Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1114
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Peter Jacobson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and Peter is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Peter Jacobson appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Peter. As Good as It Gets 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 romance, comedy, tv movie. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Parker Finn, Greg Berlanti, Maclain Nelson and others, Peter Jacobson 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.
As Good as It Gets (1997) as Man at Table · Deconstructing Harry (1997) as Goldberg · The Goldfinch (2019) as Mr. Silver
Career snapshot
Ranked #1114 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1994–2025
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
As Good as It Gets
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
As Good as It Gets
Most frequent director
Maclain Nelson
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Maclain Nelson
Most common genre
Drama
15 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.6
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
1990s
6.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. A Civil Action, Great Expectations, As Good as It Gets — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. A Civil Action, Great Expectations, As Good as It Gets.
Most productive era
2000s
7 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.96 films | 6.13 films | 6.44 films | 6.42 films |
| Action | 6.71 film | 6.23 films | 6.51 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 5.91 film | 6.51 film | 6.61 film |
| Comedy | 7.04 films | 5.63 films | 6.22 films | 6.24 films |
| Crime | — | 5.91 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.93 films | 5.91 film | — | 6.24 films |
| Horror | — | 6.21 film | — | 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 Television Reporter.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.4 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 Richard Birch.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Man at Table
Directed by James L. Brooks
as Mr. Silver
Directed by John Crowley
as Mr. Hosney
Directed by Michael Bay
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
Man at Table
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Man at Table gives Peter Jacobson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Goldberg
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Performance score7.2
Deconstructing Harry asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Goldberg is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mr. Silver
The Goldfinch (2019)
Performance score7.0
The Goldfinch asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Silver is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Jimmy
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Performance score7.0
Good Night, and Good Luck. asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jimmy 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 Man at Table
Start here. As Good as It Gets is the clearest statement of what Peter Jacobson does — accessible, 139 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Peter 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.
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Keeps the comedy register of As Good as It Gets but asks for a colder reading of it.
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Keeps the drama register of Deconstructing Harry but asks for a colder reading of it.
Transformers (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Good Night, and Good Luck. — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Goldfinch (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Transformers — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Barry Levinson
Director
2 films together
Notably Paterno
Maclain Nelson
Director
2 films together
Notably Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up
Andrew Bergman
Director
1 film together
Notably It Could Happen to You
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Deconstructing Harry
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Conspiracy Theory
James L. Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably As Good as It Gets
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together
Notably Great Expectations
Steven Zaillian
Director
1 film together
Notably A Civil Action
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Domino
George Clooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Night, and Good Luck.
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers
Ryuhei Kitamura
Director
1 film together
Notably The Midnight Meat Train
John Lasseter
Director
1 film together
Notably Cars 2
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably White House Down
John Crowley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Goldfinch
Justine Bateman
Director
1 film together
Notably Violet
Greg Berlanti
Director
1 film together
Notably Fly Me to the Moon
Parker Finn
Director
1 film together
Notably Smile 2
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Maclain Nelson
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Haul Out the Holly: Lit UpBarry Levinson
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
PaternoJames L. Brooks
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
As Good as It GetsWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deconstructing HarryJohn Crowley
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GoldfinchGeorge Clooney
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good Night, and Good Luck.Michael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TransformersGreg Berlanti
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fly Me to the MoonJustine Bateman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VioletRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Conspiracy TheoryAndrew Bergman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It Could Happen to YouParker Finn
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smile 2Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Great ExpectationsRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White House DownSteven Zaillian
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Civil ActionJohn Lasseter
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cars 2Ryuhei Kitamura
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Midnight Meat TrainTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DominoSix 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
As Good as It Gets
as Man at Table
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Good Night, and Good Luck.
as Jimmy
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
As Good as It Gets
as Man at Table
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Deconstructing Harry
as Goldberg
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
As Good as It Gets
as Man at Table
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. Peter Jacobson 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
31 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
15 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
Smile 2
as Morris
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Conspiracy Theory
as Surveillance Operator
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Good Night, and Good Luck.
as Jimmy
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Midnight Meat Train
as Otto
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Transformers
as Mr. Hosney
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Transformers
as Mr. Hosney
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Great Expectations
as Man on Phone
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Cars 2
as Acer (voice)
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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