Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7314
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
William Hill represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 32 years in, and William is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
William Hill appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without William. Gran Torino is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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 science fiction, horror, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kent Jones, Bradley Cooper and others, William Hill 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.
Gran Torino (2008) as Tim Kennedy · The Devil's Advocate (1997) as Feeney the Doorman · Cadillac Records (2008) as Policeman (with the Stones)
Career snapshot
Ranked #7314 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1994–2026
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Gran Torino
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Gran Torino
Most frequent director
Maggie Gyllenhaal
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Maggie Gyllenhaal
Most common genre
Drama
13 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
6.8
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
6.4
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
6.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Gran Torino, Cadillac Records, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.8
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.8
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. Analyze This, The Siege, The Devil's Advocate.
Most productive era
1990s
6 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 | 6.73 films | 6.83 films | 6.35 films | 3.12 films |
| Action | 6.22 films | — | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.03 films | 5.21 film | 6.61 film | 2.92 films |
| Comedy | 6.51 film | 6.91 film | — | — |
| Crime | 6.23 films | — | 6.61 film | 5.81 film |
| Romance | 6.11 film | 6.91 film | — | 6.31 film |
| Horror | 6.82 films | — | — | 3.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Wolf
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Party Guest.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008Gran Torino
8.1 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
2026Late Fame
The current state of the argument, as Leonard.
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.
20 of 20 films
as Tim Kennedy
Directed by Clint Eastwood
as Feeney the Doorman
Directed by Taylor Hackford
as Policeman (with the Stones)
Directed by Darnell Martin
as DeLauer Security
Directed by Donald Petrie
as Eddy Driver
Directed by J.C. Chandor
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
Tim Kennedy
Gran Torino (2008)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Tim Kennedy gives William Hill a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Feeney the Doorman
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Performance score7.4
The Devil's Advocate asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Feeney the Doorman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Policeman (with the Stones)
Cadillac Records (2008)
Performance score7.0
Cadillac Records asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Policeman (with the Stones) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
DeLauer Security
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Performance score6.8
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. DeLauer Security 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 Tim Kennedy
Start here. Gran Torino is the clearest statement of what William Hill does — accessible, 116 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet William 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 Devil's Advocate (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Gran Torino but asks for a colder reading of it.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
A deliberate change of key after The Devil's Advocate — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Cadillac Records (2008)
A deliberate change of key after How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Most Violent Year (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Cadillac Records but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Wolf
Brian Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Juror
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably The Peacemaker
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Devil's Advocate
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Siege
Harold Ramis
Director
1 film together
Notably Analyze This
Daniel Algrant
Director
1 film together
Notably People I Know
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Darnell Martin
Director
1 film together
Notably Cadillac Records
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Gran Torino
John Wells
Director
1 film together
Notably The Company Men
J.C. Chandor
Director
1 film together
Notably A Most Violent Year
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Paterno
Don Argott
Director
1 film together
Notably Framing John DeLorean
William Oldroyd
Director
1 film together
Notably Eileen
Bradley Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Maestro
Kent Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Late Fame
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bride!
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gran TorinoTaylor Hackford
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Devil's AdvocateDarnell Martin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cadillac RecordsDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose a Guy in 10 DaysJ.C. Chandor
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 Most Violent YearJohn Wells
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 Company MenHarold Ramis
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Analyze ThisBradley Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaestroEdward Zwick
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 SiegeBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaternoMaggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bride!Don Argott
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Framing John DeLoreanMimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PeacemakerMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WolfWilliam Oldroyd
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EileenBrian Gibson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The JurorDaniel Algrant
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
People I KnowKent Jones
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Late FameSix 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
Gran Torino
as Tim Kennedy
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Cadillac Records
as Policeman (with the Stones)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gran Torino
as Tim Kennedy
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Siege
as INS Uniform
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gran Torino
as Tim Kennedy
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. William Hill 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.
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
13 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 Devil's Advocate
as Feeney the Doorman
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Devil's Advocate
as Feeney the Doorman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Maestro
as Joseph the Janitor
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Devil's Advocate
as Feeney the Doorman
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gran Torino
as Tim Kennedy
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Siege
as INS Uniform
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Cadillac Records
as Policeman (with the Stones)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Devil's Advocate
as Feeney the Doorman
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and fantasy
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
Which William Hill performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
