Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1659
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Clarke Peters represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Clarke is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clarke Peters appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clarke. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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 war, drama, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Todd Komarnicki, Kasi Lemmons, Brenda Chapman and others, Clarke Peters 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.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) as Abercrombie · Letters Live from the Archive: Freemasons’ Hall (2021) · John Wick (2014) as Harry
Career snapshot
Ranked #1659 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1981–2024
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Most frequent director
Kasi Lemmons
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Kasi Lemmons
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
6.8
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. Notting Hill — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.3
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.3
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. Mona Lisa, Outland.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 6.91 film | — | 5.61 film | 6.85 films | 6.73 films |
| Action | 6.41 film | — | — | 7.51 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | — | 5.21 film | 6.92 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.31 film | 6.43 films | — | — |
| Crime | 6.72 films | — | 5.21 film | 8.11 film | — |
| Romance | 6.91 film | 7.31 film | — | 7.02 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1981Outland
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sgt. Ballard.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2017Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
8.1 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
2024Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
The current state of the argument, as Reverend Powell Sr..
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
Directed by Unknown
as Ben Ross
Directed by Kasi Lemmons
as Harry
Directed by Chad Stahelski
as Morgan Dupree
Directed by Michael Hoffman
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
Abercrombie
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Abercrombie gives Clarke Peters a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Letters Live from the Archive: Freemasons’ Hall
Letters Live from the Archive: Freemasons’ Hall (2021)
Performance score7.6
Letters Live from the Archive: Freemasons’ Hall asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ben Ross
Harriet (2019)
Performance score7.4
Harriet asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ben Ross is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Harry
John Wick (2014)
Performance score7.3
John Wick asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Harry 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 Abercrombie
Start here. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is the clearest statement of what Clarke Peters does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clarke 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.
John Wick (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Best of Me (2014)
A deliberate change of key after John Wick — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Harriet (2019)
Keeps the drama register of The Best of Me but asks for a colder reading of it.
Letters Live from the Archive: Freemasons’ Hall (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Harriet — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Kasi Lemmons
Director
2 films together
Notably Harriet
Peter Hyams
Director
1 film together
Notably Outland
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Mona Lisa
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably Notting Hill
Chris Rock
Director
1 film together
Notably Head of State
Joe Roth
Director
1 film together
Notably Freedomland
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably Marley & Me
Michael Hoffman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Best of Me
Chad Stahelski
Director
1 film together
Notably John Wick
Andrew Renzi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Benefactor
Martin McDonagh
Director
1 film together
Notably Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Joe Chappelle
Director
1 film together
Notably An Acceptable Loss
Allan Harmon
Director
1 film together
Notably Christmas Under the Stars
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Da 5 Bloods
Brenda Chapman
Director
1 film together
Notably Come Away
Todd Komarnicki
Director
1 film together
Notably Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Kasi Lemmons
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HarrietMartin McDonagh
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriChad Stahelski
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John WickMichael Hoffman
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Best of MeRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Notting HillDavid Frankel
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marley & MeNeil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mona LisaTodd Komarnicki
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. AssassinAllan Harmon
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Christmas Under the StarsSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Da 5 BloodsPeter Hyams
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OutlandJoe Chappelle
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An Acceptable LossBrenda Chapman
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Come AwayChris Rock
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Head of StateJoe Roth
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FreedomlandAndrew Renzi
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BenefactorSix 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
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Abercrombie
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Best of Me
as Morgan Dupree
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Abercrombie
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Head of State
as Fundraiser Demo-Tape Man
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Abercrombie
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. Clarke Peters 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
43 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
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Abercrombie
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
John Wick
as Harry
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
as John Houston
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Freedomland
as Reverend Longway
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
John Wick
as Harry
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Outland
as Sgt. Ballard
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Best of Me
as Morgan Dupree
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
An Acceptable Loss
as Phillip Lamm
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Clarke Peters 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
