Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#621
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Clive Russell represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Clive is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clive Russell appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clive. The Power of One is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 action, adventure, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Sarnoski, Ridley Scott, Steve Barron and others, Clive Russell 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 Power of One (1992) as Sgt. Bormann · The Last Duel (2021) as King's Uncle · Sherlock Holmes (2009) as Captain Tanner
Career snapshot
Ranked #621 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
1992–2026
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Power of One
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Power of One
Most frequent director
Guy Ritchie
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Guy Ritchie
Most common genre
Action
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 57m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.7
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
7.1 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The 13th Warrior, The Power of One — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
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
1990s
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. The 13th Warrior, The Power of One.
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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.51 film | 6.41 film | 6.61 film | 7.12 films |
| Action | 6.71 film | 6.92 films | 6.93 films | 6.81 film |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.31 film | 7.41 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.51 film | 5.21 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.51 film | 6.61 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.12 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1992The Power of One
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sgt. Bormann. 7.5 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
The current state of the argument, as Elderfather.
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.
14 of 14 films
as Sgt. Bormann
Directed by John G. Avildsen
as King's Uncle
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Captain Tanner
Directed by Guy Ritchie
as Captain Tanner
Directed by Guy Ritchie
as Elderfather
Directed by Michael Sarnoski
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
Sgt. Bormann
The Power of One (1992)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sgt. Bormann gives Clive Russell a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
King's Uncle
The Last Duel (2021)
Performance score7.2
The Last Duel asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. King's Uncle is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Captain Tanner
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Performance score7.2
Sherlock Holmes asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Captain Tanner is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Captain Tanner
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Performance score7.1
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Captain Tanner 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 Sgt. Bormann
Start here. The Power of One is the clearest statement of what Clive Russell does — accessible, 127 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clive 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.
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
A deliberate change of key after The Power of One — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Same director as Sherlock Holmes, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Last Duel (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Keeps the drama register of The Last Duel but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Guy Ritchie
Director
2 films together
Notably Sherlock Holmes
John G. Avildsen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Power of One
John McTiernan
Director
1 film together
Notably The 13th Warrior
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably King Arthur
Paul Weiland
Director
1 film together
Notably Made of Honor
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wolfman
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Thor: The Dark World
Juan Carlos Medina
Director
1 film together
Notably The Limehouse Golem
Lone Scherfig
Director
1 film together
Notably Their Finest
David Mackenzie
Director
1 film together
Notably Outlaw King
Steve Barron
Director
1 film together
Notably Supervized
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Duel
Michael Sarnoski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Death of Robin Hood
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Guy Ritchie
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sherlock HolmesJohn G. Avildsen
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 Power of OneRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last DuelMichael Sarnoski
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Death of Robin HoodDavid Mackenzie
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Outlaw KingAlan Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thor: The Dark WorldJohn McTiernan
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 13th WarriorLone Scherfig
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Their FinestPaul Weiland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Made of HonorAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King ArthurJuan Carlos Medina
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Limehouse GolemJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WolfmanSteve Barron
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SupervizedSix 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 Power of One
as Sgt. Bormann
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 Last Duel
as King's Uncle
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 Power of One
as Sgt. Bormann
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
as Captain Tanner
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Power of One
as Sgt. Bormann
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. Clive Russell 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
34 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
7 catalogue titles in action, 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
Sherlock Holmes
as Captain Tanner
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sherlock Holmes
as Captain Tanner
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Last Duel
as King's Uncle
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Limehouse Golem
as Prison Warden
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sherlock Holmes
as Captain Tanner
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Death of Robin Hood
as Elderfather
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
King Arthur
as Lancelot's Father
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Death of Robin Hood
as Elderfather
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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Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Jamie Harris
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Elliot Page
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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