Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7159
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Schofield 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 Schofield appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Gladiator is the clearest case: a film rated 8.5 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 adventure, history, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Andy Goddard, Garth Davis, Joe Wright and others, David Schofield 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.
Gladiator (2000) as Falco · Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) as Mercer · Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) as Mercer
Career snapshot
Ranked #7159 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1980–2025
Career length
45 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.5
Gladiator
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Gladiator
Most frequent director
Gore Verbinski
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Gore Verbinski
Most common genre
Drama
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 58m
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
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
7.5 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Valkyrie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.5
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
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. An American Werewolf in London, The Dogs of War.
Most productive era
2000s
5 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 | — | 6.82 films | 7.82 films | 6.82 films | 6.21 film |
| Action | 5.81 film | — | 7.93 films | — | 5.71 film |
| Thriller | 5.81 film | — | 6.82 films | — | 6.21 film |
| Comedy | 7.41 film | — | — | 6.11 film | 5.71 film |
| Romance | — | 6.11 film | — | — | — |
| Horror | 7.41 film | — | 6.71 film | 5.91 film | 5.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1980The Dogs of War
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Endean's Man.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2000Gladiator
8.5 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
The current state of the argument, as Sycardius.
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.
16 of 16 films
as Falco
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Mercer
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as Mercer
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as Clement Atlee
Directed by Joe Wright
as Sergeant Major
Directed by Michael Mann
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
Falco
Gladiator (2000)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Falco gives David Schofield a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mercer
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Performance score7.4
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mercer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mercer
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Performance score7.3
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mercer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Clement Atlee
Darkest Hour (2017)
Performance score7.2
Darkest Hour asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Clement Atlee 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 Falco
Start here. Gladiator is the clearest statement of what David Schofield does — accessible, 155 minutes, and rated 8.5 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.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Keeps the drama register of Gladiator but asks for a colder reading of it.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
A deliberate change of key after The Last of the Mohicans — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Same director as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Darkest Hour (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Gore Verbinski
Director
2 films together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
John Irvin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dogs of War
John Landis
Director
1 film together
Notably An American Werewolf in London
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last of the Mohicans
Bernard Rose
Director
1 film together
Notably Anna Karenina
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Gladiator
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably From Hell
Bryan Singer
Director
1 film together
Notably Valkyrie
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wolfman
Joe Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Darkest Hour
Garth Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably Mary Magdalene
Andy Goddard
Director
1 film together
Notably Six Minutes to Midnight
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Gore Verbinski
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GladiatorJoe Wright
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Darkest HourMichael Mann
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last of the MohicansJohn Landis
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An American Werewolf in LondonBryan Singer
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ValkyrieAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From HellGarth Davis
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mary MagdaleneAndy Goddard
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Six Minutes to MidnightBernard Rose
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anna KareninaJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WolfmanJohn Irvin
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dogs of WarSix 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
Gladiator
as Falco
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Darkest Hour
as Clement Atlee
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gladiator
as Falco
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Last of the Mohicans
as Sergeant Major
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gladiator
as Falco
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 Schofield 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
7 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
Gladiator
as Falco
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Gladiator
as Falco
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Darkest Hour
as Clement Atlee
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
From Hell
as McQueen
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gladiator
as Falco
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
as Mercer
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Last of the Mohicans
as Sergeant Major
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Gladiator
as Falco
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
Which David Schofield performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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