Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#11714
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Irving Bacon works on versatility 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.
Irving Bacon appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Irving. Gone with the Wind is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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 romance, music, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with George Cukor, Anthony Mann, Norman Taurog and others, Irving Bacon 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.
Gone with the Wind (1939) as Corporal · The Grapes of Wrath (1940) as Driver · It Happened One Night (1934) as Gas Station Attendant (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #11714 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
1932–1954
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Gone with the Wind
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Gone with the Wind
Most frequent director
Frank Capra
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Frank Capra
Most common genre
Romance
15 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
6.9
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
6.9 average MV
The 1930s are where the work and the material meet. At the Circus, Gone with the Wind, You Can't Take It with You — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1930s
6.9
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1930s
7.2
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. At the Circus, Gone with the Wind, You Can't Take It with You.
Most productive era
1940s
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.15 films | 6.96 films | 6.82 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.22 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.86 films | 7.04 films | 6.41 film |
| Crime | 6.82 films | 7.22 films | — |
| Romance | 7.08 films | 6.95 films | 6.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1932I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Bill - Barber (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.9 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
The current state of the argument, as Mr. Miller.
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.
25 of 25 films
as Corporal
Directed by Victor Fleming
as Gas Station Attendant (uncredited)
Directed by Frank Capra
as Pierre Couvais
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
as Railway Gateman (uncredited)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
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
Corporal
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Corporal gives Irving Bacon a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Driver
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Performance score7.3
The Grapes of Wrath asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Driver is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gas Station Attendant (uncredited)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Performance score7.3
It Happened One Night asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gas Station Attendant (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Pierre Couvais
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Performance score7.1
Monsieur Verdoux asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pierre Couvais 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 Corporal
Start here. Gone with the Wind is the clearest statement of what Irving Bacon does — accessible, 238 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Irving 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.
It Happened One Night (1934)
Keeps the romance register of Gone with the Wind but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
A deliberate change of key after It Happened One Night — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Spellbound (1945)
A deliberate change of key after The Grapes of Wrath — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
A deliberate change of key after Spellbound — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Frank Capra
Director
4 films together
Notably It Happened One Night
Fritz Lang
Director
2 films together
Notably The Return of Frank James
Alfred Hitchcock
Director
2 films together
Notably Spellbound
Mervyn LeRoy
Director
1 film together
Notably I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
W.S. Van Dyke
Director
1 film together
Notably San Francisco
Norman Z. McLeod
Director
1 film together
Notably Topper
William A. Wellman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Star Is Born
Leigh Jason
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mad Miss Manton
Victor Fleming
Director
1 film together
Notably Gone with the Wind
Edward Buzzell
Director
1 film together
Notably At the Circus
Howard Hawks
Director
1 film together
Notably His Girl Friday
John Ford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Grapes of Wrath
Raoul Walsh
Director
1 film together
Notably They Died with Their Boots On
Mark Sandrich
Director
1 film together
Notably Holiday Inn
Ray Enright
Director
1 film together
Notably The Spoilers
Albert S. Rogell
Director
1 film together
Notably In Old Oklahoma
Charlie Chaplin
Director
1 film together
Notably Monsieur Verdoux
Norman Taurog
Director
1 film together
Notably Room for One More
Anthony Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Glenn Miller Story
George Cukor
Director
1 film together
Notably A Star Is Born
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Frank Capra
Director
4 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
It Happened One NightAlfred Hitchcock
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
SpellboundFritz Lang
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Return of Frank JamesVictor Fleming
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gone with the WindJohn Ford
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Grapes of WrathCharlie Chaplin
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monsieur VerdouxMervyn LeRoy
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain GangHoward Hawks
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
His Girl FridayGeorge Cukor
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Star Is BornMark Sandrich
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Holiday InnWilliam A. Wellman
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Star Is BornAnthony Mann
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 Glenn Miller StoryRaoul Walsh
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
They Died with Their Boots OnNorman Z. McLeod
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TopperNorman Taurog
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Room for One MoreEdward 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
At the CircusW.S. Van Dyke
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
San FranciscoAlbert S. Rogell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Old OklahomaRay Enright
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpoilersLeigh Jason
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Mad Miss MantonSix 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
The Grapes of Wrath
as Driver
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Gone with the Wind
as Corporal
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gone with the Wind
as Corporal
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Gone with the Wind
as Corporal
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gone with the Wind
as Corporal
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. Irving Bacon 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
22 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Romance Legend
Awarded
15 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
Shadow of a Doubt
as Station Master
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Shadow of a Doubt
as Station Master
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Star Is Born
as Graves
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Shadow of a Doubt
as Station Master
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gone with the Wind
as Corporal
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Spoilers
as Hotel Manager (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Holiday Inn
as Gus
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Western Union
as Barber
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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