Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
R.D. Reid appears in 6 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without R.D.. A History of Violence is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, horror, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with George A. Romero, Craig Gillespie, David Cronenberg and others, R.D. Reid 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.
A History of Violence (2005) as Pat · Lars and the Real Girl (2007) as Reverand Bock · Dawn of the Dead (2004) as Glen
Career snapshot
A Nutevio catalogue profile for R.D. Reid.
Films in Nutevio
6
1993–2007
Career length
14 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
A History of Violence
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
Lars and the Real Girl
Most frequent director
George A. Romero
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With George A. Romero
Most common genre
Drama
4 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
6.5
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. Searching for Bobby Fischer — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.1
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. Searching for Bobby Fischer.
Most productive era
2000s
5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.91 film | 7.13 films |
| Action | — | 7.11 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.62 films |
| Crime | — | 7.12 films |
| Romance | — | 7.11 film |
| Horror | — | 6.52 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1993Searching for Bobby Fischer
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Final Tournament Director.
Highest rated performance
7.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak · Most recent film
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once. The current state of the argument, as Reverand Bock.
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.
6 of 6 films
as Reverand Bock
Directed by Craig Gillespie
as Pat
Directed by David Cronenberg
as Glen
Directed by Zack Snyder
as Final Tournament Director
Directed by Steven Zaillian
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
Reverand Bock
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Reverand Bock gives R.D. Reid a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Pat
A History of Violence (2005)
Performance score7.1
A History of Violence asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pat is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Glen
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Performance score7.0
Dawn of the Dead asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Glen is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Roy Church
Capote (2005)
Performance score6.8
Capote asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roy Church 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 Reverand Bock
Start here. Lars and the Real Girl is the clearest statement of what R.D. Reid does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet R.D. 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.
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
Keeps the drama register of Lars and the Real Girl but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Searching for Bobby Fischer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A History of Violence (2005)
A deliberate change of key after Dawn of the Dead — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Capote (2005)
Keeps the crime register of A History of Violence but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Steven Zaillian
Director
1 film together
Notably Searching for Bobby Fischer
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dawn of the Dead
David Cronenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably A History of Violence
Craig Gillespie
Director
1 film together
Notably Lars and the Real Girl
George A. Romero
Director
1 film together
Notably Diary of the Dead
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Cronenberg
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A History of ViolenceCraig Gillespie
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lars and the Real GirlZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dawn of the DeadSteven Zaillian
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Searching for Bobby FischerGeorge A. Romero
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Diary of the DeadSix 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
Lars and the Real Girl
as Reverand Bock
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Lars and the Real Girl
as Reverand Bock
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
A History of Violence
as Pat
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Searching for Bobby Fischer
as Final Tournament Director
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Lars and the Real Girl
as Reverand Bock
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. R.D. Reid 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
4 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
A History of Violence
as Pat
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A History of Violence
as Pat
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Lars and the Real Girl
as Reverand Bock
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
A History of Violence
as Pat
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dawn of the Dead
as Glen
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Dawn of the Dead
as Glen
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
A History of Violence
as Pat
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Diary of the Dead
as Samuel
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
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
Harry Dean Stanton
Built a career in the same territory: drama and fantasy
Have your say
Community
Which R.D. Reid performance holds up best?
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Reference
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