Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#9580
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Nehemiah Persoff represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 37 years in, and Nehemiah is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Nehemiah Persoff appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nehemiah. Some Like It Hot is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 western, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Phil Nibbelink, Ivan Reitman, Martin Scorsese and others, Nehemiah Persoff 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.
Some Like It Hot (1959) as Little Bonaparte · On the Waterfront (1954) as Cab Driver (uncredited) · The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) as Rabbi
Career snapshot
Ranked #9580 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
11
1954–1991
Career length
37 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Some Like It Hot
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Some Like It Hot
Most frequent director
Phil Nibbelink
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Phil Nibbelink
Most common genre
Drama
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 58m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
1950s
7.2 average MV
The 1950s are where the work and the material meet. Al Capone, Some Like It Hot, The Wrong Man — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1950s
7.2
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1950s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1950s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Al Capone, Some Like It Hot, The Wrong Man.
Most productive era
1950s
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 | 1950s | 1960s | 1980s | 1990s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.03 films | 6.41 film | 6.83 films | — |
| Action | 6.41 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 8.01 film | — | 6.52 films | 6.41 film |
| Crime | 7.24 films | — | — | — |
| Romance | 7.82 films | — | 6.61 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cab Driver (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1959Some Like It Hot
8.0 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
1991An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
The current state of the argument, as Papa Mousekewitz (voice).
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.
11 of 11 films
as Little Bonaparte
Directed by Billy Wilder
as Cab Driver (uncredited)
Directed by Elia Kazan
as Papa Mousekewitz (voice)
Directed by Don Bluth
as Rebbe Mendel
Directed by Barbra Streisand
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
Little Bonaparte
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Little Bonaparte gives Nehemiah Persoff a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Cab Driver (uncredited)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Performance score7.4
On the Waterfront asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cab Driver (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Rabbi
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Performance score7.1
The Last Temptation of Christ asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rabbi is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Papa Mousekewitz (voice)
An American Tail (1986)
Performance score7.1
An American Tail asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Papa Mousekewitz (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 Little Bonaparte
Start here. Some Like It Hot is the clearest statement of what Nehemiah Persoff does — accessible, 123 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nehemiah 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.
On the Waterfront (1954)
Keeps the romance register of Some Like It Hot but asks for a colder reading of it.
Yentl (1983)
Keeps the romance register of On the Waterfront but asks for a colder reading of it.
An American Tail (1986)
Keeps the drama register of Yentl but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Keeps the drama register of An American Tail but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Elia Kazan
Director
1 film together
Notably On the Waterfront
Alfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wrong Man
Billy Wilder
Director
1 film together
Notably Some Like It Hot
Richard Wilson
Director
1 film together
Notably Al Capone
Michael Curtiz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Comancheros
George Stevens
Director
1 film together
Notably The Greatest Story Ever Told
Barbra Streisand
Director
1 film together
Notably Yentl
Don Bluth
Director
1 film together
Notably An American Tail
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Temptation of Christ
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Twins
Phil Nibbelink
Director
1 film together
Notably An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Billy Wilder
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Some Like It HotElia Kazan
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
On the WaterfrontMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last Temptation of ChristAlfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wrong ManDon Bluth
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An American TailBarbra Streisand
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
YentlMichael Curtiz
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ComancherosPhil Nibbelink
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An American Tail: Fievel Goes WestGeorge Stevens
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 Greatest Story Ever ToldRichard Wilson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Al CaponeIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TwinsSix 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
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
On the Waterfront
as Cab Driver (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
On the Waterfront
as Cab Driver (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
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. Nehemiah Persoff 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
37 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
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
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Yentl
as Rebbe Mendel
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Wrong Man
as Gene Conforti
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Some Like It Hot
as Little Bonaparte
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Al Capone
as Johnny Torrio
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
as Papa Mousekewitz (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Twins
as Mitchell Traven
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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Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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