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.
Tim Hopper appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tim. The Last of the Mohicans is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 horror, mystery, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Joe Chappelle, Mark Williams, Richard Linklater and others, Tim Hopper 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 Last of the Mohicans (1992) as Ian · The School of Rock (2003) as Zack's Father · Vanilla Sky (2001) as Man in Blue Coat
Career snapshot
A Nutevio catalogue profile for Tim Hopper.
Films in Nutevio
11
1991–2023
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
The Last of the Mohicans
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
The Last of the Mohicans
Most frequent director
Joe Chappelle
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Joe Chappelle
Most common genre
Drama
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.6
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
2000s
7.1 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The School of Rock, Vanilla Sky — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.1
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.0
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. To Die For, The Last of the Mohicans, Class Action.
Most productive era
1990s
4 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 | 6.84 films | — | 6.23 films | 6.01 film |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.02 films | 6.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.72 films | 7.21 film | — | — |
| Crime | 6.52 films | — | — | — |
| Romance | 6.71 film | 6.91 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 5.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1991Class Action
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Howie.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.4 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
2023Perpetrator
The current state of the argument, as Gene Baptiste.
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.
11 of 11 films
as Zack's Father
Directed by Richard Linklater
as Man in Blue Coat
Directed by Cameron Crowe
as Mike Warden
Directed by Gus Van Sant
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
Ian
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Ian gives Tim Hopper a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Zack's Father
The School of Rock (2003)
Performance score7.1
The School of Rock asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Zack's Father is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Man in Blue Coat
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Performance score6.8
Vanilla Sky asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Man in Blue Coat is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Tommy
A Family Man (2016)
Performance score6.6
A Family Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tommy 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 Ian
Start here. The Last of the Mohicans is the clearest statement of what Tim Hopper does — accessible, 112 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Tim 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.
To Die For (1995)
Keeps the drama register of The Last of the Mohicans but asks for a colder reading of it.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
A deliberate change of key after To Die For — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The School of Rock (2003)
A deliberate change of key after Vanilla Sky — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Family Man (2016)
A deliberate change of key after The School of Rock — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Frankie and Johnny
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably Class Action
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last of the Mohicans
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably To Die For
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Vanilla Sky
Richard Linklater
Director
1 film together
Notably The School of Rock
Mark Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably A Family Man
Joe Chappelle
Director
1 film together
Notably An Acceptable Loss
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last of the MohicansRichard Linklater
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The School of RockCameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vanilla SkyGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Frankie and JohnnyMark Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Family ManGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Die ForMichael Apted
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Class ActionJoe Chappelle
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An Acceptable LossSix 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 Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Frankie and Johnny
as Lester
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 Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The School of Rock
as Zack's Father
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
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. Tim Hopper 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
32 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
8 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 Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Rounding
as Dr. Max Simonson
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Frankie and Johnny
as Lester
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Rounding
as Dr. Max Simonson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Last of the Mohicans
as Ian
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Frankie and Johnny
as Lester
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Perpetrator
as Gene Baptiste
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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Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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