Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5826
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matt Clark represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 47 years in, and Matt is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matt Clark appears in 15 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matt. Back to the Future Part III 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 western, comedy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Seth MacFarlane, Brian Helgeland, Michael Apted and others, Matt Clark 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.
Back to the Future Part III (1990) as Bartender · In the Heat of the Night (1967) as Packy · The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) as Kelly
Career snapshot
Ranked #5826 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
15
1967–2014
Career length
47 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Back to the Future Part III
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
In the Heat of the Night
Most frequent director
Clint Eastwood
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Clint Eastwood
Most common genre
Drama
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 56m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
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
7.0 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. The Bridge at Remagen, In the Heat of the Night — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
7.0
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1960s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Bridge at Remagen, In the Heat of the Night.
Most productive era
1970s
6 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 | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | 6.83 films | 6.41 film | 6.41 film | 7.21 film |
| Action | 6.61 film | 6.81 film | — | — | — |
| Thriller | 7.41 film | 6.81 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.41 film | 6.01 film | 7.61 film | 6.11 film |
| Crime | 7.41 film | — | — | 6.41 film | — |
| Romance | — | — | 6.01 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Packy.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1990Back to the Future Part III
7.6 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
2014A Million Ways to Die in the West
The current state of the argument, as Old Prospector.
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.
15 of 15 films
as Bartender
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Packy
Directed by Norman Jewison
as Uncle Henry
Directed by Walter Murch
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
Bartender
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bartender gives Matt Clark a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Kelly
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Performance score7.2
The Outlaw Josey Wales asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kelly is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Packy
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Performance score7.2
In the Heat of the Night asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Packy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Luther
42 (2013)
Performance score7.1
42 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Luther 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 Bartender
Start here. Back to the Future Part III is the clearest statement of what Matt Clark does — accessible, 119 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matt 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.
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
A deliberate change of key after Back to the Future Part III — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
A deliberate change of key after In the Heat of the Night — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Return to Oz (1985)
A deliberate change of key after The Outlaw Josey Wales — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
42 (2013)
A deliberate change of key after Return to Oz — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Clint Eastwood
Director
2 films together
Notably The Outlaw Josey Wales
Norman Jewison
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Heat of the Night
John Guillermin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bridge at Remagen
Don Siegel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beguiled
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably Jeremiah Johnson
Mark Rydell
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cowboys
John Huston
Director
1 film together
Notably The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Sam Peckinpah
Director
1 film together
Notably Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
W.D. Richter
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Walter Murch
Director
1 film together
Notably Return to Oz
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Back to the Future Part III
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably Class Action
Brian Helgeland
Director
1 film together
Notably 42
Seth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together
Notably A Million Ways to Die in the West
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Clint Eastwood
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 Outlaw Josey WalesRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Back to the Future Part IIINorman Jewison
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Heat of the NightBrian Helgeland
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
42Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jeremiah JohnsonSam Peckinpah
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pat Garrett & Billy the KidMark Rydell
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 CowboysDon 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 BeguiledWalter Murch
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Return to OzJohn Guillermin
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 Bridge at RemagenMichael Apted
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Class ActionJohn Huston
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 Life and Times of Judge Roy BeanSeth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Million Ways to Die in the WestW.D. Richter
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 Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionSix 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
Back to the Future Part III
as Bartender
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Honkytonk Man
as Virgil
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Back to the Future Part III
as Bartender
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
42
as Luther
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Back to the Future Part III
as Bartender
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. Matt Clark 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
In the Heat of the Night
as Packy
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
In the Heat of the Night
as Packy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Honkytonk Man
as Virgil
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
In the Heat of the Night
as Packy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Cowboys
as Smiley
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Cowboys
as Smiley
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Cowboys
as Smiley
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Back to the Future Part III
as Bartender
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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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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