Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#25190
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Burt Lancaster represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 79 years in, and Burt is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Burt Lancaster appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Burt. Rat Pack 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 action, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with George Seaton, Jean Lauritano, Phil Alden Robinson and others, Burt Lancaster 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.
Rat Pack (2022) as Self (archive footage) · Paul Newman: The Restless (2023) as Self · Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as Ernst Janning
Career snapshot
Ranked #25190 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1946–2025
Career length
79 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Rat Pack
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
Rat Pack
Most frequent director
Robert Aldrich
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Robert Aldrich
Most common genre
Drama
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
7.1
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
1960s
7.1 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. The Professionals, The Train, The Leopard — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
7.1
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1940s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Criss Cross, Sorry, Wrong Number, Brute Force.
Most productive era
1950s
6 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 | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.91 film | 6.82 films | 7.14 films | 7.41 film | 7.01 film | 0.01 film |
| Action | — | 6.21 film | 6.91 film | — | — | 0.01 film |
| Thriller | 6.84 films | — | 7.11 film | — | — | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.71 film | — | — | 6.61 film | — |
| Crime | 6.93 films | — | 7.11 film | — | 6.61 film | — |
| Romance | — | 7.01 film | 6.31 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1946The Killers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as 'Swede' Andersen.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2022Rat Pack
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
2025Airports
The current state of the argument.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Prince Fabrizio Corbera of Salina
Directed by Luchino Visconti
as Paul Labiche
Directed by John Frankenheimer
as Robert Stroud
Directed by John Frankenheimer
as Ernst Janning
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
Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack (2022)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self (archive footage) gives Burt Lancaster a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Prince Fabrizio Corbera of Salina
The Leopard (1963)
Performance score8.0
The Leopard asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Prince Fabrizio Corbera of Salina is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Paul Labiche
The Train (1964)
Performance score7.7
The Train asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paul Labiche is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Robert Stroud
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Performance score7.7
Birdman of Alcatraz asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Robert Stroud 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 Self (archive footage)
Start here. Rat Pack is the clearest statement of what Burt Lancaster does — accessible, 0 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Burt 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.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
A deliberate change of key after Rat Pack — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Keeps the drama register of Judgment at Nuremberg but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Leopard (1963)
Keeps the drama register of Birdman of Alcatraz but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Train (1964)
A deliberate change of key after The Leopard — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Siodmak
Director
3 films together
Notably The Killers
Robert Aldrich
Director
3 films together
Notably Ulzana's Raid
John Frankenheimer
Director
2 films together
Notably The Train
Jules Dassin
Director
1 film together
Notably Brute Force
Anatole Litvak
Director
1 film together
Notably Sorry, Wrong Number
Fred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together
Notably From Here to Eternity
John Sturges
Director
1 film together
Notably Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Robert Wise
Director
1 film together
Notably Run Silent, Run Deep
John Huston
Director
1 film together
Notably The Unforgiven
Stanley Kramer
Director
1 film together
Notably Judgment at Nuremberg
Luchino Visconti
Director
1 film together
Notably The Leopard
Richard Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably The Professionals
Bernardo Bertolucci
Director
1 film together
Notably 1900
Carl Reiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Field of Dreams
Jean Lauritano
Director
1 film together
Notably Paul Newman: The Restless
George Seaton
Director
1 film together
Notably Airports
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Siodmak
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The KillersRobert Aldrich
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ulzana's RaidJohn Frankenheimer
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The TrainJean Lauritano
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Paul Newman: The RestlessStanley Kramer
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Judgment at NurembergBernardo Bertolucci
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
1900Luchino Visconti
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The LeopardPhil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Field of DreamsFred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From Here to EternityRichard Brooks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ProfessionalsJules Dassin
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brute ForceJohn Sturges
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gunfight at the O.K. CorralRobert Wise
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Run Silent, Run DeepCarl Reiner
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead Men Don't Wear PlaidAnatole Litvak
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sorry, Wrong NumberJohn Huston
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The UnforgivenGeorge Seaton
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AirportsSix 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 Train
as Paul Labiche
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Judgment at Nuremberg
as Ernst Janning
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
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. Burt Lancaster 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
79 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
10 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
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
1900
as Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Killers
as 'Swede' Andersen
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Professionals
as Dolworth
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
1900
as Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Apache
as Massai
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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