Performer

Margaret Tyzack

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

Born
9 September 1931
Died
25 June 2011
Age at death
79
Nationality
British
Active
1968–2006
Performances
5
In Nutevio
1968–2006
Known for
Scoop
Performer Score
7.7
  • Hall of Fame
  • Cult Favourite
  • Modern Classic
View filmography

Nutevio rank

#25186

of 909177 performers

Top 5%

Margaret Tyzack represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Margaret is still choosing the harder script.
Ranked #25186 of 909177 performers in the Nutevio catalogue. Recalculated automatically as titles and credits are imported.

The essay

Reading Margaret Tyzack

Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.

Why this performer matters

Margaret Tyzack appears in 5 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Margaret. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the clearest case: a film rated 9.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.

Signature style

The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for mystery, comedy, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.

Legacy

Working with Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Margaret Tyzack 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.

Best known for

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as Elena · A Clockwork Orange (1971) as Conspirator · 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as Elena

Career snapshot

The career at a glance

Ranked #25186 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.

  • Films in Nutevio

    5

    1968–2006

  • Career length

    38 yrs

    Measured across our catalogue

  • Academy Awards

    Unknown

  • Oscar nominations

    Unknown

  • Highest Nutevio score

    9.3

    2001: A Space Odyssey

  • Average Nutevio score

    8.0

    Across catalogue work

  • Highest IMDb rating

    8.3

    2001: A Space Odyssey

  • Most frequent director

    Stanley Kubrick

    3 films together

  • Longest collaboration

    With Stanley Kubrick

  • Most common genre

    Mystery

    2 titles

  • Average runtime

    2h 11m

    Across catalogue work

  • Golden Globe wins

    Unknown

Nutevio metric

Performer Score

Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.

Nutevio Performer Score

7.7

out of 10

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

  • Performance quality8.3
  • Consistency8.1
  • Emotional range8.4
  • Character transformation8.0
  • Cultural impact7.0
  • Iconic roles7.3
  • Career longevity9.3
  • Influence6.6
  • Awards recognition6.9
  • Rewatch value7.3

Nutevio metric

Influence Score

Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.

Nutevio Influence Score

7.5

out of 10

A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.

  • Cultural impact7.7

    How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.

  • Legacy8.1

    What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.

  • Industry recognition6.6

    Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.

  • Career longevity9.3

    Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.

  • Awards6.4

    Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.

  • Iconic performances7.5

    Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.

  • Influence on filmmakers7.1

    Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.

  • Influence on other actors7.4

    The reading other performers now have to answer.

Actor DNA

How they work on screen

A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.

  • Versatility99
  • Transformation99
  • Screen presence82
  • Quiet performance81
  • Rewatchability76
  • Charisma73
  • Emotional range52
  • Drama51
  • Intensity48
  • Physical performance41
  • Action32
  • Villain presence29
  • Comedy23

The shape of a career

Career evolution

Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.

67891019681968197120052006
  • Nutevio
  • Performance score
  • IMDb

Peak years

Best era

Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.

Best decade

1960s

8.8 average MV

The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: A Space Odyssey — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.

Highest average Nutevio score

1960s

8.8

Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.

Highest average IMDb rating

1970s

8.2

The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.

Most awarded era

1960s

0 Academy Awards

Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Most productive era

1960s

2 films

The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.

Range, mapped

Career heatmap

Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.

The career concentrates in sci-fi during the 1960s, and the scores hold there.
Genre1960s1970s2000s
Drama
7.41 film
Thriller
7.41 film
Comedy
6.61 film
Sci-Fi
9.31 film
Crime
8.31 film
Romance
7.41 film

Chronology

Career timeline

Firsts and peaks

Career milestones

The turning points, in the order they happened.

  1. First film in Nutevio · First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak

    19682001: A Space Odyssey

    Where our catalogue meets this career, as Elena. The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.3 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.

  2. Most recent film

    2006Scoop

    The current state of the argument, as Sid's Co-Passenger.

Our order

Performances ranked

Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.

1
Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

1968 · Sci-Fi

2h 29m

8.3IMDb
2
Official poster for A Clockwork Orange (1971)

A Clockwork Orange

1971 · Science Fiction

2h 17m

8.2IMDb
3
Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

1968 · Mystery

2h 29m

8.0IMDb
4
Official poster for Match Point (2005)

Match Point

2005 · Romance

2h 4m

7.4IMDb
5
Official poster for Scoop (2006)

Scoop

2006 · Mystery

1h 36m

6.6IMDb

Every title

Filmography

Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.

Genre
Decade
Sort

5 of 5 films

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

as Elena

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

  • Masterpiece
  • Hidden Gem
  • Cult Classic
IMDb8.3Rotten Tomatoes94%Metacritic862h 29mSci-Fi · Adventure
View movie
Official poster for Match Point (2005)

as Mrs. Eastby

Directed by Woody Allen

IMDb7.4Rotten Tomatoes74%Metacritic682h 4mRomance · Drama · Thriller
View movie
Official poster for Scoop (2006)

Scoop

2006

as Sid's Co-Passenger

Directed by Woody Allen

IMDb6.6Rotten Tomatoes66%Metacritic611h 36mMystery · Comedy
View movie

From the library

Complete credits

Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.

Unique movies
4
Unique TV shows
2
Total credits
6
Crew credits
0

Showing 6 of 6 titles · 6 total credits · active 1968–2006

The defining work

Signature performances

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

#1

Elena

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Performance score8.9

The performance the rest of the career is read through. Elena gives Margaret Tyzack a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.

View movie
Official poster for A Clockwork Orange (1971)

#2

Conspirator

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Performance score8.0

A Clockwork Orange asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Conspirator is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

#3

Elena

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Performance score7.9

2001: A Space Odyssey asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elena is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for Match Point (2005)

#4

Mrs. Eastby

Match Point (2005)

Performance score7.2

Match Point asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mrs. Eastby is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie

Start here

The movie journey

A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Best entry point

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

Start here. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the clearest statement of what Margaret Tyzack does — accessible, 149 minutes, and rated 9.3 by our editors. No context required.

Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Margaret 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.

  1. Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

    Same director as 2001: A Space Odyssey, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.

  2. Official poster for A Clockwork Orange (1971)

    A Clockwork Orange (1971)

    Same director as 2001: A Space Odyssey, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.

  3. Official poster for Match Point (2005)

    Match Point (2005)

    A deliberate change of key after A Clockwork Orange — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.

  4. Official poster for Scoop (2006)

    Scoop (2006)

    Same director as Match Point, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.

Company kept

Frequent collaborators

The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.

Behind the camera

Director network

Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.

Six degrees

Connected through cinema

Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.

Recognition

Awards

5 wins · 1 nomination

Commander of the Order of the British Empire

1 win · latest 2010

  • WinnerCommander of the Order of the British Empire2010

    as Actor

Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress

1 win

  • WinnerEvening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress

    as Actor

Laurence Olivier Awards

1 win

  • WinnerLaurence Olivier Awards

    as Actor

Officer of the Order of the British Empire

1 win · latest 1970

  • WinnerOfficer of the Order of the British Empire1970

    as Actor

Categories of our own

Most rewatchable, most emotional, most influential

Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.

Most rewatchable

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.

Most emotional performance

Official poster for Match Point (2005)

Match Point

as Mrs. Eastby

Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.

Most influential performance

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.

Best ensemble performance

Official poster for Scoop (2006)

Scoop

as Sid's Co-Passenger

Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.

Career defining performance

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

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

Lines that stay

You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Margaret Tyzack has known it for a long time.

Nutevio Editors · On 2001: A Space Odyssey

Head to head

Compare performers

Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.

Compare with
Nutevio Performer Score8.28.9
Career ranking#199 of 681#2 of 681
Awards on fileUnknown4 recorded
Oscar winsUnknown2
Oscar nominationsUnknown6
Average Nutevio score9.39.3
GenresSci-Fi, AdventureSci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
DirectorsStanley KubrickChristopher Nolan
Performance DNAScreen presence, Physical performance, CharismaTransformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability
Career timeline1968–19682006–2014
Most iconic roleElena — 2001: A Space OdysseyProfessor Brand — Interstellar
Most rewatchable film2001: A Space OdysseyThe Dark Knight
Filmography1 catalogue film4 catalogue films

Films together

Nothing in common in the library yet.

Shared directors

Nothing in common in the library yet.

Shared collections

Best Space Movies, Adventure Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time, Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies

Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.

Ours alone

Nutevio Honors

Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.

Career Achievement

Awarded

38 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.

Mystery Legend

Awarded

2 catalogue titles in mystery, each one a reference point for the films that followed.

Our desk

Editor's picks

Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.

Best ending

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.

Best opening

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.

Most emotional

Official poster for Match Point (2005)

Match Point

as Mrs. Eastby

The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.

Best twist

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.

Best visual achievement

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

Images that would survive with the sound switched off.

Best action sequence

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.

Best dialogue

Official poster for Match Point (2005)

Match Point

as Mrs. Eastby

Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.

Most underrated film

Official poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey

as Elena

The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.

Across the library

Collection appearances

Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.

Keep reading

Collections featuring this actor

From the magazine

Related articles

If you like this performer

Similar performers

Have your say

Community

Community

Which Margaret Tyzack performance holds up best?

Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.

Join the discussion

Join the conversation

Community discussions

All threads about Margaret Tyzack

Reference

Quick facts

Born
9 September 1931
Essex, England
Died
25 June 2011
Age at death
79
Nationality
British
Years active
1968–2006
Known for
Scoop
Genres
Mystery, Comedy, Romance
IMDb
nm0879239
Nutevio rank
#25186
of 909177 performers tracked

Continue exploring

Where to go next