Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6974
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
George Segal represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 58 years in, and George is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
George Segal appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without George. The Longest Day 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 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, romance, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Edward Zwick, Roland Emmerich, Barbra Streisand and others, George Segal 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.
The Longest Day (1962) as U.S. Army Ranger · Love & Other Drugs (2010) as Dr. James Randall · The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) as Henry Fine
Career snapshot
Ranked #6974 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
1962–2020
Career length
58 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
The Longest Day
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
The Longest Day
Most frequent director
Edward Zwick
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Edward Zwick
Most common genre
Comedy
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
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
6.9
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
2010s
7.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Love & Other Drugs — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
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
1960s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Bridge at Remagen, The Longest Day.
Most productive era
1990s
6 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 | 1960s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.31 film | — | 6.43 films | — | 7.01 film | — |
| Action | 6.92 films | — | 6.11 film | 6.11 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.01 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.41 film | 6.25 films | — | 7.01 film | — |
| Crime | — | — | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.41 film | 6.12 films | — | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
1962The Longest Day
Where our catalogue meets this career, as U.S. Army Ranger. 7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2020Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
The current state of the argument, as Self.
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.
12 of 12 films
as Lt. Phil Hartman
Directed by John Guillermin
as U.S. Army Ranger
Directed by Andrew Marton
as Dr. James Randall
Directed by Edward Zwick
as Henry Fine
Directed by Barbra Streisand
as Conference Speaker (uncredited)
Directed by Gus Van Sant
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
Lt. Phil Hartman
The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Lt. Phil Hartman gives George Segal a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
U.S. Army Ranger
The Longest Day (1962)
Performance score7.2
The Longest Day asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. U.S. Army Ranger is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. James Randall
Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Performance score6.9
Love & Other Drugs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. James Randall is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Henry Fine
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Performance score6.9
The Mirror Has Two Faces asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Henry Fine 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 Lt. Phil Hartman
Start here. The Bridge at Remagen is the clearest statement of what George Segal does — accessible, 117 minutes, and rated 6.6 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.
The Longest Day (1962)
Keeps the war register of The Bridge at Remagen but asks for a colder reading of it.
To Die For (1995)
Keeps the drama register of The Longest Day but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Keeps the comedy register of To Die For but asks for a colder reading of it.
Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Keeps the romance register of The Mirror Has Two Faces but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Andrew Marton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Longest Day
John Guillermin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bridge at Remagen
Amy Heckerling
Director
1 film together
Notably Look Who's Talking
Vic Armstrong
Director
1 film together
Notably Joshua Tree
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably To Die For
David O. Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Flirting with Disaster
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cable Guy
Barbra Streisand
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mirror Has Two Faces
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably 2012
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Love & Other Drugs
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Andrew Marton
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 Longest DayEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love & Other DrugsBarbra Streisand
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Mirror Has Two FacesGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Die ForJohn Guillermin
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bridge at RemagenAmy Heckerling
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Look Who's TalkingDavid O. Russell
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flirting with DisasterRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
2012Vic Armstrong
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joshua TreeBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cable GuySix 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
Love & Other Drugs
as Dr. James Randall
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Love & Other Drugs
as Dr. James Randall
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 Longest Day
as U.S. Army Ranger
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Longest Day
as U.S. Army Ranger
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Bridge at Remagen
as Lt. Phil Hartman
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 Segal 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
58 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
7 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
The Longest Day
as U.S. Army Ranger
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Longest Day
as U.S. Army Ranger
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Love & Other Drugs
as Dr. James Randall
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
To Die For
as Conference Speaker (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Longest Day
as U.S. Army Ranger
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
2012
as Tony Delgatto
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Love & Other Drugs
as Dr. James Randall
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
2012
as Tony Delgatto
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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 thriller
Have your say
Community
Which George Segal performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
