Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1248
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Bradley represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 47 years in, and David is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
David Bradley appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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, drama, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Guillermo del Toro, Dan Levy, Jim O'Hanlon and others, David Bradley 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.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) as Argus Filch · Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) as Argus Filch · Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) as Argus Filch
Career snapshot
Ranked #1248 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1979–2026
Career length
47 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Most frequent director
David Yates
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With David Yates
Most common genre
Drama
12 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
7.2
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
7.0
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
7.6 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Brown, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.6
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
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.
Most productive era
2020s
13 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.21 film | 6.53 films | — | 6.08 films |
| Action | — | 7.32 films | 6.92 films | 6.51 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.81 film | — | 6.52 films |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.82 films | 6.81 film | 5.36 films |
| Crime | — | 7.32 films | — | 6.51 film |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.23 films |
| Horror | — | — | — | 7.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1979The Frisco Kid
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Julius Rosensheine.
Highest rated performance
2004Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
8.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2022Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
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 Ray.
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.
27 of 27 films
as Geppetto (voice)
Directed by Mark Gustafson
as Argus Filch
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
as Argus Filch
Directed by Chris Columbus
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
Geppetto (voice)
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Geppetto (voice) gives David Bradley a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Roy
Roy (2021)
Performance score8.1
Roy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Argus Filch
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Performance score8.0
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Argus Filch is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Argus Filch
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Performance score8.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Argus Filch 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 Geppetto (voice)
Start here. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is the clearest statement of what David Bradley does — accessible, 117 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet David 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.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Keeps the fantasy register of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio but asks for a colder reading of it.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Keeps the fantasy register of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but asks for a colder reading of it.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Keeps the fantasy register of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but asks for a colder reading of it.
Roy (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Yates
Director
3 films together
Notably Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Chris Columbus
Director
2 films together
Notably Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Edgar Wright
Director
2 films together
Notably Hot Fuzz
Jim O'Hanlon
Director
2 films together
Notably Your Christmas or Mine?
Robert Aldrich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Frisco Kid
Paddy Breathnach
Director
1 film together
Notably Blow Dry
Douglas McGrath
Director
1 film together
Notably Nicholas Nickleby
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably Captain America: The First Avenger
Lena Dunham
Director
1 film together
Notably Catherine Called Birdy
Mark Gustafson
Director
1 film together
Notably Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Dan Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Grief
Guillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together
Notably Frankenstein
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Yates
Director
3 films together · 8.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2Chris Columbus
Director
2 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneEdgar Wright
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hot FuzzJim O'Hanlon
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Your Christmas or Mine?Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireMark Gustafson
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guillermo del Toro's PinocchioGuillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FrankensteinJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Captain America: The First AvengerDouglas McGrath
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nicholas NicklebyDan Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good GriefRobert 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 KidLena Dunham
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Catherine Called BirdyPaddy Breathnach
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blow DrySix 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
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
as Argus Filch
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
as Geppetto (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Argus Filch
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hot Fuzz
as Arthur Webley
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
as Geppetto (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. David Bradley 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
47 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
12 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
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Argus Filch
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Hot Fuzz
as Arthur Webley
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Night Like This
as John
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Argus Filch
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hot Fuzz
as Arthur Webley
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Captain America: The First Avenger
as Tower Keeper
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Frisco Kid
as Julius Rosensheine
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
as Argus Filch
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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