Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1713
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
William Baldwin represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and William is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
William Baldwin appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without William. The Squid and the Whale is the clearest case: a film rated 7.0 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, tv movie. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jared Cohn, Nick Lyon, Gabriel Sabloff and others, William Baldwin 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 Squid and the Whale (2005) as Ivan · Born on the Fourth of July (1989) as Platoon - Vietnam · Backdraft (1991) as Brian McCaffrey
Career snapshot
Ranked #1713 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1989–2023
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.0
The Squid and the Whale
Average Nutevio score
5.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.0
Born on the Fourth of July
Most frequent director
Jared Cohn
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jared Cohn
Most common genre
Drama
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 37m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.4
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
7.0 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Born on the Fourth of July — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.0
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. Born on the Fourth of July.
Most productive era
2020s
11 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 | 7.01 film | 6.63 films | 6.82 films | 6.41 film | 5.03 films |
| Action | — | 6.12 films | — | 5.92 films | 5.15 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.71 film | — | 2.72 films | 5.13 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.82 films | 5.62 films | 3.92 films |
| Crime | — | 6.62 films | — | 6.41 film | — |
| Romance | — | — | 6.51 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 6.02 films | — | — | 5.92 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
1989Born on the Fourth of July
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Platoon - Vietnam. 7.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1991Backdraft
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2023Candy Land
The current state of the argument, as Sheriff Rex.
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 Brian McCaffrey
Directed by Ron Howard
as Joe Hurley
Directed by Joel Schumacher
as Sheriff Rex
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
Ivan
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Ivan gives William Baldwin a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Brian McCaffrey
Backdraft (1991)
Performance score7.1
Backdraft asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Brian McCaffrey is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Platoon - Vietnam
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Performance score6.9
Born on the Fourth of July asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Platoon - Vietnam is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Joe Hurley
Flatliners (1990)
Performance score6.8
Flatliners asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Joe Hurley 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 Ivan
Start here. The Squid and the Whale is the clearest statement of what William Baldwin does — accessible, 81 minutes, and rated 7.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet William 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.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Keeps the drama register of The Squid and the Whale but asks for a colder reading of it.
Flatliners (1990)
Keeps the drama register of Born on the Fourth of July but asks for a colder reading of it.
Backdraft (1991)
Keeps the drama register of Flatliners but asks for a colder reading of it.
Candy Land (2023)
Keeps the thriller register of Backdraft but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jared Cohn
Director
2 films together
Notably Ice Storm
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Born on the Fourth of July
Mike Figgis
Director
1 film together
Notably Internal Affairs
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Flatliners
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Backdraft
John Bruno
Director
1 film together
Notably Virus
Noah Baumbach
Director
1 film together
Notably The Squid and the Whale
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Gabriel Sabloff
Director
1 film together
Notably Beckman
Nick Lyon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rebels of PT-218
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jared Cohn
Director
2 films together · 5.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ice StormNoah Baumbach
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Squid and the WhaleOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Born on the Fourth of JulyRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BackdraftJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FlatlinersNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forgetting Sarah MarshallMike Figgis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Internal AffairsGabriel Sabloff
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BeckmanJohn Bruno
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VirusNick Lyon
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rebels of PT-218Six 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
Born on the Fourth of July
as Platoon - Vietnam
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Dakota
as Monty Sanders
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Born on the Fourth of July
as Platoon - Vietnam
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Born on the Fourth of July
as Platoon - Vietnam
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Squid and the Whale
as Ivan
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. William Baldwin 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
34 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
10 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
Born on the Fourth of July
as Platoon - Vietnam
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Backdraft
as Brian McCaffrey
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dakota
as Monty Sanders
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Backdraft
as Brian McCaffrey
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Backdraft
as Brian McCaffrey
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Backdraft 2
as Brian McCaffrey
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
as Detective Hunter Rush
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Flatliners
as Joe Hurley
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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