If there’s one thing all movie doctors have in common, it’s that they’re pretty good in a crisis. Still, not of the other physicians had to deal with a deadly case of food poisoning at 30,000 feet. I’m not sure what it is about Dr. Rumrack, but I trust him. He’s just got that sense of confidence and authority that forces you to believe every word he says, which is a good thing, considering almost every word out of his mouth is ridiculous. Due to Dr. Rumack’s expert medical training, he was able to buy some time for notable movie pilot, Ted Striker, to land the plane safely and save the passengers from some especially bad fish (Airline food. Am I right?). Airplane! is one of the funniest films ever made and Leslie Nielsen steals every scene he’s in, thanks to his straight-faced delivery. 

8. Dr. John Wade Prentice- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

He gives this look every time someone is shocked that he’s a doctor.

To be fair, we don’t get to really see a lot of doctoring from Dr. Prentice in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. That’s mostly because he’s too busy dealing with the underlying racial prejudice he’s facing over his new fiance. I won’t go into all that other than to renounce the notion of prejudice towards interracial couples. What I will go into are Dr. Prentice’s qualifications for earning a spot among the rest of these movie doctors. The guy is not only just a doctor but a medical professor as well, which means he’s good enough to be teaching other people how to doctor. That’s not even the impressive part. In the film, he’s on his way to Geneva to become an assistant director for tropical medicine with the World Health Organization. At only 37, Dr. Prentice is on the fast track to becoming one of the more prestigious movie doctors on this list.

7. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein- Young Frankenstein

The pronunciation matters.

Lots of movie doctors from comedies earning spots on this list so far. I’m not bucking the trend anytime soon since I would be remiss if I didn’t give Gene Wilder props for his performance as the grandson of the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. He plays an up and coming surgeon who is desperate to escape his family’s legacy. Of course, the more we run from something the more we’re drawn back to it, and Frederick is no exception. He soon finds himself continuing his grandfather’s work in Transylvania to hilarious results. Young Frankenstein is not only one of Mel Brook’s finest movies, featuring Gene Wilder at his best, but is also one of the best Frankenstein films as well if I do say so. Frederick earns a place on this list because he manages to defeat death, just like his grandpappy.

6. Dr. Dana Scully- The X-Files: Fight the Future and The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Doctors
Damn it, Mulder.

AHA, A LOOPHOLE! Sure Dr. Scully started out as a TV doctor, but since she also appeared in two movies, I’m going to make an exception for her. Mostly because Gillian Anderson is so amazing, and Scully was a significant feminist icon of the ’90s. For those of you who don’t know who she is (for shame!), Scully is part of the duo from the X-Files TV series and films. The character is a medical doctor and FBI agent who plays the scientific skeptic to agent Mulder’s frolicking conspiracy theorist. Scully was the voice of reason in the films using her medical background to deliver deeper insights into the mysteries the two encountered. Putting up with the unknown and Mulder definitely makes her one of the best movie doctors out there!