Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#53893
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Richard Bradford works on quiet performance 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.
Richard Bradford appears in 7 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Richard. The Untouchables is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, versatility, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for crime, drama, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Bill Duke, Luis Mandoki, Mike Figgis and others, Richard Bradford 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.
The Untouchables (1987) as Mike · Missing (1982) as Andrew Babcock · When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) as Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #53893 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
7
1976–1997
Career length
21 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
The Untouchables
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Untouchables
Most frequent director
Bill Duke
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Bill Duke
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
2h 1m
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
1980s
7.3 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Untouchables, Missing — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
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. Goin' South, The Missouri Breaks.
Most productive era
1990s
3 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 | 1990s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.51 film | 6.91 film | 6.53 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.32 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | — | — |
| Crime | — | 7.81 film | 6.52 films |
| Romance | 6.11 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 Pete Marker.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1987The Untouchables
7.8 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
1997Hoodlum
The current state of the argument, as Captain Foley.
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.
7 of 7 films
as Mike
Directed by Brian De Palma
as Andrew Babcock
Directed by Costa-Gavras
as Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited)
Directed by Luis Mandoki
as Grieb
Directed by Mike Figgis
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
Mike
The Untouchables (1987)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mike gives Richard Bradford a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Andrew Babcock
Missing (1982)
Performance score6.8
Missing asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Andrew Babcock is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited)
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Performance score6.6
When a Man Loves a Woman asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Grieb
Internal Affairs (1990)
Performance score6.6
Internal Affairs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Grieb 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 Mike
Start here. The Untouchables is the clearest statement of what Richard Bradford does — accessible, 119 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Richard 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.
Missing (1982)
Keeps the thriller register of The Untouchables but asks for a colder reading of it.
Internal Affairs (1990)
Keeps the drama register of Missing but asks for a colder reading of it.
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Keeps the drama register of Internal Affairs but asks for a colder reading of it.
Hoodlum (1997)
Keeps the drama register of When a Man Loves a Woman but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Arthur Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Missouri Breaks
Jack Nicholson
Director
1 film together
Notably Goin' South
Costa-Gavras
Director
1 film together
Notably Missing
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably The Untouchables
Mike Figgis
Director
1 film together
Notably Internal Affairs
Luis Mandoki
Director
1 film together
Notably When a Man Loves a Woman
Bill Duke
Director
1 film together
Notably Hoodlum
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The UntouchablesCosta-Gavras
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MissingLuis Mandoki
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
When a Man Loves a WomanBill Duke
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HoodlumArthur Penn
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Missouri BreaksMike Figgis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Internal AffairsJack Nicholson
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goin' SouthSix 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
The Untouchables
as Mike
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
When a Man Loves a Woman
as Angry Man Watching TV (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
The Untouchables
as Mike
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
When a Man Loves a Woman
as Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Untouchables
as Mike
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. Richard Bradford 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
21 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
5 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
The Untouchables
as Mike
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Untouchables
as Mike
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
When a Man Loves a Woman
as Angry Man Watching TV (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Missing
as Andrew Babcock
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Untouchables
as Mike
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Missouri Breaks
as Pete Marker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Untouchables
as Mike
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Goin' South
as Sheriff Kyle
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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