Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6761
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Midthunder works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
David Midthunder appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, action. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for western, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ari Aster, Elliott Lester, Joachim Rønning and others, David Midthunder 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.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) as Forest Spiritual Fey #2 · Hostiles (2017) as Buffalo Man · Bone Tomahawk (2015) as Misshapen Troglodyte (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #6761 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2003–2025
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Most frequent director
Ari Aster
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Ari Aster
Most common genre
Western
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 58m
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
6.3
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
2010s
6.5 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Woman Walks Ahead, Hostiles — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.5
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Terminator Salvation, The Missing.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.93 films | — |
| Action | 6.11 film | 6.15 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.22 films | 6.23 films | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.51 film |
| Crime | — | 6.11 film | 6.52 films |
| Horror | — | 6.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2003The Missing
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Apache Scout.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
7.3 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
2025Eddington
The current state of the argument, as Santa Lupe Pueblo Sheriff.
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 Forest Spiritual Fey #2
Directed by Joachim Rønning
as Buffalo Man
Directed by Scott Cooper
as Misshapen Troglodyte (uncredited)
Directed by Unknown
as Shell King
Directed by Susanna White
as Alcatraz Soldier
Directed by Albert Hughes
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
Forest Spiritual Fey #2
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Forest Spiritual Fey #2 gives David Midthunder a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Buffalo Man
Hostiles (2017)
Performance score6.9
Hostiles asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Buffalo Man is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Misshapen Troglodyte (uncredited)
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Performance score6.8
Bone Tomahawk asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Misshapen Troglodyte (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Shell King
Woman Walks Ahead (2018)
Performance score6.7
Woman Walks Ahead asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shell King 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 Forest Spiritual Fey #2
Start here. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the clearest statement of what David Midthunder does — accessible, 119 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet David 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 Book of Eli (2010)
A deliberate change of key after Maleficent: Mistress of Evil — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
A deliberate change of key after The Book of Eli — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Hostiles (2017)
Keeps the western register of Bone Tomahawk but asks for a colder reading of it.
Woman Walks Ahead (2018)
Keeps the western register of Hostiles but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Missing
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably Terminator Salvation
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Eli
Jon Favreau
Director
1 film together
Notably Cowboys & Aliens
Kim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Stand
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lone Ranger
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers: Age of Extinction
Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Hostiles
Susanna White
Director
1 film together
Notably Woman Walks Ahead
Joachim Rønning
Director
1 film together
Notably Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Elliott Lester
Director
1 film together
Notably The Thicket
Ari Aster
Director
1 film together
Notably Eddington
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joachim Rønning
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Maleficent: Mistress of EvilScott Cooper
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HostilesSusanna White
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Woman Walks AheadAlbert Hughes
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 Book of EliAri Aster
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EddingtonElliott Lester
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ThicketRon Howard
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 MissingGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lone RangerKim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last StandMcG
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Terminator SalvationMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transformers: Age of ExtinctionJon Favreau
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cowboys & AliensSix 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
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
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. David Midthunder 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
22 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.
Western Legend
Awarded
8 catalogue titles in western, 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
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Book of Eli
as Alcatraz Soldier
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Forest Spiritual Fey #2
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hostiles
as Buffalo Man
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Lone Ranger
as Fuller's Native American Scout
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Woman Walks Ahead
as Shell King
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Hostiles
as Buffalo Man
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Tom Hanks
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Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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