Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1479
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Bill Paterson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Bill is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Bill Paterson appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Bill. Chaplin 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, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, fantasy, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Thea Sharrock, Laura Blount, Ben Wheatley and others, Bill Paterson 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.
Chaplin (1992) as Stage Manager · The Killing Fields (1984) as Dr. MacEntire · The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) as Henry Salt
Career snapshot
Ranked #1479 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1984–2026
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Chaplin
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Killing Fields
Most frequent director
Ben Wheatley
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Ben Wheatley
Most common genre
Drama
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
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
6.6
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
1980s
7.1 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Killing Fields — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
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
1980s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Killing Fields.
Most productive era
2020s
5 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.21 film | 6.54 films | 6.54 films | 5.61 film | 6.23 films |
| Thriller | — | — | — | — | 6.31 film |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 5.51 film | 6.01 film | 5.01 film | 6.12 films |
| Romance | — | 6.41 film | 6.32 films | — | 6.32 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Dr. MacEntire.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1992Chaplin
7.4 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
2026Ladies First
The current state of the argument, as Louis.
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 Stage Manager
Directed by Richard Attenborough
as Dr. MacEntire
Directed by Roland Joffé
as Rupert Potter
Directed by Chris Noonan
as Henry Salt
Directed by Terry Gilliam
as Lord Dundas
Directed by Michael Apted
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
Stage Manager
Chaplin (1992)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Stage Manager gives Bill Paterson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dr. MacEntire
The Killing Fields (1984)
Performance score7.1
The Killing Fields asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. MacEntire is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Rupert Potter
Miss Potter (2006)
Performance score6.9
Miss Potter asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rupert Potter is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Henry Salt
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Performance score6.9
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Henry Salt 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 Stage Manager
Start here. Chaplin is the clearest statement of what Bill Paterson does — accessible, 145 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Bill 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 Killing Fields (1984)
Keeps the drama register of Chaplin but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
A deliberate change of key after The Killing Fields — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Miss Potter (2006)
A deliberate change of key after The Adventures of Baron Munchausen — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Amazing Grace (2006)
Keeps the drama register of Miss Potter but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ben Wheatley
Director
2 films together
Notably Rebecca
Roland Joffé
Director
1 film together
Notably The Killing Fields
Terry Gilliam
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Richard Attenborough
Director
1 film together
Notably Chaplin
Richard Loncraine
Director
1 film together
Notably Richard III
Bob Spiers
Director
1 film together
Notably Spice World
István Szabó
Director
1 film together
Notably Sunshine
Chris Noonan
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Potter
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably Amazing Grace
Robert B. Weide
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Jon Amiel
Director
1 film together
Notably Creation
Oliver Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably Dad's Army
Laura Blount
Director
1 film together
Notably Being Stanley Baxter
Thea Sharrock
Director
1 film together
Notably Ladies First
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ben Wheatley
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RebeccaRichard Attenborough
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChaplinRoland Joffé
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 Killing FieldsTerry Gilliam
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 Adventures of Baron MunchausenMichael Apted
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Amazing GraceChris Noonan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss PotterRichard Loncraine
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Richard IIIJon Amiel
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CreationIstván Szabó
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SunshineThea Sharrock
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ladies FirstRobert B. Weide
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose Friends & Alienate PeopleBob Spiers
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spice WorldOliver Parker
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dad's ArmyLaura Blount
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being Stanley BaxterSix 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
Chaplin
as Stage Manager
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Miss Potter
as Rupert Potter
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Chaplin
as Stage Manager
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Spice World
as Brian
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Chaplin
as Stage Manager
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. Bill Paterson 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
42 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
13 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
Chaplin
as Stage Manager
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Rebecca
as Dr. Baker
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Miss Potter
as Rupert Potter
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Rebecca
as Dr. Baker
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Chaplin
as Stage Manager
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Spice World
as Brian
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Spice World
as Brian
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Spice World
as Brian
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
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Reference
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