Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3777
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Crispin Glover represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Crispin is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Crispin Glover appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Crispin. Back to the Future is the clearest case: a film rated 8.6 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 horror, thriller, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tim Hunter, Stacie Passon, Tim Burton and others, Crispin Glover 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.
Back to the Future (1985) as George McFly · Back to the Future Part II (1989) as George McFly (archive footage) · What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) as Bobby McBurney
Career snapshot
Ranked #3777 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1984–2027
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.6
Back to the Future
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Back to the Future
Most frequent director
Robert Zemeckis
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Robert Zemeckis
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.7
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
1980s
7.4 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Back to the Future Part II, At Close Range, Back to the Future — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.4
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.3
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, At Close Range, Back to the Future.
Most productive era
2000s
8 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 | 6.81 film | 7.33 films | 6.11 film | — | 6.51 film |
| Action | — | — | 6.14 films | 5.41 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 7.01 film | 6.52 films | 5.52 films | 1.42 films |
| Comedy | 8.32 films | — | 5.66 films | 5.02 films | — |
| Crime | 6.81 film | 7.01 film | 6.11 film | 4.72 films | — |
| Romance | — | 7.32 films | — | — | — |
| Horror | 6.31 film | — | — | — | 1.42 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Jimmy Mortimer.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.6 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
2027The Third Parent
The current state of the argument, as Tommy Taffy.
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 George McFly
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as George McFly (archive footage)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Train Fireman
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
as Bobby McBurney
Directed by Lasse Hallström
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
George McFly
Back to the Future (1985)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. George McFly gives Crispin Glover a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
George McFly (archive footage)
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. George McFly (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Train Fireman
Dead Man (1995)
Performance score7.6
Dead Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Train Fireman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bobby McBurney
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Performance score7.4
What's Eating Gilbert Grape asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bobby McBurney 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 George McFly
Start here. Back to the Future is the clearest statement of what Crispin Glover does — accessible, 116 minutes, and rated 8.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Crispin 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.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Same director as Back to the Future, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
A deliberate change of key after Back to the Future Part II — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dead Man (1995)
Keeps the drama register of What's Eating Gilbert Grape but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mr. K (2025)
Keeps the fantasy register of Dead Man but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Zemeckis
Director
3 films together
Notably Back to the Future
McG
Director
2 films together
Notably Charlie's Angels
Joseph Zito
Director
1 film together
Notably Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
James Foley
Director
1 film together
Notably At Close Range
David Lynch
Director
1 film together
Notably Wild at Heart
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably The Doors
Lasse Hallström
Director
1 film together
Notably What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Jim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Man
Neil LaBute
Director
1 film together
Notably Nurse Betty
Aaron Seltzer
Director
1 film together
Notably Epic Movie
Matthew O'Callaghan
Director
1 film together
Notably Open Season 2
Steve Pink
Director
1 film together
Notably Hot Tub Time Machine
Tim Burton
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice in Wonderland
Stacie Passon
Director
1 film together
Notably We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Tim Hunter
Director
1 film together
Notably Smiley Face Killers
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Zemeckis
Director
3 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Back to the FutureMcG
Director
2 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Charlie's AngelsLasse Hallström
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What's Eating Gilbert GrapeJim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead ManOliver Stone
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 DoorsDavid Lynch
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wild at HeartJames Foley
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
At Close RangeTim Burton
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice in WonderlandJoseph Zito
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friday the 13th: The Final ChapterSteve Pink
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hot Tub Time MachineNeil LaBute
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nurse BettyMatthew O'Callaghan
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Open Season 2Stacie Passon
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
We Have Always Lived in the CastleAaron Seltzer
Director
1 film together · 3.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Epic MovieTim Hunter
Director
1 film together · 2.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smiley Face KillersSix 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
Back to the Future
as George McFly
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
as Bobby McBurney
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Back to the Future
as George McFly
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Back to the Future Part II
as George McFly (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Back to the Future
as George McFly
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. Crispin Glover 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
43 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
10 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
Back to the Future
as George McFly
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Back to the Future
as George McFly
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
as Bobby McBurney
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Mr. K
as Mr. K
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Back to the Future
as George McFly
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
9
as #6 (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Nurse Betty
as Roy
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Back to the Future
as George McFly
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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