Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2918
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
James Rebhorn represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and James is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
James Rebhorn appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without James. Scent of a Woman is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 action, science fiction, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Shawn Levy, Tom Tykwer, Richard Kelly and others, James Rebhorn 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.
Scent of a Woman (1992) as Mr. Trask · The Game (1997) as Jim Feingold · Carlito's Way (1993) as Norwalk
Career snapshot
Ranked #2918 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
1983–2011
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
Scent of a Woman
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Carlito's Way
Most frequent director
Anthony Minghella
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Anthony Minghella
Most common genre
Drama
11 titles
Average runtime
2h 1m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.6
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. Real Steel — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.3
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.1
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. Cat's Eye, Silkwood.
Most productive era
1990s
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.91 film | 7.27 films | 6.32 films | 7.31 film |
| Action | — | 7.11 film | 5.32 films | 7.31 film |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 7.05 films | 5.92 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.51 film | 5.74 films | — |
| Crime | — | 6.83 films | 6.31 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.32 films | 6.74 films | — |
| Horror | 6.71 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Silkwood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Los Alamos Doctor.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1992Scent of a Woman
7.8 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
2011Real Steel
The current state of the argument, as Marvin.
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.
21 of 21 films
as Mr. Trask
Directed by Martin Brest
as Jim Feingold
Directed by David Fincher
as Norwalk
Directed by Brian De Palma
as George Wilbur
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
as Marvin
Directed by Shawn Levy
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
Mr. Trask
Scent of a Woman (1992)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mr. Trask gives James Rebhorn a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jim Feingold
The Game (1997)
Performance score7.7
The Game asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jim Feingold is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Norwalk
Carlito's Way (1993)
Performance score7.5
Carlito's Way asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Norwalk is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
George Wilbur
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Performance score7.3
My Cousin Vinny asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. George Wilbur 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 Mr. Trask
Start here. Scent of a Woman is the clearest statement of what James Rebhorn does — accessible, 156 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet James 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.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Keeps the drama register of Scent of a Woman but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carlito's Way (1993)
Keeps the drama register of My Cousin Vinny but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Game (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Carlito's Way but asks for a colder reading of it.
Real Steel (2011)
Keeps the drama register of The Game but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Nichols
Director
2 films together
Notably Silkwood
Anthony Minghella
Director
2 films together
Notably The Talented Mr. Ripley
Lewis Teague
Director
1 film together
Notably Cat's Eye
Michael Cimino
Director
1 film together
Notably Desperate Hours
Martin Brest
Director
1 film together
Notably Scent of a Woman
Jonathan Lynn
Director
1 film together
Notably My Cousin Vinny
Paul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together
Notably Basic Instinct
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably Carlito's Way
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably Independence Day
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably The Game
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Meet the Parents
Todd Haynes
Director
1 film together
Notably Far from Heaven
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Chris Rock
Director
1 film together
Notably Head of State
Michael McCullers
Director
1 film together
Notably Baby Mama
Richard Kelly
Director
1 film together
Notably The Box
Tom Tykwer
Director
1 film together
Notably The International
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Real Steel
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Anthony Minghella
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Talented Mr. RipleyMike Nichols
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
SilkwoodMartin Brest
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scent of a WomanDavid Fincher
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GameBrian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carlito's WayJonathan Lynn
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Cousin VinnyShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Real SteelTodd Haynes
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Far from HeavenRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Independence DayPaul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Basic InstinctJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Meet the ParentsLewis Teague
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cat's EyeTom Tykwer
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InternationalMichael McCullers
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Baby MamaRichard Kelly
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BoxChris Rock
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Head of StateMichael Cimino
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Desperate HoursRon Underwood
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 Adventures of Pluto NashSix 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 Game
as Jim Feingold
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Far from Heaven
as Dr. Bowman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scent of a Woman
as Mr. Trask
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Basic Instinct
as Dr. McElwaine
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scent of a Woman
as Mr. Trask
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. James Rebhorn 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
28 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
11 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 Game
as Jim Feingold
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Game
as Jim Feingold
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Cold Mountain
as Doctor
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Game
as Jim Feingold
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Independence Day
as Albert Nimzicki
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Independence Day
as Albert Nimzicki
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
My Cousin Vinny
as George Wilbur
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Independence Day
as Albert Nimzicki
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Zach Grenier
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Richmond Arquette
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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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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