Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3002
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Clyde Kusatsu represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 50 years in, and Clyde is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clyde Kusatsu appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clyde. The Home is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 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 comedy, science fiction, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Paul Abascal and others, Clyde Kusatsu 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 Home (2026) as Clyde · In the Line of Fire (1993) as Jack Okura · American Pie (1999) as English Teacher
Career snapshot
Ranked #3002 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1976–2026
Career length
50 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
The Home
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
The Home
Most frequent director
Rob Reiner
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Rob Reiner
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
2020s
8.2 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Home, Site — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
8.2
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
8.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Frisco Kid, Midway.
Most productive era
1990s
10 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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.42 films | — | 6.64 films | 5.93 films | 6.21 film | — |
| Action | 6.61 film | 6.41 film | 6.55 films | 5.32 films | 6.21 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.41 film | 6.44 films | 5.63 films | — | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.41 film | 6.34 films | 5.74 films | — | 10.01 film |
| Crime | — | 6.41 film | 6.91 film | 6.42 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | — | 6.52 films | 5.63 films | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | — | 6.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1976Midway
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cmdr. Watanabe.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2026The Home
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 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. The current state of the argument, as Clyde.
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 Jack Okura
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
as English Teacher
Directed by Paul Weitz
as History Teacher
Directed by Rob Cohen
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
Clyde
The Home (2026)
Performance score9.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Clyde gives Clyde Kusatsu a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jack Okura
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Performance score6.8
In the Line of Fire asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack Okura is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
English Teacher
American Pie (1999)
Performance score6.7
American Pie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. English Teacher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
History Teacher
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
Performance score6.7
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. History Teacher 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 Clyde
Start here. The Home is the clearest statement of what Clyde Kusatsu does — accessible, 8 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clyde 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.
In the Line of Fire (1993)
A deliberate change of key after The Home — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
Keeps the action register of In the Line of Fire but asks for a colder reading of it.
American Pie (1999)
A deliberate change of key after Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Site (2025)
A deliberate change of key after American Pie — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jack Smight
Director
1 film together
Notably Midway
Robert Aldrich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Frisco Kid
Roger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together
Notably Turner & Hooch
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Bird on a Wire
Nicholas Kazan
Director
1 film together
Notably Dream Lover
Richard Benjamin
Director
1 film together
Notably Made in America
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Rising Sun
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Line of Fire
Rob Cohen
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Jim Abrahams
Director
1 film together
Notably Hot Shots! Part Deux
Tad Stones
Director
1 film together
Notably Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably Godzilla
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably American Pie
Chuck Sheetz
Director
1 film together
Notably Recess: School's Out
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Hollywood Homicide
Paul Abascal
Director
1 film together
Notably Paparazzi
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Interpreter
Rob Reiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Rumor Has It...
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Line of FirePaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American PieRob Cohen
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dragon: The Bruce Lee StoryChuck Sheetz
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Recess: School's OutJim Abrahams
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hot Shots! Part DeuxNicholas Kazan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dream LoverJack Smight
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MidwayTad Stones
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Aladdin and the King of ThievesRoger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Turner & HoochSydney Pollack
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InterpreterJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bird on a WireRobert Aldrich
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Frisco KidPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rising SunRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GodzillaRob Reiner
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rumor Has It...Richard Benjamin
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Made in AmericaPaul Abascal
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaparazziRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hollywood HomicideSix 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
The Home
as Clyde
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Love Happens
as Cab Driver
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Home
as Clyde
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hot Shots! Part Deux
as Prime Minister Soto
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Home
as Clyde
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. Clyde Kusatsu 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
50 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
11 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 Home
as Clyde
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Home
as Clyde
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Love Happens
as Cab Driver
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Dream Lover
as Judge Kurita
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Home
as Clyde
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hollywood Homicide
as Coroner Chung
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Frisco Kid
as Mr. Ping
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Godzilla
as Japanese Tanker Skipper
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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