Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10586
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
James Murtaugh represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 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 Murtaugh appears in 8 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without James. All the President's Men is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, versatility, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, comedy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Douglas McGrath, Kirk Jones, Ericson Core and others, James Murtaugh 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.
All the President's Men (1976) as Congress Library Clerk · Invincible (2006) as Principal · How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) as Jack
Career snapshot
Ranked #10586 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
8
1976–2011
Career length
35 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
All the President's Men
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
All the President's Men
Most frequent director
Douglas McGrath
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Douglas McGrath
Most common genre
Romance
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
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
6.7
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
1970s
7.5 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. All the President's Men — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.5
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. All the President's Men.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 1970s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.51 film | 6.32 films | 6.92 films | — |
| Thriller | 7.51 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.31 film | 6.91 film | 5.21 film |
| Crime | — | 6.21 film | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.32 films | 6.82 films | 5.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Congress Library Clerk. 7.5 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
2011I Don't Know How She Does It
The current state of the argument, as Roger Harcourt.
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.
8 of 8 films
as Congress Library Clerk
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
as Principal
Directed by Ericson Core
as Benny's Owner
Directed by Cameron Crowe
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
Congress Library Clerk
All the President's Men (1976)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Congress Library Clerk gives James Murtaugh a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Principal
Invincible (2006)
Performance score6.9
Invincible asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Principal is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jack
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Performance score6.8
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dr. Ed
Everybody's Fine (2009)
Performance score6.7
Everybody's Fine asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Ed 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 Congress Library Clerk
Start here. All the President's Men is the clearest statement of what James Murtaugh does — accessible, 138 minutes, and rated 7.5 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.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Keeps the mystery register of All the President's Men but asks for a colder reading of it.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Keeps the romance register of Vanilla Sky but asks for a colder reading of it.
Invincible (2006)
A deliberate change of key after How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Everybody's Fine (2009)
Keeps the drama register of Invincible but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably All the President's Men
Peter Medak
Director
1 film together
Notably Romeo Is Bleeding
Whit Stillman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Days of Disco
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Vanilla Sky
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Ericson Core
Director
1 film together
Notably Invincible
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Everybody's Fine
Douglas McGrath
Director
1 film together
Notably I Don't Know How She Does It
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All the President's MenEricson Core
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InvincibleDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose a Guy in 10 DaysKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everybody's FineCameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vanilla SkyWhit Stillman
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 Last Days of DiscoPeter Medak
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romeo Is BleedingDouglas McGrath
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Don't Know How She Does ItSix 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
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Invincible
as Principal
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
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 Murtaugh 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
35 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.
Romance Legend
Awarded
5 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
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Invincible
as Principal
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
All the President's Men
as Congress Library Clerk
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Last Days of Disco
as Marshall
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Last Days of Disco
as Marshall
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
I Don't Know How She Does It
as Roger Harcourt
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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