Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#102211
of 909177 performers
Top 25%
Michael Greene works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Michael Greene appears in 5 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Michael. To Live and Die in L.A. is the clearest case: a film rated 7.1 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, comedy, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with John De Bello, Matthew Robbins, William Friedkin and others, Michael Greene 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.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) as Jim Hart · Play It Again, Sam (1972) as Hood #1 · *batteries not included (1987) as Lacey, Real Estate Developer
Career snapshot
Ranked #102211 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
5
1972–1988
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
To Live and Die in L.A.
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Play It Again, Sam
Most frequent director
John De Bello
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With John De Bello
Most common genre
Comedy
3 titles
Average runtime
1h 41m
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
6.4
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
7.1 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Play It Again, Sam — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.1
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.5
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. Play It Again, Sam.
Most productive era
1980s
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 | 1980s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.41 film |
| Action | — | 7.11 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.11 film |
| Comedy | 7.11 film | 6.22 films |
| Crime | — | 6.82 films |
| Romance | 7.11 film | — |
| Horror | — | 5.61 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 Hood #1. 7.1 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
1988Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
The current state of the argument, as Tomato Man.
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.
5 of 5 films
as Jim Hart
Directed by William Friedkin
as Lacey, Real Estate Developer
Directed by Matthew Robbins
as Tomato Man
Directed by John De Bello
as Robert Wells
Directed by Unknown
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
Jim Hart
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Performance score7.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jim Hart gives Michael Greene a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Hood #1
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
Performance score7.0
Play It Again, Sam asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hood #1 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Lacey, Real Estate Developer
*batteries not included (1987)
Performance score6.6
*batteries not included asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lacey, Real Estate Developer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Tomato Man
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988)
Performance score6.5
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tomato Man 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 Jim Hart
Start here. To Live and Die in L.A. is the clearest statement of what Michael Greene does — accessible, 116 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Michael 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.
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
A deliberate change of key after To Live and Die in L.A. — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
*batteries not included (1987)
Keeps the comedy register of Play It Again, Sam but asks for a colder reading of it.
Less Than Zero (1987)
A deliberate change of key after *batteries not included — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988)
A deliberate change of key after Less Than Zero — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Play It Again, Sam
William Friedkin
Director
1 film together
Notably To Live and Die in L.A.
Matthew Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably *batteries not included
John De Bello
Director
1 film together
Notably Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
William Friedkin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Live and Die in L.A.Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Play It Again, SamMatthew Robbins
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
*batteries not includedJohn De Bello
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Return of the Killer Tomatoes!Six 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
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Play It Again, Sam
as Hood #1
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Play It Again, Sam
as Hood #1
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
as Tomato Man
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
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. Michael Greene 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
3 catalogue titles in comedy, 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
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Play It Again, Sam
as Hood #1
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
To Live and Die in L.A.
as Jim Hart
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Less Than Zero
as Robert Wells
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Less Than Zero
as Robert Wells
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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Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and fantasy
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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