Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4749
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Robert Taylor represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Robert is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Robert Taylor appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Robert. The Matrix is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for horror, war, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Natalie Erika James, Jon Turteltaub, Jordan Vogt-Roberts and others, Robert Taylor 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 Matrix (1999) as Agent Jones · The Matrix (1999) as Agent Jones · Focus (2015) as McEwen
Career snapshot
Ranked #4749 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
11
1999–2026
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
The Matrix
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
The Matrix
Most frequent director
Natalie Erika James
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Natalie Erika James
Most common genre
Action
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
1990s
8.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Matrix, The Matrix — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
8.8
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
8.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
4 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Matrix, The Matrix.
Most productive era
2010s
4 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.11 film | 5.11 film | — |
| Action | 8.82 films | 6.13 films | 6.52 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.22 films | 5.11 film | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.91 film | — |
| Sci-Fi | 9.21 film | — | — | — |
| Crime | — | — | 6.02 films | — |
| Romance | — | — | 6.91 film | — |
| Horror | — | 6.31 film | 6.51 film | 6.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1999The Matrix
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Agent Jones. The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 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
2026Saccharine
The current state of the argument, as Travis.
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.
11 of 11 films
as Agent Jones
Directed by The Wachowskis
as Agent Jones
Directed by Lilly Wachowski
as Travis
Directed by Natalie Erika James
as McEwen
Directed by Glenn Ficarra
as Athena Captain
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
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 17 of 17 titles · 17 total credits · active 1999–2026
Saccharine
2026 · Travis
The Killings at Parrish Station
2026 · TV
NCIS: Origins
2024 · TV · Jackson Gibbs
Territory
2024 · TV · Colin Lawson
Scrublands
2023 · TV · Harley Reagan
The Newsreader
2021 · TV · Geoff Walters
Blood Vessel
2020 · Captain Malone
Into the Ashes
2019 · Frank Parson
The Meg
2018 · Heller
Kong: Skull Island
2017 · Athena Captain
Wolf Creek
2016 · TV · Roland Thorogood
Focus
2015 · McEwen
Longmire
2012 · TV · Walt Longmire
Rogue
2007 · Everett
Ned Kelly
2003 · Sherrit Trooper
Vertical Limit
2000 · Skip Taylor
The Matrix
1999 · Agent Jones
The defining work
#1
Agent Jones
The Matrix (1999)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Agent Jones gives Robert Taylor a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Agent Jones
The Matrix (1999)
Performance score8.2
The Matrix asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Agent Jones is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Travis
Saccharine (2026)
Performance score6.8
Saccharine asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Travis is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
McEwen
Focus (2015)
Performance score6.8
Focus asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. McEwen 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 Agent Jones
Start here. The Matrix is the clearest statement of what Robert Taylor does — accessible, 136 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Robert 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.
The Matrix (1999)
Keeps the action register of The Matrix but asks for a colder reading of it.
Focus (2015)
A deliberate change of key after The Matrix — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Focus — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Saccharine (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Kong: Skull Island — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Lilly Wachowski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
The Wachowskis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Martin Campbell
Director
1 film together
Notably Vertical Limit
Gregor Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Ned Kelly
Greg McLean
Director
1 film together
Notably Rogue
Glenn Ficarra
Director
1 film together
Notably Focus
Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Director
1 film together
Notably Kong: Skull Island
Jon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together
Notably The Meg
Natalie Erika James
Director
1 film together
Notably Saccharine
Carrie-Anne Moss
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Joe Pantoliano
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Keanu Reeves
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Laurence Fishburne
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Hugo Weaving
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Gloria Foster
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Marcus Chong
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Julian Arahanga
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Matt Doran
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Belinda McClory
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Anthony Ray Parker
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Paul Goddard
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
The Wachowskis
Director
1 film together · 9.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MatrixLilly Wachowski
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MatrixGlenn Ficarra
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FocusNatalie Erika James
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SaccharineJordan Vogt-Roberts
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kong: Skull IslandJon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MegGreg McLean
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RogueGregor Jordan
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ned KellyMartin Campbell
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vertical LimitSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2000
The Matrix
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Matrix
as Agent Jones
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Focus
as McEwen
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 Matrix
as Agent Jones
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Ned Kelly
as Sherrit Trooper
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Matrix
as Agent Jones
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. Robert Taylor has known it for a long time.”
“There is no spoon.”
“I know kung fu.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #308 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Action | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | The Wachowskis | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Action, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1999–1999 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Agent Jones — The Matrix | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Matrix | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time
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
27 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
7 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 Matrix
as Agent Jones
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Matrix
as Agent Jones
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Focus
as McEwen
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Into the Ashes
as Frank Parson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Matrix
as Agent Jones
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ned Kelly
as Sherrit Trooper
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Focus
as McEwen
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Matrix
as Agent Jones
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.
Keep reading
genre
Best Action Movies
Features The Matrix at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Philosophical Movies
Features The Matrix at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features The Matrix at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Action Movies
Features The Matrix at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features The Matrix
Read the collectionranking
Top 250 Movies of All Time
Features The Matrix
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Carrie-Anne Moss
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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