Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5665
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Edward Herrmann represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Edward is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Edward Herrmann appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Edward. The Wolf of Wall Street 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 comedy, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Martin Scorsese, Matthew Weiner, Chris Rock and others, Edward Herrmann 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 Wolf of Wall Street (2013) as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice) · The Aviator (2004) as Joseph Breen · The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) as Henry
Career snapshot
Ranked #5665 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1974–2013
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
The Wolf of Wall Street
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
The Wolf of Wall Street
Most frequent director
Martin Scorsese
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Martin Scorsese
Most common genre
Comedy
8 titles
Average runtime
2h 12m
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
6.7
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
1980s
6.9 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Lost Boys, Overboard, The Purple Rose of Cairo — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.9
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
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. The Great Gatsby.
Most productive era
1980s
5 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 | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.41 film | 6.72 films | 6.71 film | 7.21 film | 8.31 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.11 film | — | 5.01 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.94 films | 6.11 film | 5.31 film | 6.72 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | — | 8.31 film |
| Romance | 6.41 film | 6.93 films | — | 5.31 film | — |
| Horror | — | 7.11 film | — | 5.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1974The Great Gatsby
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Klipspringer.
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
2013Are You Here
The current state of the argument, as Dr. Vincent.
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.
13 of 13 films
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Max
Directed by Joel Schumacher
as Grant Stayton III
Directed by Garry Marshall
as Joseph Breen
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Henry
Directed by Woody Allen
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
Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice) gives Edward Herrmann a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Max
The Lost Boys (1987)
Performance score7.2
The Lost Boys asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Max is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Grant Stayton III
Overboard (1987)
Performance score7.2
Overboard asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Grant Stayton III is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Joseph Breen
The Aviator (2004)
Performance score7.1
The Aviator asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Joseph Breen 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 Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Start here. The Wolf of Wall Street is the clearest statement of what Edward Herrmann does — accessible, 180 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Edward 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 Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Keeps the comedy register of The Wolf of Wall Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Lost Boys (1987)
Keeps the comedy register of The Purple Rose of Cairo but asks for a colder reading of it.
Overboard (1987)
Keeps the comedy register of The Lost Boys but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Aviator (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Overboard — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Wolf of Wall Street
Jack Clayton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Great Gatsby
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Reds
John Huston
Director
1 film together
Notably Annie
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Purple Rose of Cairo
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Overboard
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lost Boys
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably Ri¢hie Ri¢h
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Nixon
Chris Rock
Director
1 film together
Notably I Think I Love My Wife
Matthew Weiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Are You Here
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Wolf of Wall StreetWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Purple Rose of CairoJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lost BoysGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OverboardOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NixonWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RedsJohn Huston
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnnieJack Clayton
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 Great GatsbyDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ri¢hie Ri¢hChris Rock
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Think I Love My WifeMatthew Weiner
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Are You HereSix 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 Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Reds
as Max Eastman
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 Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
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. Edward Herrmann 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
39 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
8 catalogue titles in comedy, 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 Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Reds
as Max Eastman
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Down
as Milligan
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Stratton Oakmont Commercial (voice)
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
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Edward Herrmann performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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