Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7185
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
John Carradine represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 54 years in, and John is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
John Carradine appears in 34 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without John. The Ten Commandments is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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, fantasy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Francis Ford Coppola, Don Bluth, Michael Winner and others, John Carradine 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 Ten Commandments (1956) as Aaron · The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) as Cassius Starbuckle · The Grapes of Wrath (1940) as Casy
Career snapshot
Ranked #7185 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
34
1932–1986
Career length
54 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
The Ten Commandments
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Most frequent director
John Ford
7 films together
Longest collaboration
7×
With John Ford
Most common genre
Drama
14 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
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
6.9
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
1960s
7.5 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
7.5
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
7.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Jesse James, Stagecoach, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Most productive era
1930s
14 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 | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.58 films | 7.51 film | 7.02 films | — | 5.81 film | 6.72 films |
| Action | 6.51 film | — | — | — | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | 6.61 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.82 films | — | 6.51 film | 6.11 film |
| Crime | 6.81 film | — | — | — | 5.81 film | — |
| Romance | 6.44 films | — | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
| Horror | 7.04 films | 6.04 films | — | — | 6.21 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Christian Martyr / Gladiator Leader / Voice in Coliseum Mob (uncredited).
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Leo.
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.
34 of 34 films
as Lost Hunter at Hermit's Cottage (uncredited)
Directed by James Whale
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
Casy
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Casy gives John Carradine a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Aaron
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Performance score7.4
The Ten Commandments asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Aaron is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Hatfield
Stagecoach (1939)
Performance score7.4
Stagecoach asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hatfield is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Cassius Starbuckle
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Performance score7.3
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cassius Starbuckle 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 Casy
Start here. The Grapes of Wrath is the clearest statement of what John Carradine does — accessible, 129 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet John 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.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
A deliberate change of key after The Grapes of Wrath — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Stagecoach (1939)
A deliberate change of key after Bride of Frankenstein — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Ten Commandments (1956)
A deliberate change of key after Stagecoach — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
A deliberate change of key after The Ten Commandments — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Ford
Director
7 films together
Notably The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Fritz Lang
Director
3 films together
Notably Man Hunt
Cecil B. DeMille
Director
3 films together
Notably The Ten Commandments
James Whale
Director
2 films together
Notably Bride of Frankenstein
Erle C. Kenton
Director
2 films together
Notably House of Frankenstein
Edgar G. Ulmer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Black Cat
Richard Boleslawski
Director
1 film together
Notably Les Misérables
Victor Fleming
Director
1 film together
Notably Captains Courageous
Sidney Lanfield
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hound of the Baskervilles
Henry King
Director
1 film together
Notably Jesse James
Ford Beebe
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invisible Man's Revenge
Reginald Le Borg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mummy's Ghost
Nicholas Ray
Director
1 film together
Notably Johnny Guitar
Michael Curtiz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Egyptian
Melvin Frank
Director
1 film together
Notably The Court Jester
Michael Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Around the World in 80 Days
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Boxcar Bertha
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask
Don Siegel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Shootist
Michael Winner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sentinel
Don Bluth
Director
1 film together
Notably The Secret of NIMH
Francis Ford Coppola
Director
1 film together
Notably Peggy Sue Got Married
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Ford
Director
7 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 7 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceCecil B. DeMille
Director
3 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Ten CommandmentsFritz Lang
Director
3 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Man HuntJames Whale
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Bride of FrankensteinErle C. Kenton
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
House of FrankensteinDon Bluth
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Secret of NIMHNicholas Ray
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Johnny GuitarMelvin Frank
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Court JesterVictor Fleming
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Captains CourageousDon Siegel
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 ShootistSidney Lanfield
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 Hound of the BaskervillesMichael Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Around the World in 80 DaysRichard Boleslawski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Les MisérablesEdgar G. Ulmer
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 Black CatWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to AskMichael Curtiz
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The EgyptianHenry King
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jesse JamesMichael Winner
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SentinelFrancis Ford Coppola
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Peggy Sue Got MarriedReginald Le Borg
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 Mummy's GhostFord Beebe
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 Invisible Man's RevengeMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boxcar BerthaSix 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 Grapes of Wrath
as Casy
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 Secret of NIMH
as Great Owl (voice)
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 Grapes of Wrath
as Casy
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Cleopatra
as Roman Citizen/Party Guest/Soldier (uncredited) (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Grapes of Wrath
as Casy
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. John Carradine 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
54 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
14 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 Secret of NIMH
as Great Owl (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Hound of the Baskervilles
as Barryman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Secret of NIMH
as Great Owl (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Secret of NIMH
as Great Owl (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Cassius Starbuckle
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Hurricane
as Guard Captain
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Around the World in 80 Days
as Proctor Stamp
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
House of Dracula
as Count Dracula
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
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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