Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#16554
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Cary Grant represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 93 years in, and Cary is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Cary Grant appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cary. 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 music, documentary, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Baz Luhrmann, Carl Reiner, Stanley Donen and others, Cary Grant 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) · EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026) as Self (archive footage) · North by Northwest (1959) as Roger Thornhill
Career snapshot
Ranked #16554 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1933–2026
Career length
93 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Rat Pack
Average Nutevio score
7.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
Rat Pack
Most frequent director
Howard Hawks
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Howard Hawks
Most common genre
Comedy
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
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
7.5
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
2020s
8.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, Rat Pack — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
8.7
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
8.6
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. Only Angels Have Wings, Gunga Din, Holiday.
Most productive era
1940s
9 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 | 1980s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.92 films | 7.22 films | 7.11 film | — | — | — |
| Action | 6.41 film | — | — | — | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.91 film | 7.52 films | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.67 films | 6.97 films | 6.63 films | 7.41 film | 6.61 film | — |
| Crime | 6.11 film | 7.31 film | — | — | 6.61 film | — |
| Romance | 6.95 films | 7.07 films | 7.03 films | 7.41 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mock Turtle.
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
2026EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
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.
27 of 27 films
as Roger Thornhill
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
as Devlin
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
as Self (archive footage)
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
as Peter Joshua
Directed by Stanley Donen
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
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 Cary Grant a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Roger Thornhill
North by Northwest (1959)
Performance score8.4
North by Northwest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roger Thornhill is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Devlin
Notorious (1946)
Performance score8.1
Notorious asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Devlin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self (archive footage)
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026)
Performance score8.0
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self (archive footage) 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 Cary Grant 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 Cary 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.
Notorious (1946)
A deliberate change of key after Rat Pack — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
North by Northwest (1959)
Same director as Notorious, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Charade (1963)
A deliberate change of key after North by Northwest — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Charade — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Howard Hawks
Director
5 films together
Notably Bringing Up Baby
Alfred Hitchcock
Director
4 films together
Notably North by Northwest
Norman Z. McLeod
Director
2 films together
Notably Topper
George Cukor
Director
2 films together
Notably The Philadelphia Story
Leo McCarey
Director
2 films together
Notably An Affair to Remember
Lowell Sherman
Director
1 film together
Notably She Done Him Wrong
George Stevens
Director
1 film together
Notably Gunga Din
Garson Kanin
Director
1 film together
Notably My Favorite Wife
Frank Capra
Director
1 film together
Notably Arsenic and Old Lace
Henry Koster
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bishop's Wife
H. C. Potter
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Norman Taurog
Director
1 film together
Notably Room for One More
Blake Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably Operation Petticoat
Stanley Donen
Director
1 film together
Notably Charade
Carl Reiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Baz Luhrmann
Director
1 film together
Notably EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Howard Hawks
Director
5 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Bringing Up BabyAlfred Hitchcock
Director
4 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
North by NorthwestGeorge Cukor
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 Philadelphia StoryLeo McCarey
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
An Affair to RememberNorman Z. McLeod
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TopperBaz Luhrmann
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EPiC: Elvis Presley in ConcertStanley Donen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CharadeFrank Capra
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arsenic and Old LaceBlake Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Operation PetticoatHenry Koster
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 Bishop's WifeH. C. Potter
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream HouseGarson Kanin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Favorite WifeCarl 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 PlaidNorman Taurog
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Room for One MoreGeorge Stevens
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gunga DinLowell Sherman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She Done Him WrongSix 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
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
as Self (archive footage)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
An Affair to Remember
as Nickie Ferrante
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. Cary Grant 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
93 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
19 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
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
An Affair to Remember
as Nickie Ferrante
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
as (in "Suspicion") (archive footage)
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
Gunga Din
as Archibald Cutter
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Bishop's Wife
as Dudley
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
She Done Him Wrong
as Captain Cummings
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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Bonnie Hunt
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Morgan Freeman
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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