Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3424
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Bob Stephenson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Bob is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Bob Stephenson appears in 28 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Bob. Fight Club is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 comedy, fantasy, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with McG, Joseph Kosinski, Anna Kerrigan and others, Bob Stephenson 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.
Fight Club (1999) as Airport Security Officer · Zodiac (2007) as Zodiac 3 · Fight Club (1999) as Airport Security Officer
Career snapshot
Ranked #3424 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
28
1995–2023
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Fight Club
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.8
Fight Club
Most frequent director
David Fincher
6 films together
Longest collaboration
6×
With David Fincher
Most common genre
Comedy
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 52m
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
7.3
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
1990s
8.2 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Fight Club, Fight Club, Con Air — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
8.2
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
8.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Fight Club, Fight Club, Con Air.
Most productive era
2000s
10 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.53 films | 7.13 films | 6.48 films | 7.32 films |
| Action | 6.91 film | 6.13 films | — | 8.31 film |
| Thriller | 8.25 films | 6.82 films | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 5.86 films | 6.410 films | 6.41 film |
| Crime | 7.82 films | 7.93 films | 5.91 film | — |
| Romance | — | 5.33 films | 6.32 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Se7en
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cop on SWAT Team.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1999Fight Club
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2023Family Switch
The current state of the argument, as Mild-Mannered Dad.
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.
28 of 28 films
as Airport Security Officer
Directed by David Fincher
as Zodiac 3
Directed by David Fincher
as Airport Security Officer
Directed by David Fincher
as Cop on SWAT Team
Directed by David Fincher
as Senior Engineer
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 31 titles · 31 total credits · active 1995–2025
Common Side Effects
2025 · TV · Connor (voice)
Family Switch
2023 · Mild-Mannered Dad
Scavengers Reign
2023 · TV · Sam (voice)
Top Gun: Maverick
2022 · Senior Engineer
The Chair
2021 · TV · Horatio
Cowboys
2020 · Sheriff George Jenkins
Lying and Stealing
2019 · Mr. Oklahoma
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
2018 · Construction Worker
Battle of the Sexes
2017 · Bobby's Publicist
Lady Bird
2017 · Father Walter
Why Him?
2016 · Jerry
11.22.63
2016 · TV · Silent Mike
Bad Words
2013 · Bill Murhoff
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
2012 · Officer Wally Johnson
Hick
2012 · Lux
Larry Crowne
2011 · Andrews
Our Idiot Brother
2011 · Officer Washburn
Zodiac
2007 · Zodiac 3
Transformers
2007 · Xbox Guy
88 Minutes
2007 · Jury Foreman
School for Scoundrels
2006 · Classmate
The Ex
2006 · Doug
Friends with Money
2006 · Marty
Jericho
2006 · TV · Jimmy
The defining work
#1
Airport Security Officer
Fight Club (1999)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Airport Security Officer gives Bob Stephenson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Zodiac 3
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score8.4
Zodiac asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Zodiac 3 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Airport Security Officer
Fight Club (1999)
Performance score8.4
Fight Club asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Airport Security Officer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Cop on SWAT Team
Se7en (1995)
Performance score8.3
Se7en asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cop on SWAT Team 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 Airport Security Officer
Start here. Fight Club is the clearest statement of what Bob Stephenson does — accessible, 139 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Bob 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.
Se7en (1995)
Same director as Fight Club, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Fight Club (1999)
Same director as Se7en, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Zodiac (2007)
Same director as Fight Club, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Keeps the drama register of Zodiac but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Fincher
Director
6 films together
Notably Fight Club
McG
Director
3 films together
Notably Family Switch
Jesse Peretz
Director
2 films together
Notably Our Idiot Brother
Zach Grenier
Actor
2 films together
Notably Fight Club
Richmond Arquette
Actor
2 films together
Notably Fight Club
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Con Air
Spike Jonze
Director
1 film together
Notably Adaptation.
Nicole Holofcener
Director
1 film together
Notably Friends with Money
Todd Phillips
Director
1 film together
Notably School for Scoundrels
Jon Avnet
Director
1 film together
Notably 88 Minutes
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers
Tom Hanks
Director
1 film together
Notably Larry Crowne
Lorene Scafaria
Director
1 film together
Notably Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Jason Bateman
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Words
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably Why Him?
Greta Gerwig
Director
1 film together
Notably Lady Bird
Jonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together
Notably Battle of the Sexes
David Wain
Director
1 film together
Notably A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Anna Kerrigan
Director
1 film together
Notably Cowboys
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Top Gun: Maverick
Jared Leto
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Edward Norton
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Brad Pitt
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Helena Bonham Carter
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Meat Loaf
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Holt McCallany
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Eion Bailey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
David Andrews
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
George Maguire
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Eugenie Bondurant
Actor
1 film together
Notably Fight Club
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Fincher
Director
6 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 6 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Fight ClubMcG
Director
3 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Family SwitchJesse Peretz
Director
2 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Our Idiot BrotherJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Top Gun: MaverickGreta Gerwig
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lady BirdSpike Jonze
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adaptation.Michael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TransformersSimon West
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Con AirJonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Battle of the SexesLorene Scafaria
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Seeking a Friend for the End of the WorldDavid Wain
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Futile and Stupid GestureJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Why Him?Jason Bateman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad WordsAnna Kerrigan
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CowboysTom Hanks
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Larry CrowneJon Avnet
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
88 MinutesTodd Phillips
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
School for ScoundrelsNicole Holofcener
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friends with MoneySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Performer
Bob Stephenson
Where this journey starts
Director
David Fincher
6 collaborations, averaging 8.4
Film
Fight Club
Their highest-rated film together (1999)
Performer
Brad Pitt
Shares the frame in Fight Club
Film
Se7en
Where Brad goes next, and where you can too
Performer
Morgan Freeman
Three steps from where you began
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Fight Club
as Airport Security Officer
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Larry Crowne
as Andrews
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Fight Club
as Airport Security Officer
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Transformers
as Xbox Guy
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Fight Club
as Airport Security Officer
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. Bob Stephenson has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 8.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #485 of 681 | #7 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.4 |
| Genres | Crime, Mystery, Drama, Thriller | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | David Fincher | Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Screen presence, Drama, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 1999–2007 | 1994–2008 |
| Most iconic role | Airport Security Officer — Fight Club | Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding — The Shawshank Redemption |
| Most rewatchable film | Fight Club | The Shawshank Redemption |
| Filmography | 2 catalogue films | 3 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
David Fincher
Shared collections
Best Detective Movies, Best Psychological Thrillers, Top 100 Crime Movies, Mystery Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
David Fincher · Brad Pitt
Morgan Freeman edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
28 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
17 catalogue titles in comedy, 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
Zodiac
as Zodiac 3
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Zodiac
as Zodiac 3
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Larry Crowne
as Andrews
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Game
as Assassin Kartmann
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Top Gun: Maverick
as Senior Engineer
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Transformers
as Xbox Guy
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Battle of the Sexes
as Bobby's Publicist
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zodiac
as Zodiac 3
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Keep reading
genre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Includes Zodiac, Fight Club
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Includes Zodiac, Fight Club
Read the collectiongenre
Best Detective Movies
Features Zodiac at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features Fight Club
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Mark Ruffalo
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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