Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10652
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Jack Thompson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Jack is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jack Thompson appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jack. Home is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 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, adventure, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Russell Crowe, Derek Cianfrance, Baz Luhrmann and others, Jack Thompson 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.
Home (2019) · The Great Gatsby (2013) as Dr. Walter Perkins · The Light Between Oceans (2016) as Ralph Addicott
Career snapshot
Ranked #10652 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1982–2024
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Home
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Home
Most frequent director
Baz Luhrmann
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Baz Luhrmann
Most common genre
Drama
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
6.8
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
2010s
7.3 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Home, The Light Between Oceans, Mystery Road — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.3
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Short Circuit, Flesh + Blood, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Most productive era
2000s
8 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 | 6.83 films | 6.31 film | 6.26 films | 7.74 films | 6.13 films |
| Action | — | 6.12 films | 5.52 films | — | 6.41 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.11 film | 6.23 films | 6.02 films | 6.02 films |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 6.11 film | 5.91 film | — | 6.02 films |
| Crime | — | 6.22 films | 6.51 film | 6.31 film | 5.61 film |
| Romance | 6.71 film | — | 5.86 films | 7.32 films | 5.81 film |
| Horror | — | — | 4.31 film | 5.81 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Clancy.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Home
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 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
2024Runt
The current state of the argument, as Earl Robert-Barren.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Ralph Addicott
Directed by Derek Cianfrance
as Dr. Walter Perkins
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
as Jack Jones
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.
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The defining work
#1
Home
Home (2019)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. The role gives Jack Thompson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ralph Addicott
The Light Between Oceans (2016)
Performance score7.2
The Light Between Oceans asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ralph Addicott is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. Walter Perkins
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Performance score7.2
The Great Gatsby asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Walter Perkins is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Hicksley
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Performance score7.1
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hicksley 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
Start here. Home is the clearest statement of what Jack Thompson does — accessible, 16 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jack 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.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Keeps the drama register of Home but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
Keeps the drama register of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Keeps the drama register of The Assassination of Richard Nixon but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Light Between Oceans (2016)
Keeps the romance register of The Great Gatsby but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Baz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together
Notably The Great Gatsby
George T. Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man from Snowy River
Nagisa Ōshima
Director
1 film together
Notably Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Paul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together
Notably Flesh + Blood
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Short Circuit
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Broken Arrow
Marco Brambilla
Director
1 film together
Notably Excess Baggage
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Michael Cristofer
Director
1 film together
Notably Original Sin
George Lucas
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Rod Hardy
Director
1 film together
Notably December Boys
George Clooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Leatherheads
Derek Cianfrance
Director
1 film together
Notably The Light Between Oceans
Russell Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Poker Face
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Baz Luhrmann
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
The Great GatsbyDerek Cianfrance
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 Light Between OceansNagisa Ōshima
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Merry Christmas, Mr. LawrenceGeorge Lucas
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the ClonesJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Short CircuitGeorge T. Miller
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 Man from Snowy RiverPaul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flesh + BloodClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Midnight in the Garden of Good and EvilMichael Cristofer
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Original SinMarco Brambilla
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Excess BaggageJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broken ArrowRod Hardy
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
December BoysGeorge Clooney
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LeatherheadsRussell Crowe
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Poker FaceSix 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
Home
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 Great Gatsby
as Dr. Walter Perkins
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Home
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Short Circuit
as Party Guest
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Home
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. Jack Thompson 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
42 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
17 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
Home
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Home
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Light Between Oceans
as Ralph Addicott
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
as Sonny Seiler
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Home
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
High Ground
as Moran
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Runt
as Earl Robert-Barren
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
as Cliegg Lars
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
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
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: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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