Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7126
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Harris Yulin represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 41 years in, and Harris is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Harris Yulin appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Harris. Scarface is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 science fiction, drama, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Joseph Cedar, Jason Bateman, Derek Cianfrance and others, Harris Yulin 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.
Scarface (1983) as Bernstein · Training Day (2001) as Doug Rosselli · The Hurricane (1999) as Leon Friedman
Career snapshot
Ranked #7126 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1983–2024
Career length
41 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Scarface
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Scarface
Most frequent director
Joseph Cedar
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Joseph Cedar
Most common genre
Drama
10 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
7.0
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
6.8
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
7.5 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Ghostbusters II, Scarface — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.5
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Ghostbusters II, Scarface.
Most productive era
1990s
5 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.31 film | 6.63 films | 6.82 films | 6.13 films | 6.01 film |
| Action | 8.31 film | 6.71 film | 6.83 films | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.32 films | 5.91 film | 5.51 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 6.22 films | 6.81 film | 5.72 films | — |
| Crime | 8.31 film | — | 7.22 films | 7.01 film | — |
| Romance | — | 5.82 films | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1983Scarface
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Bernstein. 8.3 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
2024Omni Loop
The current state of the argument, as Professor Duselberg.
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 Bernstein
Directed by Brian De Palma
as Doug Rosselli
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
as Leon Friedman
Directed by Norman Jewison
as National Security Advisor James Cutter
Directed by Phillip Noyce
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
Bernstein
Scarface (1983)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bernstein gives Harris Yulin a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Doug Rosselli
Training Day (2001)
Performance score7.7
Training Day asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Doug Rosselli is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Leon Friedman
The Hurricane (1999)
Performance score7.2
The Hurricane asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leon Friedman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Al Cross
The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)
Performance score6.9
The Place Beyond the Pines asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Al Cross 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 Bernstein
Start here. Scarface is the clearest statement of what Harris Yulin does — accessible, 170 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Harris 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.
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Keeps the action register of Scarface but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Hurricane (1999)
Keeps the drama register of Clear and Present Danger but asks for a colder reading of it.
Training Day (2001)
Keeps the drama register of The Hurricane but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)
Keeps the crime register of Training Day but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably Scarface
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghostbusters II
Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together
Notably Final Analysis
Phillip Noyce
Director
1 film together
Notably Clear and Present Danger
Harold Ramis
Director
1 film together
Notably Multiplicity
Mel Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Bean
Norman Jewison
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hurricane
Wim Wenders
Director
1 film together
Notably The Million Dollar Hotel
Les Mayfield
Director
1 film together
Notably American Outlaws
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Rush Hour 2
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Training Day
Derek Cianfrance
Director
1 film together
Notably The Place Beyond the Pines
Jason Bateman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Family Fang
Joseph Cedar
Director
1 film together
Notably Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ScarfaceAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Training DayNorman Jewison
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HurricaneDerek Cianfrance
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Place Beyond the PinesBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rush Hour 2Phillip Noyce
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Clear and Present DangerIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghostbusters IIMel Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BeanJason Bateman
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 Family FangLes Mayfield
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American OutlawsWim Wenders
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 Million Dollar HotelHarold Ramis
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MultiplicityPhil Joanou
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Final AnalysisJoseph Cedar
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York FixerSix 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
Scarface
as Bernstein
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Final Analysis
as Prosecuting Attorney (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scarface
as Bernstein
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Final Analysis
as Prosecuting Attorney (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scarface
as Bernstein
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. Harris Yulin 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
41 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
10 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
Scarface
as Bernstein
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Scarface
as Bernstein
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Final Analysis
as Prosecuting Attorney (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Family Fang
as Hobart Waxman
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Scarface
as Bernstein
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
American Outlaws
as Thaddeus Rains
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Place Beyond the Pines
as Al Cross
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Scarface
as Bernstein
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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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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