Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1147
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jared Harris represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Jared is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jared Harris appears in 35 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jared. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 action, comedy, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Russell Gunn, Kathryn Bigelow, Daniel Espinosa and others, Jared Harris 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 Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) as Captain Mike · The Last of the Mohicans (1992) as British Lieutenant · Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) as Professor James Moriarty
Career snapshot
Ranked #1147 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
35
1992–2026
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Most frequent director
Guy Ritchie
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Guy Ritchie
Most common genre
Drama
16 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
6.9
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
6.5
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
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Lost in Space, Fathers' Day, Dead Man — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.6
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. Lost in Space, Fathers' Day, Dead Man.
Most productive era
2010s
13 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 | 7.15 films | 6.82 films | 6.46 films | 4.33 films |
| Action | — | 6.52 films | 7.13 films | 4.43 films |
| Thriller | 7.11 film | 6.71 film | 6.52 films | 3.32 films |
| Comedy | 6.43 films | 6.11 film | 7.02 films | 0.01 film |
| Crime | 7.11 film | 6.71 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.71 film | 6.92 films | 6.91 film | — |
| Horror | — | 6.52 films | 5.73 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Far and Away
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Paddy Donnelly.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7.8 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
2026The Brink of War
The current state of the argument, as Mikhail Gorbachev.
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.
35 of 35 films
as Captain Crow (voice)
Directed by Chris Williams
as Captain Mike
Directed by David Fincher
as Professor James Moriarty
Directed by Guy Ritchie
as Frank Heslop
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as British Lieutenant
Directed by Michael Mann
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
Captain Crow (voice)
The Sea Beast (2022)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Captain Crow (voice) gives Jared Harris a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Captain Mike
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Performance score7.6
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Captain Mike is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Professor James Moriarty
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Performance score7.4
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Professor James Moriarty is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Frank Heslop
Allied (2016)
Performance score7.3
Allied asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Frank Heslop 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 Captain Crow (voice)
Start here. The Sea Beast is the clearest statement of what Jared Harris does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jared 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 Last of the Mohicans (1992)
A deliberate change of key after The Sea Beast — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Keeps the drama register of The Last of the Mohicans but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
A deliberate change of key after The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Allied (2016)
Keeps the action register of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Guy Ritchie
Director
2 films together
Notably Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last of the Mohicans
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Far and Away
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Natural Born Killers
Jim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Man
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Fathers' Day
Stephen Hopkins
Director
1 film together
Notably Lost in Space
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Deeds
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably Lady in the Water
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ward
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably Extraordinary Measures
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Lincoln
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Allied
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Face
Chris Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sea Beast
Daniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Morbius
Kathryn Bigelow
Director
1 film together
Notably A House of Dynamite
Michael Russell Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Brink of War
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Guy Ritchie
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of ShadowsDavid Fincher
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonMichael 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 MohicansChris Williams
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 Sea BeastJim Jarmusch
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead ManOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Natural Born KillersRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AlliedSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LincolnRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Far and AwayKathryn Bigelow
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A House of DynamiteTom Vaughan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Extraordinary MeasuresDaniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MorbiusSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. DeedsJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WardSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last FaceIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fathers' DayM. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lady in the WaterStephen Hopkins
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lost in SpaceMichael Russell Gunn
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 Brink of WarSix 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
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
as Professor James Moriarty
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 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
as Captain Mike
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 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
as Captain Mike
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Last of the Mohicans
as British Lieutenant
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Sea Beast
as Captain Crow (voice)
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. Jared Harris 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
34 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
16 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 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
as Captain Mike
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
as Professor James Moriarty
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Lincoln
as Ulysses S. Grant
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Lady in the Water
as Goatee Smoker
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
as Professor James Moriarty
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
as Sanders
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Sea Beast
as Captain Crow (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Quiet Ones
as Professor Coupland
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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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Zach Grenier
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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