Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3027
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
René Auberjonois represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 50 years in, and René is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
René Auberjonois appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without René. The Little Mermaid 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 western, drama, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Bobs Gannaway, Joe Sichta, Pete Michels and others, René Auberjonois 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 Little Mermaid (1989) as Louis (voice) · Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! (2007) as Alphonse LaFleur (voice) · The Patriot (2000) as Reverend Oliver
Career snapshot
Ranked #3027 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1970–2020
Career length
50 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Little Mermaid
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!
Most frequent director
Robert Altman
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Robert Altman
Most common genre
Family
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
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
1980s
7.3 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Little Mermaid, The Last Unicorn — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. King Kong, The Hindenburg, McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.73 films | — | 7.21 film | 7.12 films | 6.01 film | 7.01 film |
| Action | — | — | 5.71 film | 7.21 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.31 film | — | 7.21 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.91 film | — | 7.02 films | 6.93 films | 6.02 films | — |
| Crime | — | — | 6.52 films | — | — | — |
| Horror | 6.41 film | — | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1970M*A*S*H
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Father John Mulcahy.
Highest rated performance
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2020First Cow
The current state of the argument, as Man with Raven.
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.
20 of 20 films
as Alphonse LaFleur (voice)
Directed by Joe Sichta
as Louis (voice)
Directed by John Musker
as Reverend Oliver
Directed by Roland Emmerich
as René Auberjonois
Directed by Robert Altman
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
Alphonse LaFleur (voice)
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! (2007)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Alphonse LaFleur (voice) gives René Auberjonois a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Louis (voice)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Performance score7.3
The Little Mermaid asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Louis (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sheehan
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Performance score7.3
McCabe & Mrs. Miller asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sheehan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Reverend Oliver
The Patriot (2000)
Performance score7.1
The Patriot asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Reverend Oliver 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 Alphonse LaFleur (voice)
Start here. Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! is the clearest statement of what René Auberjonois does — accessible, 73 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet René 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.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
A deliberate change of key after Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Little Mermaid (1989)
A deliberate change of key after McCabe & Mrs. Miller — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Player (1992)
A deliberate change of key after The Little Mermaid — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Patriot (2000)
Keeps the drama register of The Player but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Altman
Director
3 films together
Notably The Player
Robert Wise
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hindenburg
John Guillermin
Director
1 film together
Notably King Kong
Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Unicorn
John Musker
Director
1 film together
Notably The Little Mermaid
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman Forever
Mark Dindal
Director
1 film together
Notably Cats Don't Dance
Robert C. Ramirez
Director
1 film together
Notably Joseph: King of Dreams
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Patriot
Steve Loter
Director
1 film together
Notably Tarzan & Jane
Pete Michels
Director
1 film together
Notably Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Joe Sichta
Director
1 film together
Notably Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!
Bobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together
Notably Planes: Fire & Rescue
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Altman
Director
3 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The PlayerJohn Musker
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Little MermaidJoe Sichta
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!Roland Emmerich
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 PatriotArthur Rankin, Jr.
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last UnicornPete Michels
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stewie Griffin: The Untold StoryRobert C. Ramirez
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joseph: King of DreamsMark Dindal
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cats Don't DanceJohn Guillermin
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King KongRobert Wise
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 HindenburgBobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Planes: Fire & RescueSteve Loter
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tarzan & JaneJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman ForeverSix 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 Player
as René Auberjonois
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 Little Mermaid
as Louis (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 Little Mermaid
as Louis (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Player
as René Auberjonois
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!
as Alphonse LaFleur (voice)
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. René Auberjonois 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
50 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.
Family Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in family, 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 Little Mermaid
as Louis (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Player
as René Auberjonois
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Joseph: King of Dreams
as Butler (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Player
as René Auberjonois
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Patriot
as Reverend Oliver
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Batman Forever
as Dr. Burton
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Cats Don't Dance
as Flanigan (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Batman Forever
as Dr. Burton
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Reference
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