Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#518
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Richard T. Jones represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Richard is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Richard T. Jones appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Richard. Bad Counselors 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 comedy, romance, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tyler Perry, Emilio Estevez, Dax Shepard and others, Richard T. Jones 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.
Bad Counselors (2026) as Howard Grossman · Collateral (2004) as Traffic Cop #1 · Concussion (2015) as Andre Waters
Career snapshot
Ranked #518 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1993–2026
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Bad Counselors
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Bad Counselors
Most frequent director
Tyler Perry
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Tyler Perry
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
6.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Event Horizon, Kiss the Girls, Renaissance Man — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.5
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.6
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. Event Horizon, Kiss the Girls, Renaissance Man.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 6.53 films | 6.45 films | 6.73 films | 0.01 film |
| Action | — | 6.02 films | 6.13 films | 7.01 film |
| Thriller | 6.61 film | 6.54 films | 6.81 film | 7.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | 6.02 films | 6.13 films | 4.02 films |
| Crime | 6.61 film | 6.54 films | 6.11 film | 7.01 film |
| Romance | — | 6.31 film | 6.51 film | 0.01 film |
| Horror | 6.71 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1993What's Love Got to Do with It
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Ike Turner Jr..
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026Bad Counselors
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
2026Why Did I Get Married Again?
The current state of the argument.
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.
22 of 22 films
as Howard Grossman
Directed by Unknown
as Traffic Cop #1
Directed by Michael Mann
as Andre Waters
Directed by Peter Landesman
as Ike Turner Jr.
Directed by Brian Gibson
as Director Ross
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
Howard Grossman
Bad Counselors (2026)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Howard Grossman gives Richard T. Jones a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Traffic Cop #1
Collateral (2004)
Performance score7.2
Collateral asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Traffic Cop #1 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Andre Waters
Concussion (2015)
Performance score7.0
Concussion asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Andre Waters is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ike Turner Jr.
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Performance score7.0
What's Love Got to Do with It asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ike Turner Jr. 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 Howard Grossman
Start here. Bad Counselors is the clearest statement of what Richard T. Jones does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 8.0 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.
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
A deliberate change of key after Bad Counselors — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Collateral (2004)
Keeps the drama register of What's Love Got to Do with It but asks for a colder reading of it.
Concussion (2015)
Keeps the drama register of Collateral but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Hard Hit (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Concussion — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tyler Perry
Director
3 films together
Notably Why Did I Get Married Too?
Brian Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably What's Love Got to Do with It
Penny Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Renaissance Man
Gary Fleder
Director
1 film together
Notably Kiss the Girls
Paul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Event Horizon
Brad Silberling
Director
1 film together
Notably Moonlight Mile
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Phone Booth
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Twisted
Jessy Terrero
Director
1 film together
Notably Soul Plane
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably Collateral
Pete Travis
Director
1 film together
Notably Vantage Point
J.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together
Notably Super 8
Gareth Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably Godzilla
Anne Fletcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Hot Pursuit
Peter Landesman
Director
1 film together
Notably Concussion
Dax Shepard
Director
1 film together
Notably CHiPs
Emilio Estevez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Public
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tyler Perry
Director
3 films together · 4.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Why Did I Get Married Too?Michael Mann
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CollateralPeter Landesman
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ConcussionJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Phone BoothJ.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Super 8Brian Gibson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What's Love Got to Do with ItPaul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Event HorizonGary Fleder
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kiss the GirlsEmilio Estevez
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 PublicGareth Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GodzillaPete Travis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vantage PointBrad Silberling
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Moonlight MileDax Shepard
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CHiPsPenny Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Renaissance ManAnne Fletcher
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hot PursuitPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TwistedJessy Terrero
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Soul PlaneSix 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
Bad Counselors
as Howard Grossman
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
What's Love Got to Do with It
as Ike Turner Jr.
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Bad Counselors
as Howard Grossman
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Soul Plane
as False Denzel (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Bad Counselors
as Howard Grossman
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 T. Jones 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
33 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
12 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
Bad Counselors
as Howard Grossman
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Collateral
as Traffic Cop #1
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Moonlight Mile
as Ty
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Super 8
as Overmyer
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Bad Counselors
as Howard Grossman
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Twisted
as Wilson Jefferson
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
What's Love Got to Do with It
as Ike Turner Jr.
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Event Horizon
as Cooper
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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Have your say
Community
Which Richard T. Jones performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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