Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2103
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jake Weber represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 37 years in, and Jake is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jake Weber appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jake. Meet Joe Black is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 comedy, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Taylor Sheridan, Jon Abrahams, Josef Rusnak and others, Jake Weber 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.
Meet Joe Black (1998) as Drew · Midway (2019) as Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance · Dawn of the Dead (2004) as Michael
Career snapshot
Ranked #2103 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
1989–2026
Career length
37 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Meet Joe Black
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Meet Joe Black
Most frequent director
Roland Emmerich
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Roland Emmerich
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
2h 0m
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
6.5
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
7.0 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Born on the Fourth of July — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.0
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. Born on the Fourth of July.
Most productive era
2020s
6 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 | 7.01 film | 6.85 films | — | 6.14 films | 2.72 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.82 films | 6.51 film | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.61 film | — | 6.51 film | 5.84 films |
| Comedy | — | 5.91 film | — | 6.21 film | 2.42 films |
| Crime | — | 6.61 film | — | — | 0.01 film |
| Romance | — | 7.22 films | — | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | 7.11 film | — | 5.83 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989Born on the Fourth of July
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Donna's Boyfriend - Syracuse, NY.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1998Meet Joe Black
7.4 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
2026A Crime Story
The current state of the argument.
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.
18 of 18 films
as Michael
Directed by Zack Snyder
as Drew
Directed by Martin Brest
as Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance
Directed by Roland Emmerich
as King Henry
Directed by Marshall Herskovitz
as Donna's Boyfriend - Syracuse, NY
Directed by Oliver Stone
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Michael
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Michael gives Jake Weber a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Drew
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Performance score7.5
Meet Joe Black asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Drew is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance
Midway (2019)
Performance score7.0
Midway asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
King Henry
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Performance score6.9
Dangerous Beauty asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. King Henry 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 Michael
Start here. Dawn of the Dead is the clearest statement of what Jake Weber does — accessible, 101 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jake 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.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
A deliberate change of key after Dawn of the Dead — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Keeps the drama register of Born on the Fourth of July but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Keeps the romance register of Meet Joe Black but asks for a colder reading of it.
Midway (2019)
Keeps the drama register of Dangerous Beauty but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Roland Emmerich
Director
2 films together
Notably Midway
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Born on the Fourth of July
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pelican Brief
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Amistad
Marshall Herskovitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Dangerous Beauty
Martin Brest
Director
1 film together
Notably Meet Joe Black
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Pushing Tin
Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together
Notably U-571
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dawn of the Dead
Isabel Coixet
Director
1 film together
Notably Learning to Drive
Josef Rusnak
Director
1 film together
Notably Berlin, I Love You
Jon Abrahams
Director
1 film together
Notably Clover
Taylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably Those Who Wish Me Dead
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Roland Emmerich
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
MidwayMartin Brest
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Meet Joe BlackZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dawn of the DeadMarshall Herskovitz
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dangerous BeautyOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Born on the Fourth of JulySteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmistadTaylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Those Who Wish Me DeadJonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
U-571Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Pelican BriefIsabel Coixet
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Learning to DriveMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pushing TinJosef Rusnak
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Berlin, I Love YouJon Abrahams
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CloverSix 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
Midway
as Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Meet Joe Black
as Drew
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Meet Joe Black
as Drew
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Born on the Fourth of July
as Donna's Boyfriend - Syracuse, NY
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Dawn of the Dead
as Michael
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. Jake Weber 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
37 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
12 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
Meet Joe Black
as Drew
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dawn of the Dead
as Michael
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Meet Joe Black
as Drew
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Amistad
as Mr. Wright
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dawn of the Dead
as Michael
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Dawn of the Dead
as Michael
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Meet Joe Black
as Drew
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
U-571
as Lt. Hirsch
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
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Have your say
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Reference
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