Entertainment
The Best Single Dad Movies Ever Made
List Rules
Vote up your favorite movies that feature single dads as central characters.
This list has the best movies about single dads, ranked from best to worst by user votes. The best single dad movies come in many forms. Some single father relationship movies are about struggling with their kids while other movies about single fathers are comedies. Movies like Signs and War of the Worlds feature single dads as heroes in science fiction situations.
What films will you find on this best single father movie list? Will Smith teamed-up with his real-life son, Jaden Smith, for the 2006 film, The Pursuit of Happyness. The movie, which was based on Chris Garder's memoir of the same name, shows the struggles facing a homeless single father as he works to turn his life around. Finding Nemo is a classic animated movie about a single dad. Love Actually is another good movie that features a single father storyline.
Dustin Hoffman won an Academy Award for his role as a single father fighting for custody in Kramer vs. Kramer. Other good films that appear on this top single dad movies list include Finding Nemo, Big Daddy, and The Descendants.
Do you have a favorite single father film? Vote the best movies to the top of this list and please add any good single dad films we may have missed.
list ordered by
- Troubled that he has little access to his children, divorced Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) hatches an elaborate plan. With help from his creative brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), he dresses as an ...more
- Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a former government operative, is trying to reconnect with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Then his worst fears become real when sex slavers abduct Kim and her friend ...more
- Life is a struggle for single father Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Evicted from their apartment, he and his young son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) find themselves alone with no place to go. Even ...more
- Marlin (Albert Brooks), a clown fish, is overly cautious with his son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), who has a foreshortened fin. When Nemo swims too close to the surface to prove himself, he is caught by ...more
- Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6,and her older brother, Jem (Phillip Alford), live in sleepy Maycomb, Ala., spending much of their time with their friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive ...more
- In this update of a 1961 film, twins Annie and Hallie (Lindsay Lohan) are strangers until happenstance unites them. The preteen girls' divorced parents, Nick (Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth (Natasha ...more
- Tomboy Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) has good reason to be morbid: her mother died giving birth to her, and her father (Dan Aykroyd) operates a funeral service out of their home. The other kids ...more
- Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising a child prodigy - his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) - in a coastal town in Florida. Frank's plans for a normal school life for Mary are ...more
- Following his wife's untimely death, Los Angeles journalist Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) decides to make a fresh start by quitting his job and moving his children (Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones) to ...more
- Thirty-two-year-old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an older man, he's got to find a way to prove he's ready to ...more
- "I Am Sam" is the compelling story of Sam Dawson (Sean Penn), a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning) with the help of a unique group of friends. As Lucy turns seven ...more
- After the death of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) moves to Seattle with his son, Jonah (Ross Mallinger). When Jonah calls in to a talk-radio program to find a new wife for his father, Sam ...more
- Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), a thirtysomething Manhattanite, is in the middle of divorce proceedings when his young daughter (Abigail Breslin) asks him about his life before marriage, including how he ...more
- Marriage Story is a 2019 American drama film directed by Noah Baumbach. A stage director (Adam Driver) and his actor wife (Scarlett Johansson) struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that ...more
- Two women, one (Cameron Diaz) from America and one (Kate Winslet) from Britain, swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. Each woman finds romance with a local man (Jude ...more
- 16A new father (Paul Walker) must remain behind and try to keep his prematurely born daughter alive after Hurricane Katrina knocks out the power in their New Orleans hospital.
- Divorced dad Scott (Tim Allen) has custody of his son (Eric Lloyd) on Christmas Eve. After he accidentally kills a man in a Santa suit, they are magically transported to the North Pole, where an elf ...more
- New York City roommates Peter (Tom Selleck), Michael (Steve Guttenberg) and Jack (Ted Danson) are all successful and happily unmarried, but Peter and Michael get the surprise of a lifetime when a ...more
- Life-Size is a 2000 made-for-TV film directed by Mark Rosman and originally premiered on ABC. It was released to DVD and VHS in the same year. The film is a family comic fantasy starring Lindsay ...more
- Native islander Matt King (George Clooney) lives with his family in Hawaii. Their world shatters when a tragic accident leaves his wife in a coma. Not only must Matt struggle with the stipulation in ...more
- Everything that farmer Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) assumed about the world is changed when he discovers a message - an intricate pattern of circles and lines - carved into his crops. As he investigates ...more
- A comedy-drama starring Hugh Grant as Will, a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in search of available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single ...more
- Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an architect who needs to give a very important presentation. Jack Taylor (George Clooney) is a reporter looking to land a big scoop for his story. Both are ...more
- A single suburban father (Kevin James) works at a mall as a security guard to make ends meet, and he takes his job very seriously, even though most of his colleagues and customers don't. As the ...more
- Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 American drama film adapted by Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, and directed by Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact ...more
