Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#373
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ed Harris represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 48 years in, and Ed is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ed Harris appears in 62 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ed. Gravity is the clearest case: a film rated 8.4 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, thriller, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Josh Greenbaum, Hamish Linklater, Joseph Kosinski and others, Ed Harris 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.
Gravity (2013) as Mission Control (voice) · The Truman Show (1998) as Christof · Top Gun: Maverick (2022) as Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
Career snapshot
Ranked #373 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
62
1978–2026
Career length
48 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.4
Gravity
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Top Gun: Maverick
Most frequent director
Todd Robinson
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Todd Robinson
Most common genre
Drama
45 titles
Average runtime
1h 54m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
1980s
7.1 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Abyss, Places in the Heart, The Right Stuff — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.1
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.1
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. Coma.
Most productive era
2010s
18 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 7.03 films | 6.912 films | 6.910 films | 6.712 films | 6.08 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.73 films | 6.41 film | 6.44 films | 7.82 films |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 7.31 film | 6.66 films | 6.53 films | 6.57 films | 6.82 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.91 film | 7.43 films | 6.31 film | 6.56 films | 5.46 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | — | — | 8.41 film | — |
| Crime | — | — | 6.84 films | 6.75 films | 6.32 films | 6.22 films |
| Romance | — | — | 6.82 films | 7.02 films | 6.03 films | 6.61 film |
| Horror | 6.71 film | 6.91 film | 6.31 film | — | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1978Coma
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Pathology Resident.
Highest rated performance
1998The Truman Show
8.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2013Gravity
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026The Dink
The current state of the argument, as Chuck Boyd.
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.
62 of 62 films
as Mission Control (voice)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
as Christof
Directed by Peter Weir
as William Parcher
Directed by Ron Howard
as Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
as Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
Directed by James Cameron
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 64 titles · 69 total credits · active 1978–2026
How to Make a Killing
2026 · Whitelaw Redfellow
The Dink
2026 · Chuck Boyd
Dutton Ranch
2026 · TV · Everett McKinney
Riff Raff
2025 · Vince
Love Lies Bleeding
2024 · Lou Sr.
My Dead Friend Zoe
2024 · Dale
Concrete
2024 · Boris
Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War
2024 · TV · Self - Narrator (voice)
Downtown Owl
2023 · Horace Jones
Top Gun: Maverick
2022 · Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
The Lost Daughter
2021 · Lyle
The Last Full Measure
2020 · Ray Mott
Resistance
2020 · George S. Patton
Geostorm
2017 · U.S. Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom
Kodachrome
2017 · Benjamin Ryder
mother!
2017 · Man
In Dubious Battle
2016 · Joy
Rules Don't Apply
2016 · Mr. Bransford
The Adderall Diaries
2016 · Neil Elliott
Westworld
2016 · TV · Man in Black
Run All Night
2015 · Shawn Maguire
Planes: Fire & Rescue
2014 · Blade Ranger (voice)
Frontera
2014 · Roy
Pain & Gain
2013 · Ed DuBois
The defining work
#1
Mission Control (voice)
Gravity (2013)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mission Control (voice) gives Ed Harris a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Christof
The Truman Show (1998)
Performance score8.3
The Truman Show asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Christof is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
William Parcher
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Performance score8.2
A Beautiful Mind asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. William Parcher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Performance score8.0
Top Gun: Maverick asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain 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 Mission Control (voice)
Start here. Gravity is the clearest statement of what Ed Harris does — accessible, 91 minutes, and rated 8.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ed 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 Abyss (1989)
Keeps the thriller register of Gravity but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Truman Show (1998)
A deliberate change of key after The Abyss — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Keeps the drama register of The Truman Show but asks for a colder reading of it.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Keeps the drama register of A Beautiful Mind but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ron Howard
Director
2 films together
Notably A Beautiful Mind
Robert Benton
Director
2 films together
Notably Places in the Heart
Ed Harris
Director
2 films together
Notably Pollock
Peter Weir
Director
2 films together
Notably The Truman Show
Michael Bay
Director
2 films together
Notably The Rock
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
2 films together
Notably Gravity
Todd Robinson
Director
2 films together
Notably The Last Full Measure
Michael Crichton
Director
1 film together
Notably Coma
George A. Romero
Director
1 film together
Notably Creepshow
Roger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together
Notably Under Fire
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Right Stuff
James Cameron
Director
1 film together
Notably The Abyss
Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together
Notably State of Grace
James Foley
Director
1 film together
Notably Glengarry Glen Ross
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Firm
John Bailey
Director
1 film together
Notably China Moon
Richard Benjamin
Director
1 film together
Notably Milk Money
Arne Glimcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Just Cause
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Nixon
John Schlesinger
Director
1 film together
Notably Eye for an Eye
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Absolute Power
Chris Columbus
Director
1 film together
Notably Stepmom
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director
1 film together
Notably Enemy at the Gates
Stephen Daldry
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hours
Gregor Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Buffalo Soldiers
Michael Tollin
Director
1 film together
Notably Radio
David Cronenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably A History of Violence
Agnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together
Notably Copying Beethoven
Jon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together
Notably National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Cleaner
Ben Affleck
Director
1 film together
Notably Gone Baby Gone
Michael Pavone
Director
1 film together
Notably That's What I Am
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Game Change
Bong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together
Notably Snowpiercer
Michael Berry
Director
1 film together
Notably Frontera
Bobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together
Notably Planes: Fire & Rescue
Jaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together
Notably Run All Night
Pamela Romanowsky
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adderall Diaries
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Rules Don't Apply
James Franco
Director
1 film together
Notably In Dubious Battle
Darren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together
Notably mother!
Dean Devlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Geostorm
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lost Daughter
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Top Gun: Maverick
Hamish Linklater
Director
1 film together
Notably Downtown Owl
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dink
Sandra Bullock
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
George Clooney
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
Orto Ignatiussen
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
Phaldut Sharma
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
Amy Warren
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
Basher Savage
Actor
1 film together
Notably Gravity
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
GravityRon Howard
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A Beautiful MindPeter Weir
Director
2 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Truman ShowMichael Bay
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The RockEd Harris
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
PollockRobert Benton
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
Places in the HeartTodd Robinson
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Last Full MeasureJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Top Gun: MaverickJean-Jacques Annaud
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Enemy at the GatesBen Affleck
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gone Baby GoneMichael Tollin
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RadioStephen Daldry
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 HoursJames Cameron
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 AbyssDavid Cronenberg
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A History of ViolenceChris Columbus
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StepmomJames Foley
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Glengarry Glen RossPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Right StuffDarren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
mother!Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
State of GraceBong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SnowpiercerJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Game ChangeGeorge A. Romero
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CreepshowMichael Pavone
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
That's What I AmSydney Pollack
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FirmClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Absolute PowerOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NixonRoger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Under FireMichael Crichton
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ComaJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DinkMaggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lost DaughterMichael Berry
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FronteraAgnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Copying BeethovenRichard Benjamin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Milk MoneyJaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Run All NightJon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
National Treasure: Book of SecretsGregor Jordan
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Buffalo SoldiersJohn Schlesinger
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eye for an EyeArne Glimcher
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Just CauseBobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Planes: Fire & RescueDean Devlin
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GeostormRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CleanerJohn Bailey
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
China MoonJames Franco
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Dubious BattleWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rules Don't ApplyHamish Linklater
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Downtown OwlPamela Romanowsky
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adderall DiariesSix 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
Top Gun: Maverick
as Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
A Beautiful Mind
as William Parcher
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 Truman Show
as Christof
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Coma
as Pathology Resident
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gravity
as Mission Control (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. Ed Harris has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.5 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #624 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.4 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Thriller, Drama | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Alfonso Cuarón | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Charisma, Quiet performance | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2013–2013 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Mission Control (voice) — Gravity | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | Gravity | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Best Space Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Thriller Movies, Drama Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
48 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
45 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
Gravity
as Mission Control (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Gravity
as Mission Control (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Adderall Diaries
as Neil Elliott
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Glengarry Glen Ross
as Dave Moss
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Top Gun: Maverick
as Radm. Chester 'Hammer' Cain
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
as Mitch Wilkinson
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
That's What I Am
as Mr. Simon
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Gravity
as Mission Control (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
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Hidden Sci-Fi Gems
Features Gravity at #3
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Movies Like Interstellar
Features Gravity at #3
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Best Space Movies
Features Gravity
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Sci-Fi Movies
Features Gravity
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Thriller Movies
Features Gravity
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Drama Movies
Features Gravity
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