Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#340
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Will Patton represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Will is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Will Patton appears in 36 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Will. Remember the Titans is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 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, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kevin Costner, Annie Baker, David Gordon Green and others, Will Patton 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.
Remember the Titans (2000) as Coach Bill Yoast · After Hours (1985) as Horst · Train Dreams (2025) as Narrator (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #340 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
36
1983–2026
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
Remember the Titans
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
Remember the Titans
Most frequent director
Kevin Costner
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Kevin Costner
Most common genre
Drama
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
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
6.7
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
7.1 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. No Way Out, After Hours, Silkwood — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.1
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. No Way Out, After Hours, Silkwood.
Most productive era
2020s
12 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.13 films | 6.33 films | 6.83 films | 6.15 films | 6.77 films |
| Action | — | 6.33 films | 6.03 films | 6.11 film | 6.91 film |
| Thriller | 7.22 films | 6.22 films | 6.43 films | 5.95 films | 5.84 films |
| Comedy | 7.51 film | — | 5.21 film | — | — |
| Crime | — | 6.32 films | 6.03 films | 5.93 films | 5.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.33 films | — | — | — |
| Horror | — | 5.81 film | — | 6.61 film | 6.04 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Silkwood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Joe.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.7 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
2026You Can't Win
The current state of the argument, as Foot and a Half George.
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.
36 of 36 films
as Horst
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Narrator (voice)
Directed by Unknown
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
Coach Bill Yoast
Remember the Titans (2000)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Coach Bill Yoast gives Will Patton a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Paul
Minari (2021)
Performance score7.4
Minari asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paul is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jim
Megan Leavey (2017)
Performance score7.4
Megan Leavey asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jim is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Horst
After Hours (1985)
Performance score7.3
After Hours asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Horst 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 Coach Bill Yoast
Start here. Remember the Titans is the clearest statement of what Will Patton does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Will 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.
After Hours (1985)
Keeps the drama register of Remember the Titans but asks for a colder reading of it.
Megan Leavey (2017)
Keeps the drama register of After Hours but asks for a colder reading of it.
Minari (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Megan Leavey but asks for a colder reading of it.
Train Dreams (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Minari but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Gordon Green
Director
3 films together
Notably Halloween
Kevin Costner
Director
3 films together
Notably Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2
Jon Amiel
Director
2 films together
Notably Copycat
Roger Donaldson
Director
2 films together
Notably No Way Out
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Silkwood
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably After Hours
Peter Medak
Director
1 film together
Notably Romeo Is Bleeding
Stuart Orme
Director
1 film together
Notably The Puppet Masters
Kevin Hooks
Director
1 film together
Notably Fled
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Armageddon
Boaz Yakin
Director
1 film together
Notably Remember the Titans
Jonathan Hensleigh
Director
1 film together
Notably The Punisher
Les Mayfield
Director
1 film together
Notably Code Name: The Cleaner
Olatunde Osunsanmi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Fourth Kind
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Brooklyn's Finest
Lee Isaac Chung
Director
1 film together
Notably Minari
Everardo Gout
Director
1 film together
Notably The Forever Purge
Annie Baker
Director
1 film together
Notably Janet Planet
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Kevin Costner
Director
3 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2David Gordon Green
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HalloweenRoger Donaldson
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
No Way OutJon Amiel
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
CopycatBoaz Yakin
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Remember the TitansMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
After HoursLee Isaac Chung
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MinariMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ArmageddonEverardo Gout
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Forever PurgeMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SilkwoodOlatunde Osunsanmi
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Fourth KindJonathan Hensleigh
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PunisherAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brooklyn's FinestPeter Medak
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romeo Is BleedingAnnie Baker
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Janet PlanetStuart Orme
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Puppet MastersKevin Hooks
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FledLes Mayfield
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Code Name: The CleanerSix 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
Remember the Titans
as Coach Bill Yoast
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Inventing the Abbotts
as Lloyd Abbott
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Remember the Titans
as Coach Bill Yoast
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Silkwood
as Joe
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Remember the Titans
as Coach Bill Yoast
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. Will Patton 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
43 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
21 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Remember the Titans
as Coach Bill Yoast
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Forever Purge
as Caleb Tucker
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Inventing the Abbotts
as Lloyd Abbott
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Copycat
as Nicoletti
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Armageddon
as Chick
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Armageddon
as Chick
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Megan Leavey
as Jim
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Armageddon
as Chick
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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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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