Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#992
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Robin Williams represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 44 years in, and Robin is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Robin Williams appears in 50 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Robin. The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU is the clearest case: a film rated 9.7 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 documentary, comedy, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Dan Abraham, Jeffrey Schwarz, Brad Lachman and others, Robin Williams 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 Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU (2020) as (archive footage) · Dead Poets Society (1989) as John Keating · Good Will Hunting (1997) as Sean Maguire
Career snapshot
Ranked #992 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
50
1980–2024
Career length
44 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.7
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.7
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
Most frequent director
Shawn Levy
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Shawn Levy
Most common genre
Comedy
30 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
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
7.1
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
7.2 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Dead Poets Society, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Good Morning, Vietnam — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
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
1980s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Dead Poets Society, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Good Morning, Vietnam.
Most productive era
1990s
18 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.82 films | 7.210 films | 6.47 films | 6.42 films | 7.71 film |
| Action | 5.91 film | — | 6.31 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.41 film | 6.44 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.73 films | 6.59 films | 6.111 films | 5.86 films | 7.71 film |
| Crime | — | 5.81 film | 6.43 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.95 films | 5.91 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1980Popeye
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Popeye.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.7 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
2024Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
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.
50 of 50 films
as (archive footage)
Directed by Brad Lachman
as Genie / Peddler (voice)
Directed by John Musker
as Malcolm Sayer
Directed by Penny Marshall
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
(archive footage)
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU (2020)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. (archive footage) gives Robin Williams a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
John Keating
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Performance score8.9
Dead Poets Society asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. John Keating is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sean Maguire
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Performance score8.6
Good Will Hunting asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sean Maguire is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Genie / Peddler (voice)
Aladdin (1992)
Performance score8.1
Aladdin asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Genie / Peddler (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 (archive footage)
Start here. The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU is the clearest statement of what Robin Williams does — accessible, 42 minutes, and rated 9.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Robin 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.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
A deliberate change of key after The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Awakenings (1990)
Keeps the drama register of Dead Poets Society but asks for a colder reading of it.
Aladdin (1992)
A deliberate change of key after Awakenings — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
A deliberate change of key after Aladdin — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Chris Columbus
Director
3 films together
Notably Bicentennial Man
Shawn Levy
Director
3 films together
Notably Night at the Museum
Kenneth Branagh
Director
2 films together
Notably Hamlet
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together
Notably A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Barry Levinson
Director
2 films together
Notably Good Morning, Vietnam
George Miller
Director
2 films together
Notably Happy Feet
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably Popeye
Terry Gilliam
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Peter Weir
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Poets Society
Roger Donaldson
Director
1 film together
Notably Cadillac Man
Penny Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Awakenings
John Musker
Director
1 film together
Notably Aladdin
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably Jumanji
Tad Stones
Director
1 film together
Notably Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Fathers' Day
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Deconstructing Harry
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Will Hunting
Les Mayfield
Director
1 film together
Notably Flubber
Vincent Ward
Director
1 film together
Notably What Dreams May Come
Peter Kassovitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Jakob the Liar
Danny DeVito
Director
1 film together
Notably Death to Smoochy
Mark Romanek
Director
1 film together
Notably One Hour Photo
Christopher Nolan
Director
1 film together
Notably Insomnia
Chazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together
Notably Noel
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big White
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Robots
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably RV
Ken Kwapis
Director
1 film together
Notably License to Wed
Leslie Iwerks
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pixar Story
Jonas Pate
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrink
Lee Daniels
Director
1 film together
Notably The Butler
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
Tristram Shapeero
Director
1 film together
Notably A Merry Friggin' Christmas
Terry Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Absolutely Anything
Brad Lachman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
Jeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together
Notably Commitment to Life
Dan Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Studio
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Chris Columbus
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Bicentennial ManShawn Levy
Director
3 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Night at the MuseumSteven Spielberg
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A.I. Artificial IntelligenceKenneth Branagh
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HamletBarry Levinson
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Good Morning, VietnamGeorge Miller
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Happy FeetBrad Lachman
Director
1 film together · 9.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVUPeter Weir
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead Poets SocietyGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good Will HuntingJohn Musker
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AladdinPenny Marshall
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AwakeningsDan Abraham
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a StudioLee Daniels
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ButlerWoody 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 HarryJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JumanjiVincent Ward
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What Dreams May ComeChristopher Nolan
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InsomniaLeslie Iwerks
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Pixar StoryTerry Gilliam
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of Baron MunchausenMark Romanek
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Hour PhotoChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RobotsPeter Kassovitz
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jakob the LiarTad Stones
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Aladdin and the King of ThievesJonas Pate
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ShrinkMark Mylod
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 Big WhiteTerry Jones
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Absolutely AnythingBarry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RVDanny DeVito
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death to SmoochyLes Mayfield
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FlubberRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PopeyeChazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NoelRoger Donaldson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cadillac ManKen Kwapis
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
License to WedPhil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Angriest Man in BrooklynIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fathers' DayTristram Shapeero
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Merry Friggin' ChristmasJeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Commitment to LifeSix 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
Dead Poets Society
as John Keating
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Aladdin
as Genie / Peddler (voice)
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 Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
as (archive footage)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Once Upon a Studio
as Genie (voice) (archive sound)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
as (archive footage)
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. Robin Williams 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
44 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
30 catalogue titles in comedy, 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 Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
as (archive footage)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
as (archive footage)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
What Dreams May Come
as Chris Nielsen
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Dead Again
as Cozy Carlisle
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU
as (archive footage)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
as Theodore Roosevelt
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Once Upon a Studio
as Genie (voice) (archive sound)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Popeye
as Popeye
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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