Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#492
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Sam Rockwell represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Sam is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Sam Rockwell appears in 57 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sam. The Green Mile is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 action, science fiction, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Gore Verbinski, Brad Bird, Pierre Perifel and others, Sam Rockwell 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 Green Mile (1999) as 'Wild Bill' Wharton · The Green Mile (1999) as 'Wild Bill' Wharton · Jojo Rabbit (2019) as Captain Klenzendorf
Career snapshot
Ranked #492 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
57
1990–2026
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Green Mile
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.6
The Green Mile
Most frequent director
Jon Favreau
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Jon Favreau
Most common genre
Comedy
33 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
7.0
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
7.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Green Mile, The Green Mile, Galaxy Quest — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.0
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Green Mile, The Green Mile, Galaxy Quest.
Most productive era
2010s
22 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 | 7.45 films | 6.513 films | 6.812 films | 7.41 film |
| Action | 6.71 film | 5.93 films | 6.53 films | 6.93 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.44 films | 5.73 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.54 films | 6.210 films | 6.411 films | 7.08 films |
| Crime | 8.23 films | 6.46 films | 6.95 films | 5.34 films |
| Romance | 6.41 film | 6.62 films | 6.03 films | — |
| Horror | 6.11 film | 5.61 film | 5.21 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1990Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Head Thug.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1999The Green Mile
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2026Ray Gunn
The current state of the argument, as Raymond Gunn (voice).
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.
57 of 57 films
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
Directed by Frank Darabont
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
Directed by Frank Darabont
as Wolf (voice)
Directed by Pierre Perifel
as Wolf (voice)
Directed by Pierre Perifel
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 24 of 61 titles · 63 total credits · active 1990–2026
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
2026 · The Man from the Future
Ray Gunn
2026 · Raymond Gunn (voice)
The Bad Guys 2
2025 · Wolf (voice)
IF
2024 · Guardian Dog (voice)
Argylle
2024 · Aidan Wilde
The Bad Guys
2022 · Wolf (voice)
See How They Run
2022 · Inspector Stoppard
The Last Movie Stars
2022 · TV · Self
The White Lotus
2021 · TV · Frank
Trolls World Tour
2020 · Hickory (voice)
The One and Only Ivan
2020 · Ivan (voice)
Sweet Thing
2020 · Executive Producer
Jojo Rabbit
2019 · Captain Klenzendorf
Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary
2019 · Self
Richard Jewell
2019 · Watson Bryant
The Best of Enemies
2019 · Claiborne Paul Ellis
Mute
2018 · Sam Bell
Vice
2018 · George W. Bush
Woman Walks Ahead
2018 · Silas Groves
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2017 · Dixon
Mr. Right
2016 · Mr. Right
Digging for Fire
2015 · Ray
Poltergeist
2015 · Eric Bowen
F is for Family
2015 · TV · Vic (voice)
The defining work
#1
'Wild Bill' Wharton
The Green Mile (1999)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. 'Wild Bill' Wharton gives Sam Rockwell a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
'Wild Bill' Wharton
The Green Mile (1999)
Performance score8.4
The Green Mile asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 'Wild Bill' Wharton is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dixon
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Performance score8.3
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dixon is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Wolf (voice)
The Bad Guys 2 (2025)
Performance score8.1
The Bad Guys 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wolf (voice) 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 'Wild Bill' Wharton
Start here. The Green Mile is the clearest statement of what Sam Rockwell does — accessible, 189 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sam 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 Green Mile (1999)
Same director as The Green Mile, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Keeps the crime register of The Green Mile but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Bad Guys (2022)
Keeps the crime register of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Bad Guys 2 (2025)
Same director as The Bad Guys, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jon Favreau
Director
3 films together
Notably Iron Man 2
Frank Darabont
Director
2 films together
Notably The Green Mile
David Gordon Green
Director
2 films together
Notably Snow Angels
Martin McDonagh
Director
2 films together
Notably Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Duncan Jones
Director
2 films together
Notably Moon
Pierre Perifel
Director
2 films together
Notably The Bad Guys 2
Victor Salva
Director
1 film together
Notably Clownhouse
Steve Barron
Director
1 film together
Notably Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Paul Schrader
Director
1 film together
Notably Light Sleeper
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Celebrity
Michael Hoffman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Midsummer Night's Dream
Dean Parisot
Director
1 film together
Notably Galaxy Quest
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably Charlie's Angels
David Mamet
Director
1 film together
Notably Heist
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably Welcome to Collinwood
George Clooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Matchstick Men
Garth Jennings
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Andrew Dominik
Director
1 film together
Notably The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Clark Gregg
Director
1 film together
Notably Choke
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Frost/Nixon
Jared Hess
Director
1 film together
Notably Gentlemen Broncos
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Everybody's Fine
Tony Goldwyn
Director
1 film together
Notably Conviction
Kat Coiro
Director
1 film together
Notably A Case of You
Jim Rash
Director
1 film together
Notably The Way Way Back
Lynn Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Laggies
Joe Swanberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Digging for Fire
Paco Cabezas
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Right
Susanna White
Director
1 film together
Notably Woman Walks Ahead
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Vice
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Richard Jewell
Taika Waititi
Director
1 film together
Notably Jojo Rabbit
Thea Sharrock
Director
1 film together
Notably The One and Only Ivan
Walt Dohrn
Director
1 film together
Notably Trolls World Tour
Tom George
Director
1 film together
Notably See How They Run
Matthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together
Notably Argylle
John Krasinski
Director
1 film together
Notably IF
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably Ray Gunn
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
William Sadler
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Jeffrey DeMunn
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Harry Dean Stanton
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Tom Hanks
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Bonnie Hunt
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
David Morse
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Michael Clarke Duncan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
James Cromwell
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Michael Jeter
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Graham Greene
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Doug Hutchison
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Barry Pepper
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Green Mile
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jon Favreau
Director
3 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Iron Man 2Frank Darabont
Director
2 films together · 8.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Green MilePierre Perifel
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Bad Guys 2Martin McDonagh
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriDuncan Jones
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MoonDavid Gordon Green
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Snow AngelsTaika Waititi
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jojo RabbitThea Sharrock
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The One and Only IvanClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Richard JewellRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Frost/NixonWalt Dohrn
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trolls World TourGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't DieJim Rash
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Way Way BackTony Goldwyn
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ConvictionAndrew Dominik
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordDean Parisot
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Galaxy QuestAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ViceRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Matchstick MenJohn Krasinski
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
IFSusanna White
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Woman Walks AheadKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everybody's FineGarth Jennings
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyGeorge Clooney
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Confessions of a Dangerous MindPaul Schrader
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Light SleeperSteve Barron
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesPaco Cabezas
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. RightMichael Hoffman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Midsummer Night's DreamTom George
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
See How They RunDavid Mamet
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HeistLynn Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LaggiesClark Gregg
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChokeAnthony Russo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Welcome to CollinwoodVictor Salva
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ClownhouseMatthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ArgylleWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CelebrityMcG
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Charlie's AngelsJared Hess
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gentlemen BroncosKat Coiro
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Case of YouJoe Swanberg
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Digging for FireBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ray GunnSix 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 Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
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 Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
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 Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Basquiat
as Thug
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
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. Sam Rockwell has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.0 | 8.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #482 of 681 | #9 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 8.6 |
| Genres | Drama, Fantasy, Crime | Animation, Family, Comedy, Drama |
| Directors | Frank Darabont | Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Quiet performance, Drama | Emotional range, Quiet performance, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1999–1999 | 1999–2026 |
| Most iconic role | 'Wild Bill' Wharton — The Green Mile | Paul Edgecomb — The Green Mile |
| Most rewatchable film | The Green Mile | The Green Mile |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
The Green Mile
Shared directors
frank-darabont
Shared collections
Best Prison Movies, Best Courtroom Dramas, Fantasy Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Frank Darabont · William Sadler · Jeffrey DeMunn · Harry Dean Stanton · Bonnie Hunt · David Morse · Michael Clarke Duncan · James Cromwell
Tom Hanks 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
33 catalogue titles in comedy, 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 Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Trolls World Tour
as Hickory (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
See How They Run
as Inspector Stoppard
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Cowboys & Aliens
as Doc
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Trolls World Tour
as Hickory (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Green Mile
as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
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 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Best Prison Movies
Features The Green Mile at #2
Read the collectiontheme
Best Courtroom Dramas
Features The Green Mile at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Fantasy Movies
Features The Green Mile at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Green Mile
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Green Mile
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Bonnie Hunt
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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