Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10910
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
David Doty works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
David Doty appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. The Parent Trap is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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, mystery, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jake Kasdan, Paul Haggis, Nimród Antal and others, David Doty 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 Parent Trap (1998) as Hotel Bartender · Red Dragon (2002) as Dinner Guest · Seabiscuit (2003) as Land Broker
Career snapshot
Ranked #10910 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
1994–2011
Career length
17 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
The Parent Trap
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
The Parent Trap
Most frequent director
Jake Kasdan
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Jake Kasdan
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
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
6.4
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
1990s
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Never Been Kissed, The Parent Trap, Bean — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Never Been Kissed, The Parent Trap, Bean.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.52 films | 6.56 films | — |
| Action | — | 5.61 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.65 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.73 films | 6.26 films | 5.91 film |
| Crime | — | 6.64 films | — |
| Romance | 6.82 films | 6.13 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.82 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Wyatt Earp
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mayor Wilson.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1998The Parent Trap
7.3 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
2011Bad Teacher
The current state of the argument, as Armando the Homeless Guy.
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.
18 of 18 films
as Hotel Bartender
Directed by Nancy Meyers
as Dinner Guest
Directed by Brett Ratner
as Land Broker
Directed by Gary Ross
as Truck Parts Salesman
Directed by Paul Haggis
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
Hotel Bartender
The Parent Trap (1998)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Hotel Bartender gives David Doty a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dinner Guest
Red Dragon (2002)
Performance score7.0
Red Dragon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dinner Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Land Broker
Seabiscuit (2003)
Performance score6.8
Seabiscuit asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Land Broker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Truck Parts Salesman
In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Performance score6.6
In the Valley of Elah asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Truck Parts Salesman 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 Hotel Bartender
Start here. The Parent Trap is the clearest statement of what David Doty does — accessible, 128 minutes, and rated 7.3 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.
Red Dragon (2002)
A deliberate change of key after The Parent Trap — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Seabiscuit (2003)
A deliberate change of key after Red Dragon — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Keeps the drama register of Seabiscuit but asks for a colder reading of it.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
A deliberate change of key after In the Valley of Elah — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jake Kasdan
Director
3 films together
Notably Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Wyatt Earp
Mel Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Bean
Nancy Meyers
Director
1 film together
Notably The Parent Trap
Raja Gosnell
Director
1 film together
Notably Never Been Kissed
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Blue
Andrew Niccol
Director
1 film together
Notably S1m0ne
Tom Shadyac
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragonfly
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Dragon
Gary Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Seabiscuit
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably Down with Love
Mark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Daredevil
Andrew Fleming
Director
1 film together
Notably Nancy Drew
Nimród Antal
Director
1 film together
Notably Vacancy
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Valley of Elah
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jake Kasdan
Director
3 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox StoryNancy Meyers
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 Parent TrapBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red DragonGary Ross
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SeabiscuitPaul Haggis
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Valley of ElahLawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wyatt EarpTom Shadyac
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DragonflyMel Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BeanNimród Antal
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VacancyRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark BlueRaja Gosnell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Never Been KissedAndrew Fleming
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nancy DrewPeyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Down with LoveAndrew Niccol
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
S1m0neMark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DaredevilSix 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 Parent Trap
as Hotel Bartender
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Seabiscuit
as Land Broker
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 Parent Trap
as Hotel Bartender
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Parent Trap
as Hotel Bartender
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Parent Trap
as Hotel Bartender
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 Doty 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.
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
In the Valley of Elah
as Truck Parts Salesman
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Red Dragon
as Dinner Guest
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Seabiscuit
as Land Broker
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
In the Valley of Elah
as Truck Parts Salesman
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Parent Trap
as Hotel Bartender
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Daredevil
as Drunken Englishman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Never Been Kissed
as Hairplug Bruns
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Daredevil
as Drunken Englishman
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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