Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#132
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Tim Robbins represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Tim is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Tim Robbins appears in 44 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tim. The Shawshank Redemption is the clearest case: a film rated 9.6 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, comedy, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Dave McCary, Toby Trackman, Todd Haynes and others, Tim Robbins 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 Shawshank Redemption (1994) as Andy Dufresne · The Shawshank Redemption (1994) as Andy Dufresne · Mystic River (2003) as Dave Boyle
Career snapshot
Ranked #132 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
44
1985–2027
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.6
The Shawshank Redemption
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.3
The Shawshank Redemption
Most frequent director
Robert Altman
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Robert Altman
Most common genre
Drama
26 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
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
7.0
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
7.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Arlington Road, Nothing to Lose, The Shawshank Redemption — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.0
Across 13 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
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. Erik the Viking, Bull Durham, Top Gun.
Most productive era
2000s
15 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 | 6.92 films | 7.211 films | 6.58 films | 6.45 films | — |
| Action | 7.31 film | 6.61 film | 6.01 film | 5.21 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.12 films | 6.34 films | 7.51 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.14 films | 6.58 films | 6.46 films | 6.14 films | 3.02 films |
| Crime | — | 7.56 films | 6.82 films | 5.71 film | — |
| Romance | 6.83 films | 6.22 films | 6.63 films | — | 3.52 films |
| Horror | — | 7.21 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1985The Sure Thing
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Gary Cooper.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.6 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
2027The Catch
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.
44 of 44 films
as Andy Dufresne
Directed by Frank Darabont
as Andy Dufresne
Directed by Frank Darabont
as Dave Boyle
Directed by Clint Eastwood
as Tom Terp
Directed by Todd Haynes
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 51 titles · 59 total credits · active 1975–2027
The Catch
2027 · Actor
Quelqu’un devrait interdire les dimanches après-midi
2026 · TV · Ted Mackey
Silo
2023 · TV · Bernard Holland
My Darling Vivian
2020 · Self (archive footage)
VHYes
2020 · Sir Roger Handley III · Executive Producer
The Creative Brain
2019 · Self
Dark Waters
2019 · Tom Terp
Castle Rock
2018 · TV · Reginald "Pop" Merrill
Marjorie Prime
2017 · Jon · Executive Producer
Welcome to Me
2015 · Dr. Daryl Moffet
A Perfect Day
2015 · B
The Brink
2015 · TV · Walter Larson · Director · Producer
Thanks for Sharing
2013 · Mike
Life of Crime
2013 · Frank Dawson
Green Lantern
2011 · Senator Hammond
Treme
2010 · TV · Director
City of Ember
2008 · Loris Harrow
The Lucky Ones
2008 · Fred Cheaver
Then She Found Me
2007 · Tim Robbins
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
2006 · The Stranger
War of the Worlds
2005 · Harlan Ogilvy
Zathura: A Space Adventure
2005 · Dad (Mr. Budwing)
The Secret Life of Words
2005 · Josef
The Colbert Report
2005 · TV · Self
The defining work
#1
Andy Dufresne
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Andy Dufresne gives Tim Robbins a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Andy Dufresne
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Performance score9.4
The Shawshank Redemption asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Andy Dufresne is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dave Boyle
Mystic River (2003)
Performance score8.0
Mystic River asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dave Boyle is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self
The Creative Brain (2019)
Performance score7.8
The Creative Brain asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self 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 Andy Dufresne
Start here. The Shawshank Redemption is the clearest statement of what Tim Robbins does — accessible, 142 minutes, and rated 9.6 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.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Same director as The Shawshank Redemption, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Mystic River (2003)
Keeps the crime register of The Shawshank Redemption but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Creative Brain (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Mystic River — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dark Waters (2019)
A deliberate change of key after The Creative Brain — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Altman
Director
3 films together
Notably Short Cuts
Frank Darabont
Director
2 films together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Rob Reiner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sure Thing
Willard Huyck
Director
1 film together
Notably Howard the Duck
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Top Gun
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Bull Durham
Terry Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Erik the Viking
Roger Donaldson
Director
1 film together
Notably Cadillac Man
Adrian Lyne
Director
1 film together
Notably Jacob's Ladder
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Jungle Fever
Tim Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably Bob Roberts
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hudsucker Proxy
Steve Oedekerk
Director
1 film together
Notably Nothing to Lose
Mark Pellington
Director
1 film together
Notably Arlington Road
Stephen Frears
Director
1 film together
Notably High Fidelity
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably Mission to Mars
Michel Gondry
Director
1 film together
Notably Human Nature
Peter Howitt
Director
1 film together
Notably Antitrust
Jonathan Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably The Truth About Charlie
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Mystic River
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Isabel Coixet
Director
1 film together
Notably The Secret Life of Words
Jon Favreau
Director
1 film together
Notably Zathura: A Space Adventure
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably War of the Worlds
Helen Hunt
Director
1 film together
Notably Then She Found Me
Neil Burger
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lucky Ones
Martin Campbell
Director
1 film together
Notably Green Lantern
Shira Piven
Director
1 film together
Notably Welcome to Me
Michael Almereyda
Director
1 film together
Notably Marjorie Prime
Todd Haynes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Waters
Toby Trackman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Creative Brain
Dave McCary
Director
1 film together
Notably The Catch
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Mark Rolston
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Bob Gunton
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
William Sadler
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Clancy Brown
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Gil Bellows
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
James Whitmore
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Jeffrey DeMunn
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Larry Brandenburg
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Neil Giuntoli
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Brian Libby
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
David Proval
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Shawshank Redemption
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Altman
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Short CutsFrank Darabont
Director
2 films together · 9.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Shawshank RedemptionClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mystic RiverTodd Haynes
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark WatersTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Top GunToby Trackman
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 Creative BrainAdrian Lyne
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jacob's LadderStephen Frears
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
High FidelityJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hudsucker ProxyIsabel Coixet
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 Secret Life of WordsMark Pellington
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arlington RoadAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundySteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
War of the WorldsSteve Oedekerk
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nothing to LoseTim Robbins
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bob RobertsRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bull DurhamJon Favreau
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zathura: A Space AdventureRob Reiner
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 Sure ThingNeil Burger
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lucky OnesSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jungle FeverMichael Almereyda
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marjorie PrimePeter Howitt
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AntitrustMichel Gondry
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Human NatureBrian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mission to MarsShira Piven
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Welcome to MeTerry 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
Erik the VikingRoger 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 ManHelen Hunt
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Then She Found MeWillard Huyck
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Howard the DuckMartin Campbell
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Green LanternJonathan Demme
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Truth About CharlieDave McCary
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CatchSix 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 Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
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 Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
VHYes
as Sir Roger Handley III
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
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 Robbins has known it for a long time.”
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.4 | 8.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #60 of 681 | #9 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.6 | 8.6 |
| Genres | Drama, Crime | Animation, Family, Comedy, Drama |
| Directors | Frank Darabont | Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Emotional range, Drama | Emotional range, Quiet performance, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1994–1994 | 1999–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Andy Dufresne — The Shawshank Redemption | Paul Edgecomb — The Green Mile |
| Most rewatchable film | The Shawshank Redemption | The Green Mile |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
frank-darabont
Shared collections
Best Prison Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Frank Darabont · William Sadler · Jeffrey DeMunn
Our editors cannot separate them on the catalogue as it stands. Tim Robbins and Tom Hanks score within a rounding error of each other.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
42 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
26 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 Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Secret Life of Words
as Josef
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Mystic River
as Dave Boyle
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Nothing to Lose
as Nick Beam
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
High Fidelity
as Ian Raymond
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Shawshank Redemption
as Andy Dufresne
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Best Prison Movies
Features The Shawshank Redemption at #1
Read the collectionranking
Top 250 Movies of All Time
Features The Shawshank Redemption at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Shawshank Redemption at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Shawshank Redemption at #2
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Mark Ruffalo
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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