Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5099
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Steve Guttenberg represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 48 years in, and Steve is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Steve Guttenberg appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Steve. Cola Wars is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 comedy, drama, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Woody Allen, Mark Herzog and others, Steve Guttenberg 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.
Cola Wars (2019) as Self (archive footage) · The Floaters (2026) as Manny · Police Academy (1984) as Carey Mahoney
Career snapshot
Ranked #5099 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1978–2026
Career length
48 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
Cola Wars
Average Nutevio score
5.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Cola Wars
Most frequent director
Jerry Paris
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jerry Paris
Most common genre
Comedy
15 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
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
6.6
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
1970s
6.6 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Boys from Brazil — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
6.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
6.7
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. The Boys from Brazil.
Most productive era
1980s
9 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.61 film | 6.72 films | — | 4.53 films |
| Action | — | — | 5.41 film | 5.81 film |
| Thriller | — | — | 5.12 films | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.49 films | — | 5.56 films |
| Crime | — | 6.24 films | — | 5.81 film |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.11 film |
| Horror | — | — | 4.81 film | 5.32 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Barry Kohler.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Cola Wars
7.8 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
2026Broad Trip
The current state of the argument, as Wayne.
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.
22 of 22 films
as Self (archive footage)
Directed by Mark Herzog
as Carey Mahoney
Directed by Hugh Wilson
as Edward 'Eddie' Simmons
Directed by Barry Levinson
as Jack Bonner
Directed by Ron Howard
as Newton Crosby
Directed by John Badham
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
Self (archive footage)
Cola Wars (2019)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self (archive footage) gives Steve Guttenberg a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Carey Mahoney
Police Academy (1984)
Performance score7.4
Police Academy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Carey Mahoney is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Edward 'Eddie' Simmons
Diner (1982)
Performance score7.4
Diner asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Edward 'Eddie' Simmons is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Jack Bonner
Cocoon (1985)
Performance score7.3
Cocoon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack Bonner 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 Self (archive footage)
Start here. Cola Wars is the clearest statement of what Steve Guttenberg does — accessible, 84 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Steve 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.
Diner (1982)
A deliberate change of key after Cola Wars — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Police Academy (1984)
Keeps the comedy register of Diner but asks for a colder reading of it.
Cocoon (1985)
Keeps the comedy register of Police Academy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Short Circuit (1986)
Keeps the science fiction register of Cocoon but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jerry Paris
Director
2 films together
Notably Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
Franklin J. Schaffner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boys from Brazil
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Diner
Hugh Wilson
Director
1 film together
Notably Police Academy
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Cocoon
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Short Circuit
Robert K. Weiss
Director
1 film together
Notably Amazon Women on the Moon
Jim Drake
Director
1 film together
Notably Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Mark Herzog
Director
1 film together
Notably Cola Wars
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Rifkin's Festival
Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Broad Trip
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jerry Paris
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Police Academy 2: Their First AssignmentMark Herzog
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cola WarsHugh Wilson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Police AcademyBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DinerJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Short CircuitRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CocoonFranklin J. Schaffner
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 Boys from BrazilWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rifkin's FestivalRobert K. Weiss
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Amazon Women on the MoonJim Drake
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Police Academy 4: Citizens on PatrolYan-Kay Crystal Lowe
Director
1 film together · 4.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broad TripSix 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
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Roe v. Wade
as Justice Powell
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
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. Steve Guttenberg 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
48 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
15 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
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Roe v. Wade
as Justice Powell
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Cocoon
as Jack Bonner
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Cola Wars
as Self (archive footage)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Trauma Center
as Dr. Jones
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Roe v. Wade
as Justice Powell
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
as Mahoney
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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