Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2365
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Lorraine Bracco represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Lorraine is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Lorraine Bracco appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lorraine. Goodfellas is the clearest case: a film rated 9.3 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, horror, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Stephen Chbosky, Julian Farino, David Henrie and others, Lorraine Bracco 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.
Goodfellas (1990) as Karen Hill · GoodFellas (1990) as Karen Hill · The Basketball Diaries (1995) as Jim's Mother
Career snapshot
Ranked #2365 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1989–2025
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.3
Goodfellas
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
Goodfellas
Most frequent director
Martin Scorsese
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Martin Scorsese
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
6.7
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
7.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Basketball Diaries, Hackers, Radio Flyer — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.8
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Basketball Diaries, Hackers, Radio Flyer.
Most productive era
2020s
9 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 | — | 7.85 films | 6.81 film | 0.01 film | 6.42 films |
| Action | — | 6.41 film | — | — | 6.01 film |
| Thriller | 6.11 film | 6.41 film | — | — | 5.32 films |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | — | 6.81 film | — | 6.44 films |
| Crime | 6.11 film | 8.04 films | — | — | 5.11 film |
| Romance | — | — | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 6.32 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989The Dream Team
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Riley.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1990Goodfellas
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.3 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
2025The Mother, the Menacer, and Me
The current state of the argument, as Nancy.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Karen Hill
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Karen Hill
Directed by Martin Scorsese
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 20 of 20 titles · 20 total credits · active 1989–2025
Nonnas
2025 · Roberta
The Mother, the Menacer, and Me
2025 · Nancy
The Union
2024 · Lorraine McKenna
Monster Summer
2024 · Miss Halverson
Rich Flu
2024 · Martha
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos
2024 · TV · Self
Pinocchio
2022 · Sofia the Seagull (voice)
Welcome to Mama's
2022 · Mama Tucci
The Birthday Cake
2021 · Sofia
GoodFellas: Behind Closed Doors
2020 · Self (Archive Footage)
AJ and the Queen
2020 · TV · Herself
Master Maggie
2019 · Actor
Rizzoli & Isles
2010 · TV · Angela Rizzoli
Riding in Cars with Boys
2001 · Teresa Donofrio
The Sopranos
1999 · TV · Jennifer Melfi
The Basketball Diaries
1995 · Jim's Mother
Hackers
1995 · Margo
Radio Flyer
1992 · Mary
GoodFellas
1990 · Karen Hill
The Dream Team
1989 · Riley
The defining work
#1
Karen Hill
Goodfellas (1990)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Karen Hill gives Lorraine Bracco a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Karen Hill
GoodFellas (1990)
Performance score8.6
GoodFellas asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Karen Hill is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jim's Mother
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Performance score7.7
The Basketball Diaries asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jim's Mother is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mary
Radio Flyer (1992)
Performance score7.6
Radio Flyer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mary 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 Karen Hill
Start here. Goodfellas is the clearest statement of what Lorraine Bracco does — accessible, 145 minutes, and rated 9.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lorraine 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.
GoodFellas (1990)
Same director as Goodfellas, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Radio Flyer (1992)
Keeps the drama register of GoodFellas but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Keeps the drama register of Radio Flyer but asks for a colder reading of it.
Nonnas (2025)
A deliberate change of key after The Basketball Diaries — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably Goodfellas
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Radio Flyer
Penny Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Riding in Cars with Boys
Allan Harmon
Director
1 film together
Notably Welcome to Mama's
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Pinocchio
David Henrie
Director
1 film together
Notably Monster Summer
Julian Farino
Director
1 film together
Notably The Union
Stephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together
Notably Nonnas
Robert De Niro
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Ray Liotta
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Joe Pesci
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Paul Sorvino
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Frank Sivero
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Tony Darrow
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Mike Starr
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Frank Vincent
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Chuck Low
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Frank DiLeo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Henny Youngman
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Gina Mastrogiacomo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Goodfellas
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 9.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
GoodfellasRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Radio FlyerStephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NonnasPenny Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Riding in Cars with BoysAllan Harmon
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Welcome to Mama'sDavid Henrie
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monster SummerRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PinocchioJulian Farino
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 UnionSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 1991
Goodfellas
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Welcome to Mama's
as Mama Tucci
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
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. Lorraine Bracco has known it for a long time.”
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
“Funny how? Like I'm a clown? I amuse you?”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.4 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #54 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.3 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Screen presence, Drama | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1990–1990 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Karen Hill — Goodfellas | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Goodfellas | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
36 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
9 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
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Welcome to Mama's
as Mama Tucci
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Monster Summer
as Miss Halverson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hackers
as Margo
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Welcome to Mama's
as Mama Tucci
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Goodfellas
as Karen Hill
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
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