Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#16523
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Charles Fleischer represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 40 years in, and Charles is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Charles Fleischer appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Charles. Zodiac is the clearest case: a film rated 8.8 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 mystery, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Akiva Schaffer, Gore Verbinski, Judd Apatow and others, Charles Fleischer 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.
Zodiac (2007) as Bob Vaughn · Back to the Future Part II (1989) as Terry · Zodiac (2007) as Bob Vaughn
Career snapshot
Ranked #16523 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1982–2022
Career length
40 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.8
Zodiac
Average Nutevio score
7.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Back to the Future Part II
Most frequent director
Robert Zemeckis
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Robert Zemeckis
Most common genre
Comedy
9 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
7.3
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
7.1
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
2000s
7.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Funny People, Zodiac, Zodiac — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Back to the Future Part II, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Most productive era
1980s
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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.61 film | 7.42 films | — | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 7.71 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 7.23 films | 6.33 films | 5.91 film | 6.91 film | 7.01 film |
| Crime | 7.61 film | 6.42 films | 8.32 films | — | — |
| Horror | 7.51 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1982Night Shift
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Prisoner.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2007Zodiac
8.8 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
2022Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
The current state of the argument, as Roger Rabbit / Chipmunks TV Announcer (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.
13 of 13 films
as Bob Vaughn
Directed by David Fincher
as Terry
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Roger Rabbit / Benny The Cab / Greasy / Psycho (voice)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Bob Vaughn
Directed by David Fincher
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 13 of 13 titles · 13 total credits · active 1982–2022
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
2022 · Roger Rabbit / Chipmunks TV Announcer (voice)
Rango
2011 · Elbows (voice)
Funny People
2009 · Charles Fleischer
Zodiac
2007 · Bob Vaughn
The Polar Express
2004 · Elf General
Gridlock'd
1997 · Mr. Woodson
My Girl 2
1994 · Cab Driver
Dick Tracy
1990 · Reporter
Tiny Toon Adventures
1990 · TV
Back to the Future Part II
1989 · Terry
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1988 · Roger Rabbit / Benny The Cab / Greasy / Psycho (voice)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
1984 · Dr. King
Night Shift
1982 · Prisoner
The defining work
#1
Bob Vaughn
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bob Vaughn gives Charles Fleischer a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Terry
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Performance score7.7
Back to the Future Part II asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Terry is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Roger Rabbit / Benny The Cab / Greasy / Psycho (voice)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Performance score7.7
Who Framed Roger Rabbit asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roger Rabbit / Benny The Cab / Greasy / Psycho (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bob Vaughn
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score7.5
Zodiac asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bob Vaughn 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 Bob Vaughn
Start here. Zodiac is the clearest statement of what Charles Fleischer does — accessible, 157 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Charles 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 Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A deliberate change of key after Zodiac — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
A deliberate change of key after A Nightmare on Elm Street — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Same director as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Zodiac (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Back to the Future Part II — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Zemeckis
Director
3 films together
Notably Back to the Future Part II
David Fincher
Director
2 films together
Notably Zodiac
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Night Shift
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably A Nightmare on Elm Street
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Tracy
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Gridlock'd
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably Funny People
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Rango
Akiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together
Notably Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Zach Grenier
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Richmond Arquette
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Bob Stephenson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Jake Gyllenhaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Mark Ruffalo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Anthony Edwards
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Robert Downey Jr.
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Chloë Sevigny
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Elias Koteas
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
John Carroll Lynch
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Brian Cox
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Dermot Mulroney
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Zemeckis
Director
3 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Back to the Future Part IIDavid Fincher
Director
2 films together · 8.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZodiacWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Nightmare on Elm StreetAkiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue RangersGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RangoVondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gridlock'dWarren 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 TracyRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night ShiftJudd Apatow
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Funny PeopleSix 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
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
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 Polar Express
as Elf General
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Night Shift
as Prisoner
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
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. Charles Fleischer 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 | 8.0 | 8.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #412 of 681 | #7 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.8 | 9.4 |
| Genres | Crime, Mystery, Drama | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | David Fincher | Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Quiet performance, Drama | Screen presence, Drama, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2007–2007 | 1994–2008 |
| Most iconic role | Bob Vaughn — Zodiac | Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding — The Shawshank Redemption |
| Most rewatchable film | Zodiac | The Shawshank Redemption |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 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
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
40 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
9 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 Bob Vaughn
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Polar Express
as Elf General
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Rango
as Elbows (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rango
as Elbows (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zodiac
as Bob Vaughn
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.
Collection footprint
Appears in 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Detective Movies
Features Zodiac at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
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