Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1117
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ellen Burstyn represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 55 years in, and Ellen is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ellen Burstyn appears in 29 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ellen. One of the few performers to hold the Academy, Emmy and Tony at once — and the least showy about it. Interstellar is the clearest case: a film rated 9.4 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 drama, documentary, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Neville, David Gordon Green and others, Ellen Burstyn helped set a standard other performers now audition against. 1 Academy Award confirm what the films already argue.
Interstellar (2014) as Murph (older) · Interstellar (2014) as Murph (older) · Requiem for a Dream (2000) as Sara Goldfarb
Career snapshot
Ranked #1117 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
29
1971–2026
Career length
69 yrs
Active since 1957
Academy Awards
1
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
6
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.4
Interstellar
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
Interstellar
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
21 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
7.3
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
7.8
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
1970s
7.3 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, The Exorcist, The Last Picture Show — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.3
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies, Lucy in the Sky, The Tale.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 1970s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.02 films | 6.53 films | 6.75 films | 7.46 films | 5.15 films |
| Thriller | — | — | 5.93 films | 5.01 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.61 film | 6.11 film | — | 6.23 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | — | 9.41 film | — |
| Crime | — | — | 7.13 films | — | — |
| Romance | 7.02 films | 6.53 films | 6.91 film | 6.32 films | 6.01 film |
| Horror | 7.81 film | — | 5.82 films | — | 5.81 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1957Working from 1957
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lois Farrow.
First Academy Award nomination
1975Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Best Actress — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
First Academy Award
1975Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Best Actress. Confirmation rather than revelation, which is how the best of these usually arrive.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Interstellar
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.4 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
2026Flesh Impact
The current state of the argument, as Marilyn Monroe.
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.
29 of 29 films
as Murph (older)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Sara Goldfarb
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
as Murph (older)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Chris MacNeil
Directed by William Friedkin
as Flemming
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
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 33 titles · 33 total credits · active 1966–2026
Flesh Impact
2026 · Marilyn Monroe
Breakdown: 1975
2025 · Self
This Ordinary Thing
2025 · Self (voice)
Mother, Couch
2024 · Mother
The Exorcist: Believer
2023 · Chris MacNeil
Three Months
2022 · Valerie
The First Lady
2022 · TV · Sara Delano Roosevelt
Queen Bees
2021 · Helen Wilson
Law & Order: Organized Crime
2021 · TV · Bernadette 'Bernie' Stabler
Delphine and Carole
2020 · Self (archive footage)
Pieces of a Woman
2020 · Elizabeth Weiss
Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies
2019 · Self
Lucy in the Sky
2019 · Nana Holbrook
The Tale
2018 · Nettie
The Age of Adaline
2015 · Flemming
Interstellar
2014 · Murph (older)
Draft Day
2014 · Barb Weaver
House of Cards
2013 · TV · Elizabeth Hale
W.
2008 · Barbara Bush
The Fountain
2006 · Dr. Lillian Guzetti
The Wicker Man
2006 · Sister Summersisle
Big Love
2006 · TV · Nancy Davis Dutton
Red Dragon
2002 · Grandma Dolarhyde (voice) (uncredited)
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
2002 · Vivi
The defining work
#1
Murph (older)
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Murph (older) gives Ellen Burstyn a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sara Goldfarb
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Performance score8.6
Requiem for a Dream asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sara Goldfarb is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Murph (older)
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score8.4
Interstellar asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Murph (older) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Chris MacNeil
The Exorcist (1973)
Performance score8.3
The Exorcist asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Chris MacNeil 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 Murph (older)
Start here. Interstellar is the clearest statement of what Ellen Burstyn does — accessible, 169 minutes, and rated 9.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ellen 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 Exorcist (1973)
A deliberate change of key after Interstellar — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
A deliberate change of key after The Exorcist — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Interstellar (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Requiem for a Dream but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Age of Adaline (2015)
Keeps the drama register of Interstellar but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Darren Aronofsky
Director
2 films together
Notably Requiem for a Dream
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Interstellar
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Picture Show
William Friedkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Exorcist
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Luis Mandoki
Director
1 film together
Notably When a Man Loves a Woman
Jocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Make an American Quilt
Callie Khouri
Director
1 film together
Notably Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Dragon
Neil LaBute
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wicker Man
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably W.
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Draft Day
Lee Toland Krieger
Director
1 film together
Notably The Age of Adaline
Noah Hawley
Director
1 film together
Notably Lucy in the Sky
Kornél Mundruczó
Director
1 film together
Notably Pieces of a Woman
Michael Lembeck
Director
1 film together
Notably Queen Bees
David Gordon Green
Director
1 film together
Notably The Exorcist: Believer
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakdown: 1975
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together
Notably Flesh Impact
Matthew McConaughey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Jessica Chastain
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Casey Affleck
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Wes Bentley
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Topher Grace
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Mackenzie Foy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
John Lithgow
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Bill Irwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
David Gyasi
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Timothée Chalamet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
InterstellarDarren Aronofsky
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Requiem for a DreamWilliam Friedkin
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ExorcistLee Toland Krieger
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 Age of AdalinePeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last Picture ShowBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red DragonKornél Mundruczó
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pieces of a WomanMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakdown: 1975Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Draft DayLuis Mandoki
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
When a Man Loves a WomanJocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Make an American QuiltOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
W.Callie Khouri
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya SisterhoodMichael Lembeck
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Queen BeesDavid Gordon Green
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Exorcist: BelieverNoah Hawley
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lucy in the SkyNeil LaBute
Director
1 film together · 4.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wicker ManMaggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flesh ImpactSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
22 wins · 7 nominations
2 wins · 7 nominations · latest 2015
Interstellar
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore · as Actor
as Actor
Requiem for a Dream · as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 1979
as Actor
1 win · latest 1976
as Actor
2 wins · latest 2013
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 1988
as Actor
1 win · latest 2000
as Actor
1 win · latest 2008
as Actor
1 win · latest 2000
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 2001
as Actor
1 win · latest 2000
as Actor
1 win · latest 2009
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 1997
as Actor
1 win · latest 1971
as Actor
1 win · latest 1971
as Actor
1 win · latest 2000
as Actor
1 win · latest 2001
as Actor
1 win · latest 1975
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
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 Age of Adaline
as Flemming
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Red Dragon
as Grandma Dolarhyde (voice) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
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. Ellen Burstyn has known it for a long time.”
“Do not go gentle into that good night.”
“Murph, I'm coming back.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.9 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #3 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 2 recorded | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 1 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 6 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.4 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Physical performance | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2014–2014 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Murph (older) — Interstellar | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Interstellar | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Interstellar
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Best Time Travel Movies, Adventure Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Best Space Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Matthew McConaughey · Anne Hathaway · Michael Caine · Jessica Chastain · Casey Affleck · Wes Bentley · Topher Grace
Our editors cannot separate them on the catalogue as it stands. Ellen Burstyn and Matt Damon score within a rounding error of each other.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
55 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Most Influential Career
Awarded
Recognised for changing what casting directors thought a leading performance could look like.
Drama Legend
Awarded
21 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
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Lucy in the Sky
as Nana Holbrook
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Playing by Heart
as Mildred
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Interstellar
as Murph (older)
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 9 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Time Travel Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Features Interstellar at #2
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Ellen Burstyn 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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