Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#12973
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Peter Fonda represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 52 years in, and Peter is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Peter Fonda appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Peter. The Last Full Measure is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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 war, action, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Todd Robinson, Tommy O'Haver, John McNaughton and others, Peter Fonda 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 Last Full Measure (2020) as Jimmy Burr · 3:10 to Yuma (2007) as Byron McElroy · Easy Rider (1969) as Wyatt
Career snapshot
Ranked #12973 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1968–2020
Career length
52 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
The Last Full Measure
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
The Last Full Measure
Most frequent director
Todd Robinson
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Todd Robinson
Most common genre
Action
6 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
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
6.8
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
2020s
7.3 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Last Full Measure — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.3
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.3
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. Easy Rider, Spirits of the Dead.
Most productive era
2000s
5 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.72 films | — | — | 5.81 film | 5.62 films | 7.31 film |
| Action | — | 6.31 film | 5.91 film | 6.03 films | — | 7.31 film |
| Thriller | — | — | 5.91 film | 6.02 films | 6.01 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.31 film | — | 6.01 film | — | — |
| Crime | — | — | — | 6.01 film | 6.21 film | — |
| Horror | 6.31 film | — | — | — | 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 Baron Wilhelm Berlifitzing (segment "Metzengerstein").
Career peak
1969Easy Rider
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance · Most recent film
7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. The current state of the argument, as Jimmy Burr.
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 Byron McElroy
Directed by James Mangold
as Wyatt
Directed by Dennis Hopper
as Jimmy Burr
Directed by Todd Robinson
as Reverend Harrington
Directed by Tommy O'Haver
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
Byron McElroy
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Byron McElroy gives Peter Fonda a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Wyatt
Easy Rider (1969)
Performance score7.6
Easy Rider asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wyatt is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jimmy Burr
The Last Full Measure (2020)
Performance score7.2
The Last Full Measure asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jimmy Burr is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Reverend Harrington
The Most Hated Woman in America (2017)
Performance score6.5
The Most Hated Woman in America asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Reverend Harrington 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 Byron McElroy
Start here. 3:10 to Yuma is the clearest statement of what Peter Fonda does — accessible, 122 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Peter 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.
Easy Rider (1969)
A deliberate change of key after 3:10 to Yuma — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Runner (2015)
Keeps the drama register of Easy Rider but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Most Hated Woman in America (2017)
Keeps the drama register of The Runner but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Last Full Measure (2020)
Keeps the drama register of The Most Hated Woman in America but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Roger Vadim
Director
1 film together
Notably Spirits of the Dead
Dennis Hopper
Director
1 film together
Notably Easy Rider
Hal Needham
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cannonball Run
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape from L.A.
Asia Argento
Director
1 film together
Notably The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably 3:10 to Yuma
Mark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost Rider
John McNaughton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Harvest
Tommy O'Haver
Director
1 film together
Notably The Most Hated Woman in America
Todd Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Full Measure
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Todd Robinson
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last Full MeasureJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
3:10 to YumaDennis Hopper
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Easy RiderHal Needham
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cannonball RunRoger Vadim
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spirits of the DeadTommy O'Haver
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 Most Hated Woman in AmericaJohn McNaughton
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 HarvestMark Steven Johnson
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghost RiderJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape from L.A.Asia Argento
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 Heart Is Deceitful Above All ThingsSix 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
3:10 to Yuma
as Byron McElroy
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Easy Rider
as Wyatt
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Easy Rider
as Wyatt
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Wild Hogs
as Damien Blade
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
3:10 to Yuma
as Byron McElroy
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. Peter Fonda 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
52 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
6 catalogue titles in action, 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 Last Full Measure
as Jimmy Burr
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Spirits of the Dead
as Baron Wilhelm Berlifitzing (segment "Metzengerstein")
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Easy Rider
as Wyatt
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Harvest
as Grandfather
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Last Full Measure
as Jimmy Burr
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Wild Hogs
as Damien Blade
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Last Full Measure
as Jimmy Burr
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ghost Rider
as Mephistopheles / Mephisto
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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