Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#74944
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Russell Hicks works on versatility 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.
Russell Hicks appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Russell. Scarlet Street 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, 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, drama, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, Richard Thorpe and others, Russell Hicks 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.
Scarlet Street (1945) as J.J. Hogarth · You Can't Take It with You (1938) as Kirby's Attorney (uncredited) · Sergeant York (1941) as General (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #74944 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1938–1949
Career length
11 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
Scarlet Street
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Scarlet Street
Most frequent director
Fritz Lang
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Fritz Lang
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.3
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
1930s
6.8 average MV
The 1930s are where the work and the material meet. You Can't Take It with You, In Old Chicago — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1930s
6.8
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1930s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. You Can't Take It with You, In Old Chicago.
Most productive era
1940s
11 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 | 1930s | 1940s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.51 film | 6.84 films |
| Action | — | 6.31 film |
| Comedy | 7.11 film | 6.42 films |
| Crime | — | 7.21 film |
| Romance | 7.11 film | 6.52 films |
| Horror | — | 6.42 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1938You Can't Take It with You
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kirby's Attorney (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1945Scarlet Street
7.2 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 Lord of Ashkelon.
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.
13 of 13 films
as J.J. Hogarth
Directed by Fritz Lang
as Kirby's Attorney (uncredited)
Directed by Frank Capra
as General (uncredited)
Directed by Howard Hawks
as Lord of Ashkelon
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
as Judge Abbotson
Directed by Richard Thorpe
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
J.J. Hogarth
Scarlet Street (1945)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. J.J. Hogarth gives Russell Hicks a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Kirby's Attorney (uncredited)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Performance score7.0
You Can't Take It with You asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kirby's Attorney (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
General (uncredited)
Sergeant York (1941)
Performance score6.8
Sergeant York asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. General (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Lord of Ashkelon
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Performance score6.5
Samson and Delilah asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lord of Ashkelon 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 J.J. Hogarth
Start here. Scarlet Street is the clearest statement of what Russell Hicks does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Russell 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.
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
A deliberate change of key after Scarlet Street — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sergeant York (1941)
A deliberate change of key after You Can't Take It with You — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)
A deliberate change of key after Sergeant York — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Samson and Delilah (1949)
A deliberate change of key after Tarzan's New York Adventure — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Fritz Lang
Director
3 films together
Notably Scarlet Street
Henry King
Director
1 film together
Notably In Old Chicago
Frank Capra
Director
1 film together
Notably You Can't Take It with You
Michael Curtiz
Director
1 film together
Notably Santa Fe Trail
Howard Hawks
Director
1 film together
Notably Sergeant York
Charles Reisner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big Store
Arthur Lubin
Director
1 film together
Notably Hold That Ghost
George Waggner
Director
1 film together
Notably Man-Made Monster
Raoul Walsh
Director
1 film together
Notably They Died with Their Boots On
Richard Thorpe
Director
1 film together
Notably Tarzan's New York Adventure
Cecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together
Notably Samson and Delilah
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Fritz Lang
Director
3 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scarlet StreetFrank Capra
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You Can't Take It with YouHoward Hawks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sergeant YorkCecil B. DeMille
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Samson and DelilahRaoul Walsh
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
They Died with Their Boots OnArthur Lubin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hold That GhostHenry King
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Old ChicagoRichard Thorpe
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tarzan's New York AdventureGeorge Waggner
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Man-Made MonsterCharles Reisner
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big StoreMichael Curtiz
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Santa Fe TrailSix 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
You Can't Take It with You
as Kirby's Attorney (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Samson and Delilah
as Lord of Ashkelon
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
They Died with Their Boots On
as Colonel of 1st Michigan (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
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. Russell Hicks 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
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
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Samson and Delilah
as Lord of Ashkelon
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Tarzan's New York Adventure
as Judge Abbotson
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Tarzan's New York Adventure
as Judge Abbotson
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Scarlet Street
as J.J. Hogarth
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Santa Fe Trail
as Dr. J. Boyce Russell (uncredited)
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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