Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#17566
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Alan Young represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 65 years in, and Alan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Alan Young appears in 7 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Alan. Once Upon a Studio is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 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 comedy, fantasy, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Dan Abraham, John Landis, John Musker and others, Alan Young 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.
Once Upon a Studio (2023) as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound) · Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) as Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice) · The Time Machine (1960) as David Filby / James Filby
Career snapshot
Ranked #17566 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
7
1958–2023
Career length
65 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
Once Upon a Studio
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Once Upon a Studio
Most frequent director
George Pal
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With George Pal
Most common genre
Family
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 14m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
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
7.1
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
2020s
7.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Once Upon a Studio — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
8.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1950s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Tom Thumb.
Most productive era
1980s
2 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 | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | — | — | — | 7.71 film |
| Action | — | — | — | — | 5.91 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.11 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.11 film | — | 5.91 film | 7.71 film |
| Crime | — | — | — | 7.01 film | 5.91 film | — |
| Romance | — | 7.11 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1958Tom Thumb
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Woody.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance · Most recent film
7.7 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. The current state of the argument, as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound).
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.
7 of 7 films
as Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Directed by Burny Mattinson
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Directed by Dan Abraham
as David Filby / James Filby
Directed by George Pal
as Mr. Flaversham (voice)
Directed by John Musker
as Woody
Directed by George Pal
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
Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice) gives Alan Young a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Once Upon a Studio (2023)
Performance score7.5
Once Upon a Studio asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
David Filby / James Filby
The Time Machine (1960)
Performance score7.5
The Time Machine asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. David Filby / James Filby is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mr. Flaversham (voice)
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Performance score6.9
The Great Mouse Detective asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Flaversham (voice) 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 Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Start here. Mickey's Christmas Carol is the clearest statement of what Alan Young does — accessible, 25 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Alan 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.
Tom Thumb (1958)
Keeps the family register of Mickey's Christmas Carol but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Time Machine (1960)
Same director as Tom Thumb, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Keeps the adventure register of The Time Machine but asks for a colder reading of it.
Once Upon a Studio (2023)
Keeps the family register of The Great Mouse Detective but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
George Pal
Director
2 films together
Notably The Time Machine
Norman Tokar
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cat from Outer Space
Burny Mattinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Mickey's Christmas Carol
John Musker
Director
1 film together
Notably The Great Mouse Detective
John Landis
Director
1 film together
Notably Beverly Hills Cop III
Dan Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Studio
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
George Pal
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Time MachineDan Abraham
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a StudioBurny Mattinson
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mickey's Christmas CarolJohn Musker
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 Great Mouse DetectiveNorman Tokar
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 Cat from Outer SpaceJohn Landis
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beverly Hills Cop IIISix 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 Time Machine
as David Filby / James Filby
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Once Upon a Studio
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Mickey's Christmas Carol
as Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Once Upon a Studio
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Mickey's Christmas Carol
as Scrooge McDuck - Ebenezer Scrooge (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. Alan Young 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
65 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Family Legend
Awarded
5 catalogue titles in family, 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
Once Upon a Studio
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Great Mouse Detective
as Mr. Flaversham (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Time Machine
as David Filby / James Filby
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Great Mouse Detective
as Mr. Flaversham (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Once Upon a Studio
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Beverly Hills Cop III
as Uncle Dave Thornton
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Once Upon a Studio
as Scrooge McDuck (voice) (archive sound)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Cat from Outer Space
as Dr. Wenger
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
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
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Alan Young 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
