Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4588
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
James DuMont represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and James is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
James DuMont appears in 26 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without James. Catch Me If You Can is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 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 action, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Andy Tennant, Reginald Hudlin, George Nolfi and others, James DuMont 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.
Catch Me If You Can (2002) as FBI Agent · Dallas Buyers Club (2013) as Rayon's Father · The Banker (2020) as Senator McClellan
Career snapshot
Ranked #4588 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
26
1994–2025
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Catch Me If You Can
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Catch Me If You Can
Most frequent director
Reginald Hudlin
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Reginald Hudlin
Most common genre
Drama
13 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
6.7
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
2020s
6.9 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Hunting Season, Unit 234, Candy Cane Lane — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.9
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.9
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. Primary Colors, The Peacemaker, Speed.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 | 6.31 film | 8.21 film | 6.98 films | 7.53 films |
| Action | 6.72 films | 6.02 films | 6.23 films | 7.02 films |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | 6.53 films | 6.22 films | 6.73 films |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | 5.82 films | 6.32 films | 6.32 films |
| Crime | — | 7.13 films | 6.01 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.01 film | 6.71 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Speed
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Workman.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.2 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
2025Hunting Season
The current state of the argument, as Sheriff Brake.
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.
26 of 26 films
as Rayon's Father
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
as Sheriff Brake
Directed by Unknown
as Senator McClellan
Directed by George Nolfi
as Mike Ferro
Directed by Reginald Hudlin
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
FBI Agent
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. FBI Agent gives James DuMont a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Rayon's Father
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Performance score7.8
Dallas Buyers Club asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rayon's Father is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sheriff Brake
Hunting Season (2025)
Performance score7.5
Hunting Season asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sheriff Brake is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Senator McClellan
The Banker (2020)
Performance score7.4
The Banker asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Senator McClellan 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 FBI Agent
Start here. Catch Me If You Can is the clearest statement of what James DuMont does — accessible, 141 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet James 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.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Catch Me If You Can but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Banker (2020)
Keeps the drama register of Dallas Buyers Club but asks for a colder reading of it.
Safety (2020)
Keeps the drama register of The Banker but asks for a colder reading of it.
Hunting Season (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Safety but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together
Notably Catch Me If You Can
Peter Berg
Director
2 films together
Notably Deepwater Horizon
Reginald Hudlin
Director
2 films together
Notably Safety
Jan de Bont
Director
1 film together
Notably Speed
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably The Peacemaker
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Primary Colors
Clark Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably S.W.A.T.
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably Along Came Polly
John Pasquin
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
John Hyams
Director
1 film together
Notably Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
Lee Daniels
Director
1 film together
Notably The Butler
Jean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together
Notably Dallas Buyers Club
Thomas Carter
Director
1 film together
Notably When the Game Stands Tall
Andrew Fleming
Director
1 film together
Notably Barefoot
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Trumbo
Colin Trevorrow
Director
1 film together
Notably Jurassic World
Marc Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably I Saw the Light
George Nolfi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Banker
Andy Tennant
Director
1 film together
Notably Unit 234
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Catch Me If You CanReginald Hudlin
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
SafetyPeter Berg
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Deepwater HorizonJean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dallas Buyers ClubGeorge Nolfi
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BankerLee Daniels
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 ButlerJan de Bont
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpeedJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TrumboColin Trevorrow
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jurassic WorldAndrew Fleming
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BarefootThomas Carter
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
When the Game Stands TallAndy Tennant
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Unit 234Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Primary ColorsMarc Abraham
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Saw the LightClark Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
S.W.A.T.Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PeacemakerJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Along Came PollyJohn Pasquin
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and FabulousJohn Hyams
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Universal Soldier: Day of ReckoningSix 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
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Dallas Buyers Club
as Rayon's Father
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
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. James DuMont 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
31 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
13 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
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Safety
as Mike Ferro
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Ocean's Thirteen
as Security Supervisor
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hunting Season
as Sheriff Brake
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Speed
as Workman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Barefoot
as Dave Walachowski
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Catch Me If You Can
as FBI Agent
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
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 history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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