Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#127694
of 909177 performers
Top 25%
George Dunn works on quiet performance rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
George Dunn appears in 6 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without George. A Woman Under the Influence is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, drama, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for western, romance, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Don Siegel, John Cassavetes, Michelangelo Antonioni and others, George Dunn 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.
A Woman Under the Influence (1974) as Garson Cross · Zabriskie Point (1970) as Airport Mechanic (uncredited) · Operation Petticoat (1959) as Prophet
Career snapshot
Ranked #127694 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
6
1953–1976
Career length
23 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
A Woman Under the Influence
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
A Woman Under the Influence
Most frequent director
Don Siegel
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Don Siegel
Most common genre
Romance
3 titles
Average runtime
1h 56m
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
6.6
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
1970s
7.0 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Shootist, A Woman Under the Influence, The Beguiled — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.0
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1950s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Operation Petticoat, How to Marry a Millionaire.
Most productive era
1970s
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 | 1950s | 1970s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 7.03 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.81 film |
| Comedy | 6.82 films | — |
| Romance | 6.82 films | 7.31 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1953How to Marry a Millionaire
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mike - Elevator Operator (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1974A Woman Under the Influence
7.3 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
1976The Shootist
The current state of the argument, as Man Delivering Headstone (uncredited).
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.
6 of 6 films
as Garson Cross
Directed by John Cassavetes
as Airport Mechanic (uncredited)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
as Man Delivering Headstone (uncredited)
Directed by Don Siegel
as Sam Jefferson
Directed by Don Siegel
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
Garson Cross
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Garson Cross gives George Dunn a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Airport Mechanic (uncredited)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Performance score6.9
Zabriskie Point asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Airport Mechanic (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Prophet
Operation Petticoat (1959)
Performance score6.8
Operation Petticoat asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Prophet is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Man Delivering Headstone (uncredited)
The Shootist (1976)
Performance score6.7
The Shootist asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Man Delivering Headstone (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 Garson Cross
Start here. A Woman Under the Influence is the clearest statement of what George Dunn does — accessible, 155 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet George 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.
Operation Petticoat (1959)
Keeps the romance register of A Woman Under the Influence but asks for a colder reading of it.
Zabriskie Point (1970)
A deliberate change of key after Operation Petticoat — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Beguiled (1971)
Keeps the drama register of Zabriskie Point but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Shootist (1976)
Same director as The Beguiled, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Don Siegel
Director
2 films together
Notably The Shootist
Jean Negulesco
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Marry a Millionaire
Blake Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably Operation Petticoat
Michelangelo Antonioni
Director
1 film together
Notably Zabriskie Point
John Cassavetes
Director
1 film together
Notably A Woman Under the Influence
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Don Siegel
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 ShootistJohn Cassavetes
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Woman Under the InfluenceMichelangelo Antonioni
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zabriskie PointBlake Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Operation PetticoatJean Negulesco
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Marry a MillionaireSix 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
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
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 Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
How to Marry a Millionaire
as Mike - Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
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. George Dunn 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
23 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Romance Legend
Awarded
3 catalogue titles in romance, 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
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Woman Under the Influence
as Garson Cross
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Beguiled
as Sam Jefferson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Shootist
as Man Delivering Headstone (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Shootist
as Man Delivering Headstone (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Operation Petticoat
as Prophet
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zabriskie Point
as Airport Mechanic (uncredited)
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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