Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#37725
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Allen Garfield represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Allen is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Allen Garfield appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Allen. The Conversation is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, drama, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Frank Darabont, Roman Polanski, Jeremiah S. Chechik and others, Allen Garfield helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Conversation (1974) as William P. 'Bernie' Moran · Nashville (1975) as Barnett · The Majestic (2001) as Leo Kubelsky
Career snapshot
Ranked #37725 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
1971–2001
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
The Conversation
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Conversation
Most frequent director
Francis Ford Coppola
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Francis Ford Coppola
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
2h 5m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.0 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Nashville, The Conversation, Bananas — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.0
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Nashville, The Conversation, Bananas.
Most productive era
1990s
4 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.22 films | 6.51 film | 6.71 film | 6.81 film |
| Action | — | 6.61 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.02 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.82 films | 6.61 film | 6.21 film | — |
| Crime | 7.31 film | 6.52 films | 6.21 film | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.81 film |
| Horror | — | — | 6.02 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1971Bananas
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Man On Cross.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1974The Conversation
7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2001The Majestic
The current state of the argument, as Leo Kubelsky.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
10 of 10 films
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
as Barnett
Directed by Robert Altman
as Leo Kubelsky
Directed by Frank Darabont
as Witkin
Directed by Roman Polanski
as Bernie, Used Car Dealer
Directed by Wim Wenders
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
William P. 'Bernie' Moran
The Conversation (1974)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. William P. 'Bernie' Moran gives Allen Garfield a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Barnett
Nashville (1975)
Performance score6.9
Nashville asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Barnett is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Leo Kubelsky
The Majestic (2001)
Performance score6.7
The Majestic asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leo Kubelsky is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Witkin
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Performance score6.6
The Ninth Gate asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Witkin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
Start here. The Conversation is the clearest statement of what Allen Garfield does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Allen at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Nashville (1975)
Keeps the drama register of The Conversation but asks for a colder reading of it.
Until the End of the World (1991)
Keeps the drama register of Nashville but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
A deliberate change of key after Until the End of the World — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Majestic (2001)
A deliberate change of key after The Ninth Gate — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Francis Ford Coppola
Director
2 films together
Notably The Conversation
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Bananas
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably Nashville
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Beverly Hills Cop II
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Tracy
Wim Wenders
Director
1 film together
Notably Until the End of the World
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together
Notably Diabolique
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ninth Gate
Frank Darabont
Director
1 film together
Notably The Majestic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Francis Ford Coppola
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The ConversationRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NashvilleFrank Darabont
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MajesticWim Wenders
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Until the End of the WorldRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ninth GateTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beverly Hills Cop IIWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BananasWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick TracyJeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DiaboliqueSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Majestic
as Leo Kubelsky
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dick Tracy
as Reporter
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Allen Garfield has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
5 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Majestic
as Leo Kubelsky
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Conversation
as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Beverly Hills Cop II
as Harold Lutz
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Beverly Hills Cop II
as Harold Lutz
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Nashville
as Barnett
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Ninth Gate
as Witkin
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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