Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#8109
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Josef Sommer represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Josef is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Josef Sommer appears in 15 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Josef. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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, comedy, war. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Adam McKay, Kimberly Peirce, Oliver Hirschbiegel and others, Josef Sommer 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.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Larry Butler · Dirty Harry (1971) as Rothko · Sophie's Choice (1982) as Narrator (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #8109 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
15
1971–2010
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Dirty Harry
Most frequent director
Brett Ratner
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Brett Ratner
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
2h 0m
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
6.8
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
1970s
7.4 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dirty Harry — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.4
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.4
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. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dirty Harry.
Most productive era
1980s
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 | 1970s | 1980s | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | 6.75 films | 6.43 films | — |
| Action | 7.41 film | — | 6.33 films | 6.31 film |
| Thriller | 7.41 film | 6.32 films | 6.23 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.61 film | 6.81 film | 6.31 film |
| Crime | 7.41 film | 7.01 film | 6.01 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.83 films | 6.81 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.11 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
1971Dirty Harry
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rothko. 7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1985Witness
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2010The Other Guys
The current state of the argument, as District Attorney Radford (uncredited).
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.
15 of 15 films
as Schaeffer
Directed by Peter Weir
as Larry Butler
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Rothko
Directed by Don Siegel
as Peter Lassiter
Directed by Brett Ratner
as Narrator (voice)
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
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
Schaeffer
Witness (1985)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Schaeffer gives Josef Sommer a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Larry Butler
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Performance score7.2
Close Encounters of the Third Kind asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Larry Butler is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Rothko
Dirty Harry (1971)
Performance score7.2
Dirty Harry asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rothko is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Peter Lassiter
The Family Man (2000)
Performance score7.0
The Family Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Peter Lassiter 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 Schaeffer
Start here. Witness is the clearest statement of what Josef Sommer does — accessible, 112 minutes, and rated 7.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Josef 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.
Dirty Harry (1971)
Keeps the crime register of Witness but asks for a colder reading of it.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
A deliberate change of key after Dirty Harry — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Keeps the drama register of Close Encounters of the Third Kind but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Family Man (2000)
Keeps the romance register of Sophie's Choice but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Brett Ratner
Director
2 films together
Notably The Family Man
Don Siegel
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Harry
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Reds
Robert Benton
Director
1 film together
Notably Still of the Night
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably Sophie's Choice
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Silkwood
Peter Weir
Director
1 film together
Notably Witness
Emile Ardolino
Director
1 film together
Notably Chances Are
John Singleton
Director
1 film together
Notably Shaft
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sum of All Fears
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invasion
Kimberly Peirce
Director
1 film together
Notably Stop-Loss
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Other Guys
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Brett Ratner
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
The Family ManSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Close Encounters of the Third KindDon Siegel
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dirty HarryAlan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sophie's ChoicePeter Weir
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WitnessMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SilkwoodWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RedsEmile Ardolino
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chances ArePhil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Sum of All FearsAdam McKay
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 Other GuysKimberly Peirce
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stop-LossOliver Hirschbiegel
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 InvasionJohn Singleton
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ShaftRobert Benton
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Still of the NightSix 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
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
as Larry Butler
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Family Man
as Peter Lassiter
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Dirty Harry
as Rothko
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Other Guys
as District Attorney Radford (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Witness
as Schaeffer
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. Josef Sommer 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
39 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
9 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
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
as Larry Butler
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dirty Harry
as Rothko
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Family Man
as Peter Lassiter
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Still of the Night
as George Bynum
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dirty Harry
as Rothko
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Shaft
as Curt Flemming
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Family Man
as Peter Lassiter
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
X-Men: The Last Stand
as The President
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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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
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Reference
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