Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#77952
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Edgar Dearing represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Edgar is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Edgar Dearing appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Edgar. Scarlet Street is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 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, family, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Swift, Jack Arnold, Henry Koster and others, Edgar Dearing 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.
Scarlet Street (1945) as Policeman (uncredited) · You Can't Take It with You (1938) as Bill (uncredited) · The Awful Truth (1937) as Motor Cop (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #77952 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1932–1960
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
Scarlet Street
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Scarlet Street
Most frequent director
Jack Arnold
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jack Arnold
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
6.6
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
1930s
6.7 average MV
The 1930s are where the work and the material meet. It's a Wonderful World, You Can't Take It with You, The Awful Truth — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1930s
6.7
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. It's a Wonderful World, You Can't Take It with You, The Awful Truth.
Most productive era
1930s
8 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 | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.52 films | 7.02 films | — | 6.71 film |
| Action | — | — | 6.51 film | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.51 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.86 films | 6.54 films | — | 6.71 film |
| Crime | 6.73 films | 7.21 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.77 films | 6.81 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 6.51 film | 6.31 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1932Horse Feathers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Speakeasy Bartender (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1945Scarlet Street
7.2 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
1960Pollyanna
The current state of the argument, as Mr. Gorman.
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 Policeman (uncredited)
Directed by Fritz Lang
as Bill (uncredited)
Directed by Frank Capra
as Motor Cop (uncredited)
Directed by Leo McCarey
as Bill (uncredited)
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
as Policeman
Directed by Henry Koster
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
Policeman (uncredited)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Policeman (uncredited) gives Edgar Dearing a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bill (uncredited)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Performance score7.0
You Can't Take It with You asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bill (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Motor Cop (uncredited)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Performance score6.8
The Awful Truth asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Motor Cop (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bill (uncredited)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Performance score6.8
After the Thin Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bill (uncredited) 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 Policeman (uncredited)
Start here. Scarlet Street is the clearest statement of what Edgar Dearing does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Edgar 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.
After the Thin Man (1936)
Keeps the crime register of Scarlet Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Awful Truth (1937)
Keeps the comedy register of After the Thin Man but asks for a colder reading of it.
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Keeps the romance register of The Awful Truth but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Keeps the romance register of You Can't Take It with You but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
W.S. Van Dyke
Director
2 films together
Notably After the Thin Man
Fritz Lang
Director
2 films together
Notably Scarlet Street
Jack Arnold
Director
2 films together
Notably No Name on the Bullet
Norman Z. McLeod
Director
1 film together
Notably Horse Feathers
Cecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together
Notably Cleopatra
George Stevens
Director
1 film together
Notably Swing Time
Leo McCarey
Director
1 film together
Notably The Awful Truth
Frank Capra
Director
1 film together
Notably You Can't Take It with You
Edward Buzzell
Director
1 film together
Notably Go West
Arthur Lubin
Director
1 film together
Notably Hold That Ghost
Hal Walker
Director
1 film together
Notably Road to Utopia
Henry Koster
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bishop's Wife
David Swift
Director
1 film together
Notably Pollyanna
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Fritz Lang
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scarlet StreetW.S. Van Dyke
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
After the Thin ManJack Arnold
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
No Name on the BulletFrank Capra
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You Can't Take It with YouLeo McCarey
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Awful TruthHenry Koster
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 Bishop's WifeDavid Swift
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PollyannaNorman Z. McLeod
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Horse FeathersGeorge Stevens
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Swing TimeArthur Lubin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hold That GhostHal Walker
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Road to UtopiaEdward Buzzell
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Go WestCecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CleopatraSix 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
You Can't Take It with You
as Bill (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Bishop's Wife
as Policeman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scarlet Street
as Policeman (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
After the Thin Man
as Bill (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scarlet Street
as Policeman (uncredited)
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. Edgar Dearing 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
28 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
11 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
After the Thin Man
as Bill (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
After the Thin Man
as Bill (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Bishop's Wife
as Policeman
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
After the Thin Man
as Bill (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
No Name on the Bullet
as Charlie - Chess Player (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
No Name on the Bullet
as Charlie - Chess Player (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Bishop's Wife
as Policeman
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Cleopatra
as Convict
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
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
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Reference
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