Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1515
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kurtwood Smith represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Kurtwood is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Kurtwood Smith appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kurtwood. Dead Poets Society is the clearest case: a film rated 8.5 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, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Keith Thomas, David A. Weiner, J.G. Quintel and others, Kurtwood Smith 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.
Dead Poets Society (1989) as Mr. Perry · Girl, Interrupted (1999) as Dr. Crumble · Regular Show: The Movie (2015) as Gene (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1515 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1983–2022
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.5
Dead Poets Society
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Dead Poets Society
Most frequent director
Keith Thomas
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Keith Thomas
Most common genre
Drama
7 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
7.1
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
6.9
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
7.1 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Dead Poets Society, Rambo III, RoboCop — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.1
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
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. Dead Poets Society, Rambo III, RoboCop.
Most productive era
1990s
8 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.32 films | 7.04 films | 6.61 film | — |
| Action | 6.92 films | 6.13 films | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.92 films | 6.53 films | — | 5.51 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.73 films | 6.72 films | — |
| Crime | — | 7.02 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.11 film | 7.01 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | 5.41 film | 5.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Staying Alive
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Choreographer.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.5 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
The current state of the argument, as Self - Interviewee.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Clarence Boddicker
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
as Gene (voice)
Directed by J.G. Quintel
as Stump Sisson
Directed by Joel Schumacher
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
Mr. Perry
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mr. Perry gives Kurtwood Smith a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Clarence Boddicker
RoboCop (1987)
Performance score7.5
RoboCop asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Clarence Boddicker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. Crumble
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Performance score7.4
Girl, Interrupted asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Crumble is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gene (voice)
Regular Show: The Movie (2015)
Performance score7.2
Regular Show: The Movie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gene (voice) 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 Mr. Perry
Start here. Dead Poets Society is the clearest statement of what Kurtwood Smith does — accessible, 129 minutes, and rated 8.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kurtwood 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.
RoboCop (1987)
A deliberate change of key after Dead Poets Society — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Time to Kill (1996)
Keeps the thriller register of RoboCop but asks for a colder reading of it.
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Keeps the drama register of A Time to Kill but asks for a colder reading of it.
Regular Show: The Movie (2015)
A deliberate change of key after Girl, Interrupted — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Sylvester Stallone
Director
1 film together
Notably Staying Alive
Paul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together
Notably RoboCop
Peter MacDonald
Director
1 film together
Notably Rambo III
Peter Weir
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Poets Society
John Landis
Director
1 film together
Notably Oscar
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Heart and Souls
Geoff Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably To Die For
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Broken Arrow
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably A Time to Kill
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Impact
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Girl, Interrupted
Miguel Arteta
Director
1 film together
Notably Cedar Rapids
Sacha Gervasi
Director
1 film together
Notably Hitchcock
J.G. Quintel
Director
1 film together
Notably Regular Show: The Movie
David A. Weiner
Director
1 film together
Notably In Search of Tomorrow
Keith Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably Firestarter
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peter Weir
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead Poets SocietyJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Girl, InterruptedJ.G. Quintel
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Regular Show: The MovieJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Time to KillPaul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RoboCopRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Heart and SoulsDavid A. Weiner
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Search of TomorrowSacha Gervasi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HitchcockGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Die ForMimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep ImpactJohn Landis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OscarPeter MacDonald
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rambo IIIJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broken ArrowSylvester Stallone
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Staying AliveMiguel Arteta
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cedar RapidsGeoff Murphy
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Under Siege 2: Dark TerritoryKeith Thomas
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FirestarterSix 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
Dead Poets Society
as Mr. Perry
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Staying Alive
as Choreographer
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Dead Poets Society
as Mr. Perry
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Heart and Souls
as Patterson (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Dead Poets Society
as Mr. Perry
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. Kurtwood Smith 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
7 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
Dead Poets Society
as Mr. Perry
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A Time to Kill
as Stump Sisson
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Staying Alive
as Choreographer
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
A Time to Kill
as Stump Sisson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dead Poets Society
as Mr. Perry
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
RoboCop
as Clarence Boddicker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
To Die For
as Earl Stone
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Staying Alive
as Choreographer
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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