Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3603
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gary Lewis represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Gary is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Gary Lewis appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gary. Gangs of New York is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 documentary, action, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Nia DaCosta, Ben Lewin, Kristoffer Nyholm and others, Gary Lewis 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.
Gangs of New York (2002) as McGloin · Shallow Grave (1994) as Visitor · Filth (2013) as Gus
Career snapshot
Ranked #3603 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
11
1994–2024
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Gangs of New York
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Gangs of New York
Most frequent director
Nia DaCosta
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Nia DaCosta
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
1990s
7.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Shallow Grave — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.0
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. Shallow Grave.
Most productive era
2000s
4 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 | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.83 films | 6.81 film | 6.21 film |
| Action | — | 5.62 films | — | 5.91 film |
| Thriller | 7.01 film | — | 5.81 film | 6.21 film |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.81 film | 6.51 film |
| Crime | 7.01 film | 7.41 film | 6.81 film | 6.21 film |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Shallow Grave
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Visitor.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.4 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
2024Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of The Marvels
The current state of the argument, as Self - 'Emperor Dro'ge'.
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.
11 of 11 films
as McGloin
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Visitor
Directed by Danny Boyle
as Gus
Directed by Jon S. Baird
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
McGloin
Gangs of New York (2002)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. McGloin gives Gary Lewis a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Visitor
Shallow Grave (1994)
Performance score6.9
Shallow Grave asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Visitor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ramsay
Falling for Figaro (2021)
Performance score6.7
Falling for Figaro asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ramsay is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gus
Filth (2013)
Performance score6.7
Filth asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gus 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 McGloin
Start here. Gangs of New York is the clearest statement of what Gary Lewis does — accessible, 168 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gary 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.
Shallow Grave (1994)
Keeps the crime register of Gangs of New York but asks for a colder reading of it.
Goal! (2005)
A deliberate change of key after Shallow Grave — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Filth (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Goal! but asks for a colder reading of it.
Falling for Figaro (2021)
Keeps the comedy register of Filth but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Danny Boyle
Director
1 film together
Notably Shallow Grave
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Gangs of New York
Danny Cannon
Director
1 film together
Notably Goal!
Nicolas Winding Refn
Director
1 film together
Notably Valhalla Rising
Jon S. Baird
Director
1 film together
Notably Filth
Kristoffer Nyholm
Director
1 film together
Notably The Vanishing
Ben Lewin
Director
1 film together
Notably Falling for Figaro
Nia DaCosta
Director
1 film together
Notably The Marvels
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gangs of New YorkDanny Boyle
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shallow GraveJon S. Baird
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FilthDanny Cannon
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goal!Ben Lewin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Falling for FigaroNicolas Winding Refn
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Valhalla RisingNia DaCosta
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 MarvelsKristoffer Nyholm
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 VanishingSix 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
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Falling for Figaro
as Ramsay
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
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. Gary Lewis 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
30 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
5 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
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Shallow Grave
as Visitor
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Falling for Figaro
as Ramsay
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Vanishing
as Kenny
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Eragon
as Hrothgar
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Filth
as Gus
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Gangs of New York
as McGloin
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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