Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#193
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gary Oldman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Gary is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Gary Oldman appears in 59 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gary. The Dark Knight is the clearest case: a film rated 9.5 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 drama, history, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Paolo Sorrentino, Christopher Nolan, Eran Creevy and others, Gary Oldman 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 Dark Knight (2008) as Gordon · The Dark Knight (2008) as Gordon · Léon: The Professional (1994) as Norman Stansfield
Career snapshot
Ranked #193 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
59
1986–2024
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.5
The Dark Knight
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
The Dark Knight
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
30 titles
Average runtime
1h 59m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
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
7.3
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
2000s
7.5 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. A Christmas Carol, The Unborn, Planet 51 — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.5
Across 12 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. A Christmas Carol, The Unborn, Planet 51.
Most productive era
2010s
21 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.71 film | 7.010 films | 7.66 films | 6.79 films | 6.94 films |
| Action | — | 7.64 films | 8.83 films | 6.610 films | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.03 films | 6.94 films | 6.414 films | 6.33 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.91 film | 5.91 film | 6.73 films | 6.61 film |
| Crime | — | 7.35 films | 8.34 films | 6.37 films | 6.33 films |
| Romance | 6.71 film | 6.77 films | — | 6.52 films | — |
| Horror | — | 7.51 film | 5.21 film | 5.73 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1986Sid and Nancy
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sid Vicious.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008The Dark Knight
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.5 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
2024Parthenope
The current state of the argument, as John Cheever.
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.
59 of 59 films
as Gordon
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Gordon
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Norman Stansfield
Directed by Luc Besson
as Sirius Black
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
as Commissioner Gordon
Directed by Christopher Nolan
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 61 titles · 65 total credits · active 1986–2024
Parthenope
2024 · John Cheever
Oppenheimer
2023 · Harry Truman
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts
2022 · Self
Slow Horses
2022 · TV · Jackson Lamb · Executive Producer
Crisis
2021 · Dr. Tyrone Brower
The Woman in the Window
2021 · Alistair Russell
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
2021 · Vladislav Dukhovich (archive footage)
Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Exposing Muybridge
2021 · Self
Mank
2020 · Herman Mankiewicz
The Courier
2019 · Ezekiel Mannings
The Laundromat
2019 · Jürgen Mossack
Mary
2019 · David
Killers Anonymous
2019 · The Man
Hunter Killer
2018 · CJCS Charles Donnegan
Tau
2018 · Tau (voice)
The Hitman's Bodyguard
2017 · Vladislav Dukhovich
Darkest Hour
2017 · Winston Churchill
The Space Between Us
2017 · Nathaniel Shepherd
Criminal
2016 · Quaker Wells
Man Down
2016 · Captain Peyton
Child 44
2015 · General Mikhail Nesterov
RoboCop
2014 · Dr. Dennett Norton
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2014 · Dreyfus
The defining work
#1
Gordon
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score9.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gordon gives Gary Oldman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Gordon
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score8.7
The Dark Knight asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gordon is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Norman Stansfield
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Performance score8.7
Léon: The Professional asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Norman Stansfield is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sirius Black
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Performance score8.3
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sirius Black 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 Gordon
Start here. The Dark Knight is the clearest statement of what Gary Oldman does — accessible, 152 minutes, and rated 9.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gary 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.
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Keeps the action register of The Dark Knight but asks for a colder reading of it.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Léon: The Professional — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Dark Knight (2008)
A deliberate change of key after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Same director as The Dark Knight, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
5 films together
Notably The Dark Knight
Luc Besson
Director
2 films together
Notably Léon: The Professional
David Yates
Director
2 films together
Notably Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Patrick Hughes
Director
2 films together
Notably The Hitman's Bodyguard
Joe Wright
Director
2 films together
Notably Darkest Hour
Alex Cox
Director
1 film together
Notably Sid and Nancy
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Henry & June
Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together
Notably State of Grace
Tom Stoppard
Director
1 film together
Notably Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably JFK
Francis Ford Coppola
Director
1 film together
Notably Bram Stoker's Dracula
Peter Medak
Director
1 film together
Notably Romeo Is Bleeding
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably True Romance
Bernard Rose
Director
1 film together
Notably Immortal Beloved
Roland Joffé
Director
1 film together
Notably The Scarlet Letter
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably Air Force One
Stephen Hopkins
Director
1 film together
Notably Lost in Space
Rod Lurie
Director
1 film together
Notably The Contender
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Hannibal
Bob Gale
Director
1 film together
Notably Interstate 60
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
David S. Goyer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Unborn
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably A Christmas Carol
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Eli
Catherine Hardwicke
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Riding Hood
Tomas Alfredson
Director
1 film together
Notably Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda 2
Robert Luketic
Director
1 film together
Notably Paranoia
Matt Reeves
Director
1 film together
Notably Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
José Padilha
Director
1 film together
Notably RoboCop
Daniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Child 44
Michael Goi
Director
1 film together
Notably Mary
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably Mank
Eran Creevy
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts
Paolo Sorrentino
Director
1 film together
Notably Parthenope
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Cillian Murphy
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Christian Bale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Aaron Eckhart
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Monique Gabriela Curnen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Ron Dean
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Chin Han
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Nestor Carbonell
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Eric Roberts
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
5 films together · 8.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Dark KnightLuc Besson
Director
2 films together · 8.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Léon: The ProfessionalDavid Yates
Director
2 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2Patrick Hughes
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Hitman's BodyguardJoe Wright
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Darkest HourAlfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
True RomanceFrancis Ford Coppola
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bram Stoker's DraculaOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JFKBob Gale
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Interstate 60Eran Creevy
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to HogwartsMatt Reeves
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dawn of the Planet of the ApesJennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda 2Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Christmas CarolPhil Joanou
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
State of GraceTom Stoppard
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are DeadAlbert 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 EliRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HannibalBernard Rose
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Immortal BelovedPaolo Sorrentino
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ParthenopeDavid Fincher
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MankRod Lurie
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 ContenderAlex Cox
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sid and NancyTomas Alfredson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Air Force OneDaniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Child 44Peter Medak
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romeo Is BleedingRoland Joffé
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 Scarlet LetterCatherine Hardwicke
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red Riding HoodPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Henry & JuneJosé Padilha
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RoboCopRobert Luketic
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ParanoiaStephen Hopkins
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lost in SpaceDavid S. Goyer
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The UnbornMichael Goi
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MarySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2009
The Dark Knight
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Oppenheimer
as Harry Truman
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 Dark Knight
as Gordon
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Oppenheimer
as Harry Truman
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
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. Gary Oldman has known it for a long time.”
“Why so serious?”
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.3 | 8.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #146 of 681 | #21 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 3 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.5 | 8.9 |
| Genres | Action, Crime, Drama | Drama, History, Thriller, Crime |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, David Fincher |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Charisma | Quiet performance, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2008–2008 | 2007–2023 |
| Most iconic role | Gordon — The Dark Knight | Lewis Strauss — Oppenheimer |
| Most rewatchable film | The Dark Knight | Zodiac |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Cillian Murphy
Our editors cannot separate them on the catalogue as it stands. Gary Oldman and Robert Downey Jr. 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
38 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
30 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
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Oppenheimer
as Harry Truman
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Woman in the Window
as Alistair Russell
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Courier
as Ezekiel Mannings
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Quest for Camelot
as Ruber (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dark Knight
as Gordon
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 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features The Dark Knight at #2
Read the collectiontheme
Best Heist Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
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
Jamie Harris
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Gary Oldman performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
