Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#63453
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Clarence Muse represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 48 years in, and Clarence is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clarence Muse appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clarence. Double Indemnity is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 adventure, family, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Carroll Ballard, Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and others, Clarence Muse 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.
Double Indemnity (1944) as Man (uncredited) · Scarlet Street (1945) as Ben - Bank Janitor (uncredited) · Shadow of a Doubt (1943) as Pullman Porter
Career snapshot
Ranked #63453 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
1931–1979
Career length
48 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
Double Indemnity
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Double Indemnity
Most frequent director
Carroll Ballard
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Carroll Ballard
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
6.9
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
1940s
7.0 average MV
The 1940s are where the work and the material meet. Unconquered, Scarlet Street, Double Indemnity — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1940s
7.0
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1940s
7.2
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. Show Boat, White Zombie, Safe in Hell.
Most productive era
1940s
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 | 1930s | 1940s | 1970s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.42 films | 6.83 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.41 film | 7.52 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.41 film | 6.71 film | — |
| Crime | — | 7.43 films | — |
| Romance | 6.41 film | 6.62 films | — |
| Horror | 6.11 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1931Safe in Hell
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Newcastle.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1944Double Indemnity
7.8 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
The current state of the argument, as Snoe.
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.
10 of 10 films
as Man (uncredited)
Directed by Billy Wilder
as Ben - Bank Janitor (uncredited)
Directed by Fritz Lang
as Pullman Porter
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
as Jasper (uncredited)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
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
Man (uncredited)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Man (uncredited) gives Clarence Muse a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ben - Bank Janitor (uncredited)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Performance score7.1
Scarlet Street asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ben - Bank Janitor (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Pullman Porter
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Performance score7.1
Shadow of a Doubt asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pullman Porter is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Snoe
The Black Stallion (1979)
Performance score7.0
The Black Stallion asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Snoe 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 Man (uncredited)
Start here. Double Indemnity is the clearest statement of what Clarence Muse does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clarence 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.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Keeps the crime register of Double Indemnity but asks for a colder reading of it.
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
A deliberate change of key after Shadow of a Doubt — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Scarlet Street (1945)
Keeps the drama register of Heaven Can Wait but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Black Stallion (1979)
A deliberate change of key after Scarlet Street — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
William A. Wellman
Director
1 film together
Notably Safe in Hell
Victor Halperin
Director
1 film together
Notably White Zombie
James Whale
Director
1 film together
Notably Show Boat
Henry King
Director
1 film together
Notably The Black Swan
Ernst Lubitsch
Director
1 film together
Notably Heaven Can Wait
Alfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together
Notably Shadow of a Doubt
Billy Wilder
Director
1 film together
Notably Double Indemnity
Fritz Lang
Director
1 film together
Notably Scarlet Street
Cecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together
Notably Unconquered
Carroll Ballard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Black Stallion
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Billy Wilder
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Double IndemnityFritz Lang
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scarlet StreetAlfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shadow of a DoubtCarroll Ballard
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 Black StallionErnst Lubitsch
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Heaven Can WaitCecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnconqueredHenry King
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Black SwanJames Whale
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Show BoatWilliam A. Wellman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Safe in HellVictor Halperin
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White ZombieSix 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
Double Indemnity
as Man (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Heaven Can Wait
as Jasper (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Double Indemnity
as Man (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Scarlet Street
as Ben - Bank Janitor (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Double Indemnity
as Man (uncredited)
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. Clarence Muse 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
48 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
5 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
Shadow of a Doubt
as Pullman Porter
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Double Indemnity
as Man (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Heaven Can Wait
as Jasper (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Shadow of a Doubt
as Pullman Porter
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Double Indemnity
as Man (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Unconquered
as Jason
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Show Boat
as Sam
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
White Zombie
as Coach Driver
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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