Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2045
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Sally Field represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 49 years in, and Sally is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Sally Field appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sally. Forrest Gump is the clearest case: a film rated 8.7 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 mystery, drama, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Olivia Newman, Lawrence Kasdan, Kyle Marvin and others, Sally Field 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.
Forrest Gump (1994) as Mrs. Gump · Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026) as Tova Sullivan · Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) as Miranda Hillard
Career snapshot
Ranked #2045 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1977–2026
Career length
49 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.7
Forrest Gump
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Most frequent director
Marc Webb
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Marc Webb
Most common genre
Drama
10 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
7.1
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
7.3 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Eye for an Eye, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, Forrest Gump — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Smokey and the Bandit.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.81 film | 7.34 films | 6.91 film | 6.91 film | 7.03 films |
| Action | 6.91 film | — | — | — | 6.92 films | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.41 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.91 film | — | 7.53 films | 6.52 films | 5.81 film | 6.52 films |
| Romance | — | — | 8.71 film | 6.52 films | — | 6.71 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 5.81 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Carrie.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1994Forrest Gump
8.7 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
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
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.
19 of 19 films
as Mrs. Gump
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Miranda Hillard
Directed by Chris Columbus
as Mary Todd Lincoln
Directed by Steven Spielberg
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
Mrs. Gump
Forrest Gump (1994)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mrs. Gump gives Sally Field a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Tova Sullivan
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)
Performance score8.5
Remarkably Bright Creatures asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tova Sullivan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Miranda Hillard
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Performance score7.6
Mrs. Doubtfire asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Miranda Hillard is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Edna Spalding
Places in the Heart (1984)
Performance score7.4
Places in the Heart asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Edna Spalding 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 Mrs. Gump
Start here. Forrest Gump is the clearest statement of what Sally Field does — accessible, 142 minutes, and rated 8.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sally 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.
Places in the Heart (1984)
Keeps the drama register of Forrest Gump but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Keeps the drama register of Places in the Heart but asks for a colder reading of it.
Lincoln (2012)
Keeps the drama register of Mrs. Doubtfire but asks for a colder reading of it.
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)
Keeps the drama register of Lincoln but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Marc Webb
Director
2 films together
Notably The Amazing Spider-Man
Hal Needham
Director
1 film together
Notably Smokey and the Bandit
Robert Benton
Director
1 film together
Notably Places in the Heart
Chris Columbus
Director
1 film together
Notably Mrs. Doubtfire
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Forrest Gump
David R. Ellis
Director
1 film together
Notably Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
John Schlesinger
Director
1 film together
Notably Eye for an Eye
Matt Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably Where the Heart Is
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Lincoln
Eli Craig
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Evil
Jerry Zaks
Director
1 film together
Notably Love Letters
Michael Showalter
Director
1 film together
Notably Spoiler Alert
Kyle Marvin
Director
1 film together
Notably 80 for Brady
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Marty, Life Is Short
Olivia Newman
Director
1 film together
Notably Remarkably Bright Creatures
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Marc Webb
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Amazing Spider-ManRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 8.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forrest GumpOlivia Newman
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Remarkably Bright CreaturesChris Columbus
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mrs. DoubtfireLawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marty, Life Is ShortSteven 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
LincolnMatt Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Where the Heart IsHal Needham
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smokey and the BanditRobert Benton
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Places in the HeartMichael Showalter
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spoiler AlertDavid R. Ellis
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San FranciscoJohn Schlesinger
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eye for an EyeKyle Marvin
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
80 for BradyEli Craig
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little EvilJerry Zaks
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love LettersSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
10 wins · 4 nominations
No wins yet · 3 nominations
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
2 wins · latest 2007
as Actor
as Actor
2 wins
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 1986
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 1986
as Actor
1 win · latest 2019
as Actor
1 win · latest 2014
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Marty, Life Is Short
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
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. Sally Field 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
49 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
10 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
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Tova Sullivan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Tova Sullivan
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Lincoln
as Mary Todd Lincoln
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Tova Sullivan
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
as Aunt May
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Forrest Gump
as Mrs. Gump
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
as Victoria Rudd
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
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Sally Field performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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