Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3812
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Anthony LaPaglia represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 29 years in, and Anthony is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Anthony LaPaglia appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Anthony. Road to Perdition is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 crime, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Justin Kurzel, Walter Hill, Paul Andrew Williams and others, Anthony LaPaglia 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.
Road to Perdition (2002) as Al Capone (uncredited) · Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe (2020) as Self · Nitram (2021) as Dad
Career snapshot
Ranked #3812 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1992–2021
Career length
29 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Road to Perdition
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Road to Perdition
Most frequent director
George Miller
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With George Miller
Most common genre
Drama
9 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
6.8
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
6.5
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
2020s
7.1 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Nitram, Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.1
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.1
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. Sweet and Lowdown, Summer of Sam, Trees Lounge.
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 | 6.45 films | 6.82 films | 6.71 film | 6.91 film |
| Action | 6.21 film | — | 5.51 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.51 film | 7.41 film | 5.51 film | 6.91 film |
| Comedy | 6.45 films | 6.22 films | 6.21 film | — |
| Crime | 6.32 films | 6.72 films | 5.51 film | 6.91 film |
| Romance | 6.13 films | 6.11 film | — | — |
| Horror | 6.21 film | — | 6.61 film | 7.31 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Innocent Blood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Joe Gennaro.
Highest rated performance
7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2021Nitram
The current state of the argument, as Dad.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Leo Hurwitz
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
as Dad
Directed by Justin Kurzel
as Al Capone (uncredited)
Directed by Sam Mendes
as Al Torrio
Directed by Woody Allen
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
Leo Hurwitz
The Eichmann Show (2015)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Leo Hurwitz gives Anthony LaPaglia a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dad
Nitram (2021)
Performance score7.3
Nitram asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dad is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe (2020)
Performance score7.2
Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Al Capone (uncredited)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Performance score7.2
Road to Perdition asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Al Capone (uncredited) 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 Leo Hurwitz
Start here. The Eichmann Show is the clearest statement of what Anthony LaPaglia does — accessible, 90 minutes, and rated 6.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Anthony 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.
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Keeps the drama register of The Eichmann Show but asks for a colder reading of it.
Road to Perdition (2002)
Keeps the drama register of Sweet and Lowdown but asks for a colder reading of it.
Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Road to Perdition — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Nitram (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
George Miller
Director
2 films together
Notably Happy Feet
John Landis
Director
1 film together
Notably Innocent Blood
Nora Ephron
Director
1 film together
Notably Mixed Nuts
Allan Moyle
Director
1 film together
Notably Empire Records
Steve Buscemi
Director
1 film together
Notably Trees Lounge
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Summer of Sam
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Sweet and Lowdown
Joan Chen
Director
1 film together
Notably Autumn in New York
Harold Ramis
Director
1 film together
Notably Analyze That
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Road to Perdition
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Paul Andrew Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably The Eichmann Show
Walter Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably The Assignment
Justin Kurzel
Director
1 film together
Notably Nitram
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
George Miller
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Happy FeetSam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Road to PerditionJustin Kurzel
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NitramSteve Buscemi
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trees LoungeZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'HoolePaul Andrew Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Eichmann ShowWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sweet and LowdownAllan Moyle
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Empire RecordsSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Summer of SamJohn Landis
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Innocent BloodJoan Chen
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Autumn in New YorkHarold Ramis
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Analyze ThatWalter Hill
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The AssignmentNora Ephron
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mixed NutsSix 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
Road to Perdition
as Al Capone (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
as Twilight (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Road to Perdition
as Al Capone (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Analyze That
as Anthony Bella / Nicky Caesar (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Eichmann Show
as Leo Hurwitz
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. Anthony LaPaglia 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
29 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
9 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
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
as Twilight (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Road to Perdition
as Al Capone (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
as Twilight (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Nitram
as Dad
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Road to Perdition
as Al Capone (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Assignment
as Honest John Hartunian
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sweet and Lowdown
as Al Torrio
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Happy Feet
as Boss Skua (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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