Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#46981
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Andy Devine represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Andy is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Andy Devine appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Andy. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 adventure, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Wolfgang Reitherman, Stanley Kramer, John Ford and others, Andy Devine 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 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) as Link Appleyard · Robin Hood (1973) as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice) · Stagecoach (1939) as Buck
Career snapshot
Ranked #46981 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
9
1937–1973
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Most frequent director
John Ford
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With John Ford
Most common genre
Western
4 titles
Average runtime
2h 8m
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
6.8
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
7.3 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Robin Hood — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.3
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Stagecoach, In Old Chicago, A Star Is Born.
Most productive era
1930s
3 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 | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.72 films | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.61 film | 6.81 film | — |
| Crime | — | — | — | 6.81 film | — |
| Romance | 6.81 film | — | 6.61 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1937A Star Is Born
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Danny McGuire.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1962The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
7.5 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
1973Robin Hood
The current state of the argument, as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice).
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.
9 of 9 films
as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
as Danny McGuire
Directed by William A. Wellman
as Sheriff of Crockett County
Directed by Stanley Kramer
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
Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
Robin Hood (1973)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice) gives Andy Devine a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Link Appleyard
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Performance score7.6
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Link Appleyard is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Buck
Stagecoach (1939)
Performance score7.4
Stagecoach asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Buck is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Danny McGuire
A Star Is Born (1937)
Performance score7.0
A Star Is Born asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Danny McGuire 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 Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
Start here. Robin Hood is the clearest statement of what Andy Devine does — accessible, 83 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Andy 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.
A Star Is Born (1937)
A deliberate change of key after Robin Hood — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Stagecoach (1939)
A deliberate change of key after A Star Is Born — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Same director as Stagecoach, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
A deliberate change of key after The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Ford
Director
2 films together
Notably The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
William A. Wellman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Star Is Born
Henry King
Director
1 film together
Notably In Old Chicago
Jacques Tourneur
Director
1 film together
Notably Canyon Passage
Michael Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Around the World in 80 Days
Henry Hathaway
Director
1 film together
Notably How the West Was Won
Stanley Kramer
Director
1 film together
Notably It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Wolfgang Reitherman
Director
1 film together
Notably Robin Hood
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Ford
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceWolfgang Reitherman
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Robin HoodStanley Kramer
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldHenry Hathaway
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How the West Was WonWilliam A. Wellman
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Star Is BornMichael Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Around the World in 80 DaysJacques Tourneur
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Canyon PassageHenry King
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Old ChicagoSix 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 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Link Appleyard
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Robin Hood
as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
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 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Link Appleyard
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Around the World in 80 Days
as SS Henrietta First Mate
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Robin Hood
as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
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. Andy Devine 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
36 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Western Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in western, 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 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Link Appleyard
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Link Appleyard
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Around the World in 80 Days
as SS Henrietta First Mate
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Around the World in 80 Days
as SS Henrietta First Mate
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Link Appleyard
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Robin Hood
as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Around the World in 80 Days
as SS Henrietta First Mate
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Robin Hood
as Friar Tuck - A Badger (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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