Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1697
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Tommy Flanagan represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 29 years in, and Tommy is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Tommy Flanagan appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tommy. Gladiator is the clearest case: a film rated 8.5 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 mystery, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, John Wynn, James Gunn and others, Tommy Flanagan 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.
Gladiator (2000) as Cicero · Braveheart (1995) as Morrison · Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) as Tullk
Career snapshot
Ranked #1697 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1995–2024
Career length
29 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.5
Gladiator
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Gladiator
Most frequent director
Alfonso Pineda Ulloa
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Alfonso Pineda Ulloa
Most common genre
Action
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 52m
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
1990s
7.3 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Plunkett & Macleane, Face/Off, The Game — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.2
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. Plunkett & Macleane, Face/Off, The Game.
Most productive era
2020s
7 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 | 7.33 films | 8.51 film | 6.63 films | 6.14 films |
| Action | 7.23 films | 6.64 films | 6.24 films | 5.55 films |
| Thriller | 7.71 film | 6.73 films | 4.61 film | 5.84 films |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.03 films | — | 5.11 film |
| Crime | 7.21 film | 6.73 films | 5.92 films | 6.12 films |
| Horror | — | 5.71 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Braveheart
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Morrison.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2000Gladiator
8.5 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
2024Sleeping Dogs
The current state of the argument, as Jimmy Remis.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Cicero
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Morrison
Directed by Mel Gibson
as Tullk
Directed by James Gunn
as Solicitor / Taxi Driver
Directed by David Fincher
as Brian
Directed by Frank Miller
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Cicero
Gladiator (2000)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Cicero gives Tommy Flanagan a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Morrison
Braveheart (1995)
Performance score7.8
Braveheart asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Morrison is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Tullk
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Performance score7.6
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tullk is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Solicitor / Taxi Driver
The Game (1997)
Performance score7.5
The Game asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Solicitor / Taxi Driver 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 Cicero
Start here. Gladiator is the clearest statement of what Tommy Flanagan does — accessible, 155 minutes, and rated 8.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Tommy 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.
Braveheart (1995)
Keeps the action register of Gladiator but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Game (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Braveheart but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sin City (2005)
Keeps the thriller register of The Game but asks for a colder reading of it.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Sin City — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mel Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably Braveheart
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably The Game
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Face/Off
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Gladiator
Kevin Bray
Director
1 film together
Notably All About the Benjamins
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Frank Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Sin City
Joe Carnahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Smokin' Aces
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably When a Stranger Calls
Fernando Coimbra
Director
1 film together
Notably Sand Castle
James Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
John Wynn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rising Hawk
Alfonso Pineda Ulloa
Director
1 film together
Notably There Are No Saints
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GladiatorMel Gibson
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BraveheartJames Gunn
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2David Fincher
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GameFrank Miller
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sin CityJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Face/OffFernando Coimbra
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sand CastleJoe Carnahan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smokin' AcesJohn Wynn
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rising HawkKevin Bray
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All About the BenjaminsSimon West
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
When a Stranger CallsMcG
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Charlie's Angels: Full ThrottleAlfonso Pineda Ulloa
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
There Are No SaintsSix 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
Gladiator
as Cicero
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Gladiator
as Cicero
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gladiator
as Cicero
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Papillon
as Masked Breton
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Gladiator
as Cicero
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. Tommy Flanagan 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
29 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
16 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
Gladiator
as Cicero
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Gladiator
as Cicero
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Papillon
as Masked Breton
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Game
as Solicitor / Taxi Driver
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Gladiator
as Cicero
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Gladiator
as Cicero
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Papillon
as Masked Breton
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Gladiator
as Cicero
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — David Fincher
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Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Zach Grenier
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Richmond Arquette
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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