Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4116
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Lee Garlington represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Lee is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Lee Garlington appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lee. Prayers for Bobby is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 John Lee Hancock, Ellie Kanner, Phil Alden Robinson and others, Lee Garlington 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.
Prayers for Bobby (2009) as Psychologist · Akeelah and the Bee (2006) as Regional Judge · Field of Dreams (1989) as Beulah Gasnick
Career snapshot
Ranked #4116 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1983–2026
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Prayers for Bobby
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Prayers for Bobby
Most frequent director
Phil Alden Robinson
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Phil Alden Robinson
Most common genre
Drama
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
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
1990s
6.6 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Dante's Peak, My Life, Sneakers — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.6
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.6
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. Field of Dreams, The Seventh Sign, Psycho III.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.52 films | 6.63 films | 6.77 films | 5.61 film | 6.41 film |
| Action | 6.31 film | 6.31 film | 6.41 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.24 films | 6.31 film | 6.62 films | — | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.91 film | 6.36 films | 5.62 films | 3.12 films |
| Crime | 6.31 film | 6.91 film | — | — | 6.41 film |
| Romance | — | 6.71 film | 6.44 films | 5.61 film | 6.31 film |
| Horror | 6.23 films | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Psycho II
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Myrna.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.5 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
2026Achiever
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.
23 of 23 films
as Psychologist
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
as Beulah Gasnick
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
as Dr. Elena Rhyzkov
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
as Stewardess
Directed by Nigel Cole
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
Psychologist
Prayers for Bobby (2009)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Psychologist gives Lee Garlington a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Regional Judge
Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
Performance score7.0
Akeelah and the Bee asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Regional Judge is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Beulah Gasnick
Field of Dreams (1989)
Performance score6.9
Field of Dreams asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Beulah Gasnick is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dr. Elena Rhyzkov
Sneakers (1992)
Performance score6.8
Sneakers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Elena Rhyzkov 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 Psychologist
Start here. Prayers for Bobby is the clearest statement of what Lee Garlington does — accessible, 89 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lee 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.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Keeps the drama register of Prayers for Bobby but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sneakers (1992)
Same director as Field of Dreams, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
A Lot Like Love (2005)
Keeps the comedy register of Sneakers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
Keeps the drama register of A Lot Like Love but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
4 films together
Notably Field of Dreams
Richard Franklin
Director
1 film together
Notably Psycho II
George P. Cosmatos
Director
1 film together
Notably Cobra
Anthony Perkins
Director
1 film together
Notably Psycho III
Carl Schultz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Seventh Sign
Bruce Joel Rubin
Director
1 film together
Notably My Life
Roger Donaldson
Director
1 film together
Notably Dante's Peak
Robert Iscove
Director
1 film together
Notably Boys and Girls
Tom Brady
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hot Chick
Mark Romanek
Director
1 film together
Notably One Hour Photo
Nigel Cole
Director
1 film together
Notably A Lot Like Love
Sanaa Hamri
Director
1 film together
Notably Something New
Russell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together
Notably Prayers for Bobby
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably Some Kind of Beautiful
Ellie Kanner
Director
1 film together
Notably Candy Coated Christmas
John Lee Hancock
Director
1 film together
Notably The Little Things
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
4 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Field of DreamsRussell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Prayers for BobbyNigel Cole
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Lot Like LoveMark Romanek
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Hour PhotoBruce Joel Rubin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My LifeSanaa Hamri
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Something NewRichard Franklin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Psycho IIJohn Lee Hancock
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 Little ThingsTom Brady
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 Hot ChickEllie Kanner
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Candy Coated ChristmasRoger Donaldson
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dante's PeakGeorge P. Cosmatos
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CobraRobert Iscove
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boys and GirlsCarl Schultz
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 Seventh SignAnthony Perkins
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Psycho IIITom Vaughan
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Some Kind of BeautifulSix 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
Prayers for Bobby
as Psychologist
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
My Life
as Carol Sandman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Prayers for Bobby
as Psychologist
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Little Things
as Landlady
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Prayers for Bobby
as Psychologist
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. Lee Garlington 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
43 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
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
Field of Dreams
as Beulah Gasnick
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Psycho II
as Myrna
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
My Life
as Carol Sandman
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Psycho II
as Myrna
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dante's Peak
as Dr. Jane Fox
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Dante's Peak
as Dr. Jane Fox
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sneakers
as Dr. Elena Rhyzkov
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Psycho III
as Myrna
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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