Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5663
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
JoBeth Williams represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 47 years in, and JoBeth is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
JoBeth Williams appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without JoBeth. Kramer vs. Kramer 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 music, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tony Gilroy, Joe Carnahan, David Frankel and others, JoBeth Williams 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.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) as Phyllis Bernard · Poltergeist (1982) as Diane Freeling · The Big Chill (1983) as Karen Bowens
Career snapshot
Ranked #5663 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1979–2026
Career length
47 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Kramer vs. Kramer
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Kramer vs. Kramer
Most frequent director
Lawrence Kasdan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Lawrence Kasdan
Most common genre
Drama
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.6
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
1970s
7.4 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Kramer vs. Kramer — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.4
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Kramer vs. Kramer.
Most productive era
1980s
4 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | 5.91 film | — | 3.93 films |
| Action | — | 5.81 film | 5.41 film | — | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 5.81 film | — | — | — | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.72 films | 5.41 film | 6.12 films | 6.01 film | — |
| Crime | — | 6.51 film | — | — | — | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.12 films | — | — |
| Horror | — | 7.11 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Phyllis Bernard. 7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1982Poltergeist
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Behemoth!
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.
13 of 13 films
as Diane Freeling
Directed by Tobe Hooper
as Marcia
Directed by Joe Carnahan
as Karen Bowens
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
as Meredith
Directed by Sidney Poitier
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
Diane Freeling
Poltergeist (1982)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Diane Freeling gives JoBeth Williams a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Phyllis Bernard
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Performance score7.2
Kramer vs. Kramer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Phyllis Bernard is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Marcia
Not Without Hope (2025)
Performance score6.7
Not Without Hope asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Marcia is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Karen Bowens
The Big Chill (1983)
Performance score6.7
The Big Chill asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Karen Bowens 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 Diane Freeling
Start here. Poltergeist is the clearest statement of what JoBeth Williams does — accessible, 114 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet JoBeth 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.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
A deliberate change of key after Poltergeist — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Stir Crazy (1980)
A deliberate change of key after Kramer vs. Kramer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Big Chill (1983)
Keeps the comedy register of Stir Crazy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Not Without Hope (2025)
Keeps the drama register of The Big Chill but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Big Chill
Robert Benton
Director
1 film together
Notably Kramer vs. Kramer
Sidney Poitier
Director
1 film together
Notably Stir Crazy
John Irvin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dogs of War
Tobe Hooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Poltergeist
Roger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together
Notably Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Fever Pitch
Jon Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Land of Women
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big Year
Joe Carnahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Not Without Hope
Tony Gilroy
Director
1 film together
Notably Behemoth!
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Lawrence Kasdan
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 Big ChillRobert Benton
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kramer vs. KramerTobe Hooper
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PoltergeistJoe Carnahan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Not Without HopeSidney Poitier
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stir CrazyBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fever PitchDavid Frankel
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big YearJon Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Land of WomenJohn Irvin
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 Dogs of WarRoger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stop! Or My Mom Will ShootTony Gilroy
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Behemoth!Six 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
Kramer vs. Kramer
as Phyllis Bernard
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
In the Land of Women
as Agnes Webb
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Kramer vs. Kramer
as Phyllis Bernard
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Wyatt Earp
as Bessie Earp
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Poltergeist
as Diane Freeling
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. JoBeth Williams 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
47 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
7 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
Kramer vs. Kramer
as Phyllis Bernard
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Poltergeist
as Diane Freeling
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
In the Land of Women
as Agnes Webb
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Not Without Hope
as Marcia
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Kramer vs. Kramer
as Phyllis Bernard
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Dogs of War
as Jessie
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
In the Land of Women
as Agnes Webb
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
as Gwen Harper
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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Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Edward Norton
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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