Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2593
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Chazz Palminteri represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Chazz is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Chazz Palminteri appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Chazz. The Usual Suspects is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 documentary, comedy, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Julian Starks, Jon Abrahams, Brian Helgeland and others, Chazz Palminteri 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 Usual Suspects (1995) as Dave Kujan · A Bronx Tale (1993) as Sonny LoSpecchio · Legend (2015) as Angelo Bruno
Career snapshot
Ranked #2593 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1991–2024
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
The Usual Suspects
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
The Usual Suspects
Most frequent director
John Landis
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With John Landis
Most common genre
Crime
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
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
6.4
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
6.6 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Stuart Little, Analyze This, A Night at the Roxbury — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.6
Across 9 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. Stuart Little, Analyze This, A Night at the Roxbury.
Most productive era
1990s
9 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 | 7.43 films | 6.13 films | 5.61 film | — |
| Action | 6.21 film | — | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.63 films | — | 7.11 film | 4.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.45 films | 6.03 films | — | 4.71 film |
| Crime | 7.05 films | 6.33 films | 6.32 films | — |
| Romance | 6.32 films | 5.82 films | — | — |
| Horror | 5.82 films | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1991Oscar
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Connie.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.3 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
2024Chuck Zito: An American Story
The current state of the argument, as Self.
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.
20 of 20 films
as Dave Kujan
Directed by Bryan Singer
as Sonny LoSpecchio
Directed by Robert De Niro
as Angelo Bruno
Directed by Brian Helgeland
as Primo Sidone
Directed by Harold Ramis
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
Dave Kujan
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dave Kujan gives Chazz Palminteri a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sonny LoSpecchio
A Bronx Tale (1993)
Performance score8.1
A Bronx Tale asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sonny LoSpecchio is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Angelo Bruno
Legend (2015)
Performance score7.2
Legend asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Angelo Bruno is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Monty
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Performance score7.0
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Monty 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 Dave Kujan
Start here. The Usual Suspects is the clearest statement of what Chazz Palminteri does — accessible, 106 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Chazz 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.
A Bronx Tale (1993)
Keeps the crime register of The Usual Suspects but asks for a colder reading of it.
Analyze This (1999)
Keeps the crime register of A Bronx Tale but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Keeps the crime register of Analyze This but asks for a colder reading of it.
Legend (2015)
Keeps the crime register of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Landis
Director
2 films together
Notably Oscar
Robert De Niro
Director
1 film together
Notably A Bronx Tale
Bryan Singer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Usual Suspects
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together
Notably Diabolique
Lee Tamahori
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulholland Falls
John Fortenberry
Director
1 film together
Notably A Night at the Roxbury
Harold Ramis
Director
1 film together
Notably Analyze This
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Stuart Little
Chris Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Down to Earth
Chazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together
Notably Noel
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably In The Mix
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Arthur and the Invisibles
Brian Helgeland
Director
1 film together
Notably Legend
Jon Abrahams
Director
1 film together
Notably Clover
Julian Starks
Director
1 film together
Notably A Journey to Sundance
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Landis
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
OscarBryan Singer
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Usual SuspectsRobert De Niro
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Bronx TaleBrian Helgeland
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LegendHarold Ramis
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Analyze ThisJohn Fortenberry
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 Night at the RoxburyLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arthur and the InvisiblesRob Minkoff
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stuart LittleRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In The MixLee Tamahori
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mulholland FallsChazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NoelChris Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Down to EarthJeremiah S. Chechik
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DiaboliqueJon Abrahams
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CloverJulian Starks
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Journey to SundanceSix 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 Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Arthur and the Invisibles
as Travel Agent (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
The Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Arthur and the Invisibles
as Travel Agent (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
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. Chazz Palminteri 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
33 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.
Crime Legend
Awarded
10 catalogue titles in crime, 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 Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Arthur and the Invisibles
as Travel Agent (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Mulholland Falls
as Elleroy Coolidge
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Usual Suspects
as Dave Kujan
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Innocent Blood
as Tony
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
In The Mix
as Frank Pacelli
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Stuart Little
as Smokey (voice)
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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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
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Reference
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