Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1707
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dee Wallace represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 49 years in, and Dee is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dee Wallace appears in 33 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dee. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 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 horror, mystery, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Christopher Ray, David A. Weiner, Rob Zombie and others, Dee Wallace 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.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as Mary · E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as Mary · In Search of Darkness: Part III (2022) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #1707 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
33
1977–2026
Career length
49 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Average Nutevio score
5.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Most frequent director
David A. Weiner
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With David A. Weiner
Most common genre
Horror
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
8.3 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
8.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. 10, The Hills Have Eyes.
Most productive era
2020s
18 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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | — | 6.04 films | 5.42 films |
| Action | — | — | — | 5.81 film | 5.51 film |
| Thriller | — | — | — | 6.23 films | 5.33 films |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | — | 6.23 films | — | 5.35 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | 8.91 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | 6.11 film | — | — | 6.22 films | 5.71 film |
| Horror | 6.31 film | — | 6.12 films | 4.82 films | 4.311 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lynne Wood.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1982E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
8.9 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 Maggie.
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.
33 of 33 films
as Mary
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Mary
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Patricia Bradley
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Carol
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 39 titles · 39 total credits · active 1977–2026
Models vs. Werewolves
2026 · Actor
Southern Scares
2026 · Myra
Ted Bunny
2026 · Catherine
Water Rites
2026 · Caroline
Night of the Living Dead
2026 · Maggie
The Boroughs
2026 · TV · Grace
Last Night on Earth
2024 · Carla
Stream
2024 · Linda Spring
The Little Mermaid
2023 · Sea Witch Revina (voice)
90 Hari Sebelum Cinta Pergi
2023 · Actor
Fatal Attraction
2023 · TV · Emma Rauch
Paul T. Goldman
2023 · TV · Terri Jay
In Search of Darkness: Part III
2022 · Self
Jeepers Creepers: Reborn
2022 · Marie
Time Pirates
2022 · The Crone
In Search of Tomorrow
2022 · Self - Interviewee
The Munsters
2022 · Good Morning Transylvania Host
The Nest
2021 · Marissa
Every Time a Bell Rings
2021 · Donna
Critters Attack!
2020 · Dee
Await the Dawn
2020 · Annie
3 from Hell
2019 · Greta
Sunrise in Heaven
2019 · Marion
The Wrong Mommy
2019 · Carol
The defining work
#1
Mary
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mary gives Dee Wallace a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mary
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Performance score7.7
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mary is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
In Search of Darkness: Part III (2022)
Performance score7.3
In Search of Darkness: Part III asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Patricia Bradley
The Frighteners (1996)
Performance score7.1
The Frighteners asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Patricia Bradley 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 Mary
Start here. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is the clearest statement of what Dee Wallace does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dee 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.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Same director as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Frighteners (1996)
A deliberate change of key after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Wrong Mommy (2019)
A deliberate change of key after The Frighteners — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
In Search of Darkness: Part III (2022)
A deliberate change of key after The Wrong Mommy — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Rob Zombie
Director
2 films together
Notably 3 from Hell
David A. Weiner
Director
2 films together
Notably In Search of Darkness: Part III
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hills Have Eyes
Blake Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably 10
Don Bluth
Director
1 film together
Notably Rock-A-Doodle
Peter Jackson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Frighteners
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably Extraordinary Measures
Cuyle Carvin
Director
1 film together
Notably Dolls
Bobby Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Critters Attack!
Maclain Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably Every Time a Bell Rings
Christopher Ray
Director
1 film together
Notably Night of the Living Dead
Henry Thomas
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Drew Barrymore
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Robert MacNaughton
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Peter Coyote
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Erika Eleniak
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
K.C. Martel
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
C. Thomas Howell
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Sean Frye
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
David M. O'Dell
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Richard Swingler
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Frank Toth
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Robert Barton
Actor
1 film together
Notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together · 8.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialDavid A. Weiner
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
In Search of Darkness: Part IIIRob Zombie
Director
2 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
3 from HellPeter Jackson
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FrightenersTom Vaughan
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Extraordinary MeasuresDon Bluth
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rock-A-DoodleWes Craven
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 Hills Have EyesBlake Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
10Christopher Ray
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night of the Living DeadBobby Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Critters Attack!Maclain Nelson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Every Time a Bell RingsCuyle Carvin
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DollsSix 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
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
In Search of Darkness: Part III
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
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. Dee Wallace has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #343 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Family, Sci-Fi, Adventure | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Steven Spielberg | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 1982–1982 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Mary — E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Sci-Fi Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
49 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.
Horror Legend
Awarded
16 catalogue titles in horror, 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
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sunrise in Heaven
as Marion
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Grand Piano
as Marjorie Green
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
as Mary
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
3 from Hell
as Greta
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rock-A-Doodle
as Dory (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Night of the Living Dead
as Maggie
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 3 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
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: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Have your say
Community
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