Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6609
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Hayman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 45 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 Hayman appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 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 crime, thriller, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Christopher Hatton, Nick Moorcroft, Paul Andrew Williams and others, David Hayman 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 Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) as Pavel · Help (2021) as Hercules · Blinded by the Light (2019) as Mr. Evans
Career snapshot
Ranked #6609 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1981–2026
Career length
45 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Average Nutevio score
5.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Most frequent director
Michael Caton-Jones
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Michael Caton-Jones
Most common genre
Thriller
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.5
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
6.7 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Sid and Nancy, Eye of the Needle — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.7
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.7
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. Sid and Nancy, Eye of the Needle.
Most productive era
2020s
11 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 | 6.72 films | 6.71 film | 6.34 films | 6.54 films | 6.53 films |
| Action | — | 6.43 films | 5.72 films | 6.11 film | 4.92 films |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 6.41 film | 5.95 films | 6.12 films | 4.95 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.21 film | 6.82 films | 6.32 films |
| Crime | — | 6.41 film | — | 6.11 film | 3.22 films |
| Romance | 6.71 film | — | — | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 5.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Canter.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
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
2026Jailbroken
The current state of the argument, as Smith.
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 Malcolm McLaren
Directed by Alex Cox
as Norm
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Pavel
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Pavel gives David Hayman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Wicksteed
Fear the Invisible Man (2023)
Performance score7.3
Fear the Invisible Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wicksteed is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Hercules
Help (2021)
Performance score7.1
Help asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hercules is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Malcolm McLaren
Sid and Nancy (1986)
Performance score7.1
Sid and Nancy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Malcolm McLaren 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 Pavel
Start here. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the clearest statement of what David Hayman does — accessible, 94 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.
Sid and Nancy (1986)
Keeps the drama register of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas but asks for a colder reading of it.
Help (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Sid and Nancy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Bull (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Help — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Fear the Invisible Man (2023)
Keeps the thriller register of Bull but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
2 films together
Notably Rob Roy
Richard Marquand
Director
1 film together
Notably Eye of the Needle
Alex Cox
Director
1 film together
Notably Sid and Nancy
Peter MacDonald
Director
1 film together
Notably Legionnaire
Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Director
1 film together
Notably Ordinary Decent Criminal
Martin Campbell
Director
1 film together
Notably Vertical Limit
John Boorman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Tailor of Panama
Atom Egoyan
Director
1 film together
Notably Where the Truth Lies
Tony Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably Flood
Mark Herman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Kenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together
Notably Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Justin Kurzel
Director
1 film together
Notably Macbeth
Chris Foggin
Director
1 film together
Notably Fisherman's Friends
Marc Munden
Director
1 film together
Notably Help
Paul Andrew Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably Bull
Nick Moorcroft
Director
1 film together
Notably Fisherman's Friends: One and All
Christopher Hatton
Director
1 film together
Notably Raven's Hollow
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Rob RoyMark Herman
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 Boy in the Striped PyjamasMarc Munden
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HelpChris Foggin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fisherman's FriendsAlex Cox
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sid and NancyRichard Marquand
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eye of the NeedleNick Moorcroft
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fisherman's Friends: One and AllPaul Andrew Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BullJustin Kurzel
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MacbethThaddeus O'Sullivan
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ordinary Decent CriminalKenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jack Ryan: Shadow RecruitAtom Egoyan
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Where the Truth LiesPeter MacDonald
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LegionnaireJohn Boorman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Tailor of PanamaMartin Campbell
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vertical LimitChristopher Hatton
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Raven's HollowTony Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FloodSix 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 Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Pavel
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Sid and Nancy
as Malcolm McLaren
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 Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Pavel
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Vertical Limit
as Frank „Chainsaw“ Williams
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Pavel
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 Hayman 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
45 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.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
14 catalogue titles in thriller, 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 Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Pavel
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Bull
as Norm
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sid and Nancy
as Malcolm McLaren
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Where the Truth Lies
as Reuben
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Pavel
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Vertical Limit
as Frank „Chainsaw“ Williams
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Fisherman's Friends: One and All
as Jago
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Legionnaire
as Recruiting Sergeant
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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