Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#864
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
William Shatner represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 63 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 Shatner appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without William. Judgment at Nuremberg is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 science fiction, music, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Russell Norman, Laurent Zeitoun, Jared Cohn and others, William Shatner 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.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as Harrison Byers · Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) as Admiral James T. Kirk · Fireheart (2022) as Mayor of New York (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #864 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1961–2024
Career length
63 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Judgment at Nuremberg
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Judgment at Nuremberg
Most frequent director
Leonard Nimoy
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Leonard Nimoy
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
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
6.7
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
1960s
7.6 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. Judgment at Nuremberg — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
7.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
8.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Judgment at Nuremberg.
Most productive era
2000s
8 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 | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.61 film | — | — | — | — | — | 3.41 film |
| Action | — | — | 6.92 films | 5.51 film | 6.14 films | — | 3.41 film |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.92 films | 5.51 film | 4.51 film | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | — | 5.71 film | 6.27 films | 5.81 film | 5.32 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | 5.51 film | 6.32 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3.41 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 4.51 film | 4.82 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Harrison Byers. 7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1982Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
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 Kirk.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Admiral James T. Kirk
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
as Admiral James T. Kirk
Directed by Leonard Nimoy
as Mayor of New York (voice)
Directed by Laurent Zeitoun
as Harrison Byers
Directed by Stanley Kramer
as Admiral James T. Kirk
Directed by Leonard Nimoy
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
Admiral James T. Kirk
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Admiral James T. Kirk gives William Shatner a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Admiral James T. Kirk
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Performance score7.7
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Admiral James T. Kirk is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mayor of New York (voice)
Fireheart (2022)
Performance score7.6
Fireheart asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mayor of New York (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Harrison Byers
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Performance score7.4
Judgment at Nuremberg asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Harrison Byers 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 Admiral James T. Kirk
Start here. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the clearest statement of what William Shatner does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 7.3 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.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
A deliberate change of key after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
A deliberate change of key after Judgment at Nuremberg — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Same director as Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Fireheart (2022)
Keeps the adventure register of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Leonard Nimoy
Director
2 films together
Notably Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Stanley Kramer
Director
1 film together
Notably Judgment at Nuremberg
Robert Wise
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Nicholas Meyer
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Paul Weiland
Director
1 film together
Notably City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Congeniality
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Osmosis Jones
Morgan J. Freeman
Director
1 film together
Notably American Psycho II: All American Girl
John Pasquin
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
Karey Kirkpatrick
Director
1 film together
Notably Over the Hedge
Jared Cohn
Director
1 film together
Notably Devil's Revenge
Laurent Zeitoun
Director
1 film together
Notably Fireheart
Russell Norman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Leonard Nimoy
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
Star Trek IV: The Voyage HomeStanley Kramer
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Judgment at NurembergNicholas Meyer
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanLaurent Zeitoun
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FireheartRussell Norman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of MagicKarey Kirkpatrick
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Over the HedgeRobert Wise
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Trek: The Motion PictureBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Osmosis JonesDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss CongenialityJohn Pasquin
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and FabulousPaul Weiland
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's GoldMorgan J. Freeman
Director
1 film together · 4.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American Psycho II: All American GirlJared Cohn
Director
1 film together · 4.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Devil's RevengeSix 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
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
as Admiral James T. Kirk
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Judgment at Nuremberg
as Harrison Byers
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Virtuosity
as Captain James T. Kirk (archive footage) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
as Admiral James T. Kirk
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 Shatner 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
63 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
11 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
Judgment at Nuremberg
as Harrison Byers
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
as Admiral James T. Kirk
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
as Admiral James T. Kirk
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
as Admiral James T. Kirk
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Osmosis Jones
as Mayor Phlegmming (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Fireheart
as Mayor of New York (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
as Adam Harland (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Bonnie Hunt
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David Krumholtz
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Cillian Murphy
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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