Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3891
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Chris Browning works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Chris Browning appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Chris. 3:10 to Yuma is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 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, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Jai White, Ric Roman Waugh, David Ayer and others, Chris Browning 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.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) as Crawley · Felon (2008) as Danny Samson · Shot Caller (2017) as Toby 'Redwood' Simms
Career snapshot
Ranked #3891 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
2007–2026
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
3:10 to Yuma
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
3:10 to Yuma
Most frequent director
Ric Roman Waugh
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Ric Roman Waugh
Most common genre
Thriller
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.2
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
6.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Terminator Salvation, Felon, In the Valley of Elah — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.8
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Terminator Salvation, Felon, In the Valley of Elah.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.92 films | 6.33 films | 4.11 film |
| Action | 6.62 films | 6.26 films | 5.72 films |
| Thriller | 6.73 films | 6.28 films | 5.83 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 2.82 films |
| Crime | 6.92 films | 6.33 films | 5.91 film |
| Horror | — | 6.81 film | 5.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Checker Box Bartender.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
20073:10 to Yuma
7.2 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
The current state of the argument, as The Doctor.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Crawley
Directed by James Mangold
as Danny Samson
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
as Toby 'Redwood' Simms
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
as Highjacker Leader
Directed by Albert Hughes
as Jack
Directed by Matt Reeves
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
Crawley
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Crawley gives Chris Browning a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Danny Samson
Felon (2008)
Performance score7.0
Felon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Danny Samson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Toby 'Redwood' Simms
Shot Caller (2017)
Performance score6.9
Shot Caller asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Toby 'Redwood' Simms is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Highjacker Leader
The Book of Eli (2010)
Performance score6.7
The Book of Eli asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Highjacker Leader 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 Crawley
Start here. 3:10 to Yuma is the clearest statement of what Chris Browning does — accessible, 122 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Chris 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.
Felon (2008)
A deliberate change of key after 3:10 to Yuma — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Book of Eli (2010)
Keeps the action register of Felon but asks for a colder reading of it.
Let Me In (2010)
A deliberate change of key after The Book of Eli — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Shot Caller (2017)
Keeps the drama register of Let Me In but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
3 films together
Notably Felon
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably 3:10 to Yuma
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Valley of Elah
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably Terminator Salvation
Matt Reeves
Director
1 film together
Notably Let Me In
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Eli
Jon Favreau
Director
1 film together
Notably Cowboys & Aliens
Kim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Stand
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Wild Card
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably Bright
Michael Jai White
Director
1 film together
Notably Outlaw Johnny Black
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
3 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
FelonJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
3:10 to YumaAlbert Hughes
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 Book of EliMatt Reeves
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Let Me InPaul Haggis
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Valley of ElahDavid Ayer
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BrightKim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last StandMcG
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Terminator SalvationSimon West
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wild CardJon Favreau
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cowboys & AliensMichael Jai White
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Outlaw Johnny BlackSix 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
3:10 to Yuma
as Crawley
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
In the Valley of Elah
as Checker Box Bartender
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
3:10 to Yuma
as Crawley
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Angel Has Fallen
as Militia Man #1
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
3:10 to Yuma
as Crawley
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. Chris Browning 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.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
14 catalogue titles in thriller, 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
Let Me In
as Jack
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Felon
as Danny Samson
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
In the Valley of Elah
as Checker Box Bartender
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
In the Valley of Elah
as Checker Box Bartender
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Felon
as Danny Samson
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Outlaw Johnny Black
as Brett Clayton
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Felon
as Danny Samson
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Outlaw Johnny Black
as Brett Clayton
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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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
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Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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