Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2724
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Cloris Leachman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 66 years in, and Cloris is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Cloris Leachman appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cloris. The Iron Giant is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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 comedy, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Joel Crawford, Ashley Avis, Jon Erwin and others, Cloris Leachman 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.
The Iron Giant (1999) as Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice) · Young Frankenstein (1974) as Frau Blücher · I Can Only Imagine (2018) as Memaw
Career snapshot
Ranked #2724 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1955–2021
Career length
66 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
The Iron Giant
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
The Iron Giant
Most frequent director
Mel Brooks
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Mel Brooks
Most common genre
Comedy
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 34m
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
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
1960s
7.5 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
7.5
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1950s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Kiss Me Deadly.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | 7.31 film | 7.13 films | 6.32 films | 3.82 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.91 film | — | 6.41 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 7.03 films | 6.82 films | 6.14 films | 6.25 films | 5.93 films |
| Crime | 6.91 film | — | — | 6.61 film | 6.71 film | 5.51 film | — |
| Romance | — | — | 7.31 film | 6.91 film | 6.01 film | 3.12 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1955Kiss Me Deadly
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Christina Bailey.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1999The Iron Giant
7.9 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
2021Dear Diary: World's First Pranks
The current state of the argument, as Gran (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.
24 of 24 films
as Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice)
Directed by Brad Bird
as Gran (voice)
Directed by Joel Crawford
as Ruth Popper
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
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
Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice) gives Cloris Leachman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Frau Blücher
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Performance score7.7
Young Frankenstein asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Frau Blücher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Memaw
I Can Only Imagine (2018)
Performance score7.6
I Can Only Imagine asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Memaw is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gran (voice)
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
Performance score7.5
The Croods: A New Age asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gran (voice) 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 Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice)
Start here. The Iron Giant is the clearest statement of what Cloris Leachman does — accessible, 86 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Cloris 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.
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Keeps the drama register of The Iron Giant but asks for a colder reading of it.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
A deliberate change of key after The Last Picture Show — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
I Can Only Imagine (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Young Frankenstein — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
A deliberate change of key after I Can Only Imagine — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mel Brooks
Director
2 films together
Notably Young Frankenstein
Robert Aldrich
Director
1 film together
Notably Kiss Me Deadly
George Roy Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Picture Show
James Frawley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Muppet Movie
Lesli Linka Glatter
Director
1 film together
Notably Now and Then
Mike Judge
Director
1 film together
Notably Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably Music of the Heart
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably The Iron Giant
Mike Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably Sky High
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Longest Yard
David Zucker
Director
1 film together
Notably Scary Movie 4
Fatih Akin
Director
1 film together
Notably New York, I Love You
Andy Fickman
Director
1 film together
Notably You Again
Michael Hoffman
Director
1 film together
Notably Gambit
Kirk DeMicco
Director
1 film together
Notably The Croods
Scott Coffey
Director
1 film together
Notably Adult World
Jeremy Garelick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wedding Ringer
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together
Notably I Can Only Imagine
Ashley Avis
Director
1 film together
Notably Being and Nothingness
Joel Crawford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Croods: A New Age
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Mel Brooks
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
Young FrankensteinBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Iron GiantJon Erwin
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Can Only ImagineGeorge Roy Hill
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidJoel Crawford
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 Croods: A New AgePeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last Picture ShowJames Frawley
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Muppet MovieKirk DeMicco
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 CroodsLesli Linka Glatter
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Now and ThenRobert Aldrich
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kiss Me DeadlyPeter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Longest YardWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Music of the HeartMike Judge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beavis and Butt-Head Do AmericaJeremy Garelick
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wedding RingerAndy Fickman
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You AgainMike Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sky HighScott Coffey
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adult WorldFatih Akin
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
New York, I Love YouMichael Hoffman
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GambitDavid Zucker
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scary Movie 4Ashley Avis
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being and NothingnessSix 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
Young Frankenstein
as Frau Blücher
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
I Can Only Imagine
as Memaw
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Young Frankenstein
as Frau Blücher
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
You Again
as Helen (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Iron Giant
as Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice)
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. Cloris Leachman 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
66 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
17 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
The Iron Giant
as Mrs. Lynley Tensedge (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Kiss Me Deadly
as Christina Bailey
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
I Can Only Imagine
as Memaw
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Kiss Me Deadly
as Christina Bailey
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
as Agnes
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
as Agnes
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
as Old Woman On Plane and Bus (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Wedding Ringer
as Grandma Palmer
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: crime and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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