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Robert Duvall | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Duvall in 1984 | |
| Born | Robert Selden Duvall January 5, 1931 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Died | February 15, 2026 (aged 95) Middleburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Principia College (BA) Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1952–2022 |
| Works | Full list |
| Spouses | Barbara Brent (m. 1964; div. 1975)Gail Youngs (m. 1982; div. 1986)Sharon Brophy (m. 1991; div. 1995) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Service years | 1953–1954 |
| Rank |  Private first class |
| Awards |  National Defense Service Medal |
| Awards | Full list |
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Robert Duvall (born January 5, 1931, San Diego, California, U.S.—died February 15, 2026, Middleburg, Virginia) was an American actor noted for his ability to quietly inhabit any character, particularly average working people, bringing them fully and subtly to life. In the words of critic Elaine Mancini, Duvall was “the most technically proficient, the most versatile, and the most convincing actor on the screen in the United States.” He won an Academy Award for his performance in Tender Mercies (1983).
Early life
Born to a U.S. Navy admiral, Duvall graduated from Illinois’s Principia College in 1953 and served two years in the army during the Korean War. In the years that followed, he studied drama under the noted acting teacher Sanford Meisner at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and appeared in Off-Broadway and Broadway plays.
The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and The Great Santini
A brief but memorable film debut came in 1962 when Duvall played the reclusive Arthur (“Boo”) Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. For the next several years, he continued to appear in small film and television roles. That path led to major supporting parts in films with large ensemble casts, such as the repressed and self-righteous Major Frank Burns in M*A*S*H (1970) and the business-minded Mafia attorney Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and its sequel, The Godfather, Part II (1974). The original 1972 role earned Duvall his first Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor.
In the late 1970s Duvall received two additional Oscar nominations for affecting portrayals of military men. His Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979) maniacally declares that he loves “the smell of napalm in the morning,” but Duvall convinces the audience of Kilgore’s compassion for his own soldiers. His nuanced depiction earned him a second Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. Bull Meechum, the career marine of The Great Santini (1980), is a warrior without a war who during peacetime inflicts an often severe discipline on his family. Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor.
Tender Mercies, Lonesome Dove, and A Civil Action
Duvall wrote some of his own songs for his beautifully nuanced performance as a faded country music star running a motel and filling station in Tender Mercies (1983). For that role, he won the Academy Award for best actor. He ended the 1980s with his highly praised performance in the Emmy Award-winning TV miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989).
In the 1990s Duvall’s credits included successful Hollywood pictures such as Days of Thunder (1990), Phenomenon (1996), and A Family Thing (1996). He wrote, directed, and starred in The Apostle (1997), a pet project he spent years developing and that earned him his third Oscar nomination for best actor. Duvall’s performance in A Civil Action (1998) was honored with his third Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. In 2002 he returned to directing with Assassination Tango, in which he played a hit man who, while on an assignment, becomes interested in the tango; he also wrote the drama.
Later films
Duvall continued his prolific acting career, appearing as Robert E. Lee in the Civil War saga Gods and Generals (2003) and as a wealthy eccentric old man who takes custody of his young nephew in Secondhand Lions (2003). Duvall won an Emmy for his role as a rancher who rescues five young Chinese girls sold into prostitution in the Old West in the television miniseries Broken Trail (2006). After taking on supporting roles in several films—including We Own the Night (2007), Four Christmases (2008), and Crazy Heart (2009)—Duvall starred as a hermit who plans his own funeral party in the whimsical Depression-era comedy Get Low (2009).
Duvall portrayed a sagacious rancher in the inspirational golf drama Seven Days in Utopia (2011), a shooting-range owner in the action movie Jack Reacher (2012), and a judge accused of vehicular homicide in The Judge (2014). Duvall received his fourth Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for the latter role.
Duvall’s later movies included the crime drama Wild Horses (2015), which he also directed and cowrote, and the thriller Widows (2018). In 2021 he appeared in 12 Mighty Orphans, a football drama based on a true story from the 1930s. His last films were Hustle and The Pale Blue Eye, both of which were released in 2022.
Personal life and death
Duvall was married to Barbara Benjamin (1964–75), Gail Youngs (1982–86), and Sharon Brophy (1991–95). In 2005 he wed Luciana Pedraza, an Argentine actor and director. The couple spent much of their time on a 360-acre farm in Virginia, and it was there that Duvall died in 2026 at the age of 95. He had no children.
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Robert Selden Duvall (/duːˈvɔːl/; January 5, 1931 – February 15, 2026) was an American actor, filmmaker, and producer. With a career spanning seven decades, he received an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, four Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Satellite Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. At the time of his death, he was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Duvall began his career on television with minor roles in the 1960s on The Defenders, Playhouse 90, and Armstrong Circle Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in the play Wait Until Dark in 1966. He returned to the stage in David Mamet's play American Buffalo in 1977, earning a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play nomination. He made his feature film debut portraying Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). His other early roles included Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), Bullitt (1968), True Grit (1969), M*A*S*H (1970), THX 1138 (1971), Joe Kidd (1972), and Tomorrow (1972), the last of which was developed at the Actors Studio and was his personal favorite.
Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as an alcoholic former country music star in Tender Mercies (1983). His other Oscar-nominated roles included The Godfather (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), The Apostle (1997), A Civil Action (1998), and The Judge (2014). His other notable films included The Outfit (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Network (1976), True Confessions (1981), The Natural (1984), Colors (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), Rambling Rose (1991), Falling Down (1993), The Paper (1994), Sling Blade (1996), Deep Impact (1998), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Open Range (2003), Crazy Heart (2009), Get Low (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), Widows (2018), and Hustle (2022).
Throughout his career, Duvall also starred in numerous television productions. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for the AMC limited series Broken Trail (2006). His other Emmy-nominated roles included the CBS miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), the HBO film Stalin (1992), and the TNT film The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996).
Early life and education
Robert Selden Duvall was born January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California,[1] to Mildred Virginia Duvall (née Hart), an amateur actress, and Rear Admiral William Howard Duvall of the United States Navy.[2][3][4] The second of three sons, he grew up alongside an elder brother, William Jr., and a younger brother, John, who later became an entertainment lawyer.[5] His father descended from early Maryland settler Mareen Duvall.[6]
Duvall was raised in the Christian Science religion, though he later noted that he did not attend church.[7] He spent much of his childhood in Annapolis, Maryland,[8] where his father was stationed at the United States Naval Academy. He attended Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1953.[8][9]
His father had expected him to attend the Naval Academy, but Duvall said "I was terrible at everything but acting—I could barely get through school".[10] He instead served in the United States Army[11] after the Korean War, from August 19, 1953, to August 20, 1954, leaving as private first class.[12] "That's led to some confusion in the press," he explained in 1984, "Some stories have me shooting it out with the Commies from a foxhole over in Frozen Chosin. Pork Chop Hill stuff. Hell, I barely qualified with the M-1 rifle in basic training".[8] While stationed at Camp Gordon in Georgia, he appeared in an amateur production of the comedy Room Service in nearby Augusta.[9]
In the winter of 1955, Duvall attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City,[8] studying under Sanford Meisner on the G.I. Bill. His classmates included Gene Hackman and James Caan.[8][13][14][15] While training, he worked as a Manhattan post office clerk. Until his death, he remained close friends with fellow California-born actors Dustin Hoffman and Hackman (who died in 2025), whom he had known since their years as struggling actors.[16] In 1955, Duvall roomed with Hoffman in a New York City apartment while they studied together at the Playhouse,[17][18] and around the same time also shared accommodation with Hackman while working odd jobs such as clerking at Macy's, sorting mail, and driving a truck.[9]
Career
Early career: 1952–1969
Theater
Duvall began his professional acting career with the Gateway Playhouse, an Equity summer theater based in Bellport, Long Island, New York. His stage debut was in its 1952 season, when he played the Pilot in Laughter in the Stars, an adaptation of The Little Prince, at what was then the Gateway Theatre.[19]
After a year away while serving in the U.S. Army (1953–1954), he returned to Gateway for its 1955 summer season, appearing as Eddie Davis in Ronald Alexander's Time Out for Ginger (July 1955), Hal Carter in William Inge's Picnic (July 1955), Charles Wilder in John Willard's The Cat and the Canary (August 1955), Parris in Arthur Miller's The Crucible (August 1955), and John the Witchboy in William Berney and Howard Richardson's Dark of the Moon (September 1955). The playbill for Dark of the Moon noted that he had portrayed the Witchboy previously and would "repeat his famous portrayal" for the 1955 revival.[20]
During Gateway's 1956 season, his third with the company, Duvall played Max Halliday in Frederick Knott's Dial M for Murder (July 1956), Virgil Blessing in Inge's Bus Stop (August 1956), and Clive Mortimer in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera (August 1956). Playbills that year described him as "an audience favorite" in the last season and as having "appeared at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studied acting with Sandy Meisner this past winter".[21]
In its 1957 season, Duvall appeared as Mr. Mayher in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution (July 1957), as Hector in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnivall (July 1957), and the role which he once described as the "catalyst of his career": Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, from July 30 to August 3, 1957, and directed by Ulu Grosbard, who was by then a regular director at the Gateway Theatre.[22] Miller himself attended one of Duvall's performances as Eddie, and during that performance he met important people which allowed him, in two months, to land a "spectacular lead" in the Naked City television series.[13]
While appearing at the Gateway Theatre in the second half of the 1950s, Duvall was also appearing at the Augusta Civic Theatre, the McLean Theatre in Virginia and the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The 1957 playbills also described him as "a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse" (indicating that he had completed his studies there by the summer of 1957), "a member of Sanford Meisner's professional workshop" and as having worked with Alvin Epstein, a mime and a member of Marcel Marceau's company. By this time, also July 1957, his theatrical credits included performances as Jimmy in The Rainmaker and as Harvey Weems in Horton Foote's The Midnight Caller.[23][24]
Already receiving top-billing at the Gateway Playhouse, in the 1959 season, he appeared in lead roles as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (July–August 1959), Maxwell Archer in Once More with Feeling, Igor Romanoff in Peter Ustinov's Romanoff and Juliet, and Joe Mancuso in Kyle Crichton's The Happiest Millionaire (all in August 1959).[25]
At the Neighborhood Playhouse, Meisner cast him in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real and the title role of Harvey Weems in Foote's one-act play The Midnight Caller. The latter was already part of Duvall's performance credits by mid-July 1957.[23][24][26]
Duvall made his off-Broadway debut at the Gate Theater as Frank Gardner in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession on June 25, 1958. This play closed three days later (June 28) after five performances. His other early off-Broadway credits include the role of Doug in the premiere of Michael Shurtleff's Call Me by My Rightful Name on January 31, 1961, at One Sheridan Square and the role of Bob Smith in the premiere of William Snyder's The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker on September 17, 1962, until June 9, 1963, at the Sheridan Square Playhouse.[27]
His most notable off-Broadway performance, for which he won an Obie Award in 1965 and which he considers his "Othello", was as Eddie Carbone, again, in Miller's A View from the Bridge at the Sheridan Square Playhouse from January 28, 1965, to December 11, 1966. It was directed again by Ulu Grosbard with Dustin Hoffman. On February 2, 1966, he made his Broadway debut as Harry Roat, Jr in Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. This played at the Shubert Theatre and George Abbott Theatre and closed on December 31, 1966, at the Music Box Theatre. His other Broadway performance was as Walter Cole in David Mamet's American Buffalo, which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on February 16, 1977, and closed at the Belasco Theatre on June 11, 1977.[28][29][30]
Television
In 1959, Duvall made his first television appearance on Armstrong Circle Theater in the episode "The Jailbreak". He appeared regularly on television as a guest actor during the 1960s, often in action, suspense, detective, or crime dramas. His appearances during this time include performances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Naked City, The Untouchables, Route 66, The Twilight Zone, Combat!, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, T.H.E. Cat, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, The Wild Wild West, The F.B.I., and The Mod Squad.[31]
Film
His film debut was as Boo Radley in the critically acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He was cast in the film on the recommendation of screenwriter Horton Foote, who met Duvall at the Neighborhood Playhouse during a 1957 production of Foote's play, The Midnight Caller. Foote, who collaborated with Duvall many more times over the course of their careers, said he believed Duvall had a particular love of common people and ability to infuse fascinating revelations into his roles. Foote described Duvall as "our number one actor".[32][33]
After To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in a number of films during the 1960s, mostly in midsized parts, but also in a few larger supporting roles. Some of his more notable appearances include the role of Capt. Paul Cabot Winston in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), Chiz in Countdown (1967), and Gordon in The Rain People. Duvall had a small part as a cab driver who ferries McQueen around just before the chase scene in the film Bullitt (1968). He was the notorious malefactor "Lucky" Ned Pepper in True Grit (1969), in which he engaged in a climactic shootout with John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn on horseback.[34]
Mid-career: 1970–1989
Duvall became an important presence in American films beginning in the 1970s. He drew a considerable amount of attention in 1970 for his portrayal of the malevolent Major Frank Burns in the film M*A*S*H and for his portrayal of the title role in THX 1138 in 1971 where he plays a fugitive trying to escape a society controlled by robots. His first major critical success came portraying Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), the 1972 film earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Also in 1974, Duvall played a corporate director (uncredited) in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Conversation. In 1976, Duvall played supporting roles in The Eagle Has Landed, and as Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution with Nicol Williamson, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier.[35]
By the mid-1970s Duvall was a top character actor; People described him as "Hollywood's No. 1 No. 2 lead".[11] Duvall received another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and won both a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for his role as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979). His line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now is regarded as iconic in cinema history. The full text is:[36]
Duvall received a BAFTA Award nomination for his portrayal of television executive Frank Hackett in the critically acclaimed film Network (1976) and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in The Great Santini (1979) as the hard-boiled Marine Lt. Col. "Bull" Meechum. The latter role was based on a Marine aviator, Colonel Donald Conroy, the father of the book's author Pat Conroy. He also co-starred with Laurence Olivier and Tommy Lee Jones in The Betsy (1978) and portrayed United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the television miniseries Ike (1979).[37]
Francis Ford Coppola praised Duvall as "one of the four or five best actors in the world". Wanting top billing in films, in 1977 Duvall returned to Broadway to appear as Walter Cole in David Mamet's American Buffalo, stating "I hope this will get me better film roles".[11] He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play.[38]
Duvall continued appearing in films during the 1980s, including the roles of a detective in True Confessions (1981), a disillusioned sportswriter Max Mercy in The Natural (1984) and Los Angeles police officer Bob Hodges in Colors (1988). He won an Oscar for Best Actor as country western singer Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies (1983). Duvall did his own singing, insisting it be added to his contract that he sing the songs himself. Duvall said, "What's the point if you're not going to do your own [singing]? They're just going to dub somebody else? I mean, there's no point to that."[32]
Actress Tess Harper, who co-starred, said Duvall inhabited the character so fully that she only got to know Mac Sledge and not Duvall himself. Director Bruce Beresford, too, said the transformation was so believable to him that he could feel his skin crawling up the back of his neck the first day of filming with Duvall. Beresford said of the actor, "Duvall has the ability to completely inhabit the person he's acting. He totally and utterly becomes that person to a degree which is uncanny."[32] Duvall and Beresford did not get along well during the production and often clashed during filming, including one day in which Beresford walked off the set in frustration.[32]
In 1989, Duvall appeared in the miniseries Lonesome Dove in the role of Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae, Texas Rangers (retired). He considered this particular role to be his personal favorite.[39] He won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award[40] nomination. For his role as a former Texas Ranger peace officer, Duvall was trained in the use of Walker revolvers by the Texas marksman Joe Bowman.[41]
Later career and final roles: 1990–2022
For The Godfather Part III (1990), Duvall declined to reprise the role of Tom Hagen unless he received a salary comparable to Al Pacino's, a condition which wasn't accepted. In 2004, he told 60 Minutes, "if they paid Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine, but not three or four times, which is what they did."[42] In 1992, he founded the production company Butcher's Run Films.[43] Duvall maintained a busy film schedule throughout the 1990s, sometimes appearing in as many as four films in a single year. He received Academy Award nominations for his portrayals of evangelical preacher Euliss "Sonny" Dewey in The Apostle (1997)—which he also wrote and directed—and attorney Jerome Facher in A Civil Action (1998).[44]
He directed Assassination Tango (2002), a thriller inspired by his long‑standing interest in tango, and portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals (2003).[45][46]
Other roles during this period demonstrated his wide range, including a crew chief in Days of Thunder (1990), the patriarch of an upper-class Southern family in Rambling Rose (1991), newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer in the Disney musical Newsies (1992), a retiring cop in Falling Down (1993), a Hispanic barber in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993), a New York tabloid editor in The Paper (1994), a rural doctor in Phenomenon (1996), a horse-farm owner in Something to Talk About (1995), an abusive father in Sling Blade (1996), and an astronaut in Deep Impact (1998).[citation needed]
He continued to work steadily into the 2000s, appearing as a mechanic in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), a soccer coach in A Shot at Glory (2000), a scientist in The 6th Day (2000), a police officer in John Q. (2002), a trail boss in Open Range (2003), an eccentric adventurer in Secondhand Lions (2003), another soccer coach in the comedy Kicking & Screaming (2005), a Las Vegas poker champion in Lucky You (2007), a New York City police chief in We Own the Night (2007), the patriarch of a dysfunctional family in Four Christmases (2008), a man staging his own funeral in Get Low (2010), an eccentric golf champion mentoring a troubled young pro in Seven Days in Utopia (2011), and a retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who owns a shooting range in Jack Reacher (2012).[citation needed]
He has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[47]
Duvall continued to work in television from the 1990s onward. He won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in the 1992 television film Stalin.[citation needed] He earned another Emmy nomination in 1997 for portraying Adolf Eichmann in The Man Who Captured Eichmann. In 2006, he won an Emmy for his performance as Prentice "Print" Ritter in the AMC miniseries revisionist Western miniseries Broken Trail.[1]
In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush at the White House.[48] In 2014, he starred in The Judge alongside Robert Downey Jr. While the movie itself received mixed reviews,[49] Duvall's performance was praised. He was nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Award for his supporting role. In 2015, at age 84, Duvall became the oldest actor ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film The Judge,[50] a record that has since been surpassed by Christopher Plummer.[citation needed]
In 2018, Duvall appeared in the Steve McQueen-directed heist thriller Widows as a corrupt power broker.[51] The film earned critical acclaim. In 2022, he appeared in the Netflix films Hustle and The Pale Blue Eye.[52][53]
Personal life and death
Relationships
Duvall had been married four times and did not have any children. "I guess I'm shooting blanks," he said in 2007.[54] He added, "[I've tried] with a lot of different women, in and out of marriage."[54] He met his first wife, Barbara Benjamin,[55] a former announcer and dancer on The Jackie Gleason Show, during the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).[56] She had also appeared in Guys and Dolls (1955) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963) under the name Barbara Brent.[57] Benjamin had two daughters from a previous marriage,[56] and she and Duvall were married from 1964 until 1975.[55]
His second marriage was to Gail Youngs, to whom he was married from 1982 to 1986.[55] Through Youngs, he was briefly the brother‑in‑law of John Savage,[8][58] Robin Young, and Jim Youngs.
Duvall's third marriage was to Sharon Brophy, a dancer, from 1991 to 1995.[55]
In 2005, Duvall married his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza, granddaughter of Argentine aviation pioneer Susana Ferrari Billinghurst.[59] He met Pedraza in Argentina, recalling, "The flower shop was closed, so I went to the bakery. If the flower shop had been open, I never would've met her."[60] Both were born on January 5, though Duvall was 41 years older.[61] They had been together since 1997. He produced, directed, and acted with her in Assassination Tango (2002), much of which was filmed in Buenos Aires. Duvall was known as a skilled Argentine tango dancer and maintained tango studios in both Argentina and the United States.[16][59][62]
He also trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and practiced martial arts with his wife.[63]
![Duvall, with Luciana Pedraza (right), shaking hands with a member of "The Black Stallions" of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron FOUR at the Taormina Film Fest in Sicily, Italy, 2003[64]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Duvall_Navy3.jpg)
Political views
Duvall's political views were variously described as libertarian or conservative.[16] He was personally invited to Republican President George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001. In September 2007, he announced his support for Rudy Giuliani's campaign in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries.[65] Duvall worked the floor at the GOP's 2008 national convention.[66]
In September 2008, he appeared onstage at a John McCain–Sarah Palin rally in New Mexico, and he endorsed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.[67] In 2014, Duvall said in an interview that he was considering becoming an independent due to his dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, which he called "a mess".[68]
Philanthropy and activism
In 2001, Pedraza and Duvall founded the Robert Duvall Children's Fund to assist families in Northern Argentina through the renovation of homes, schools, and medical facilities.[69] They were also active supporters of Pro Mujer, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping some of Latin America's poorest women, with their efforts focused on Pedraza's home region in the Argentine Northwest.[70][71]
In May 2009, Duvall spoke for historic preservation against Walmart's proposal to build a store across the road from the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield national park in Orange County, Virginia.[72] In 2011, he appeared at the Texas Children's Cancer Center charity event, "An Evening with a Texas Legend", in Houston, where he was interviewed by television journalist Bob Schieffer.[73]
In February 2023, Duvall addressed a council meeting in suburban Virginia to oppose a proposed Amazon facility. The project was approved despite his objections.[74]
Death
Duvall died at his farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on February 15, 2026, at the age of 95.[75][51] His death was announced through a public statement by his wife Luciana Pedraza. In the statement she did not list a cause of death but said he died at home.[1]
Acting credits and accolades
Duvall received numerous accolades for his acting including an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic former country music star in the drama Tender Mercies (1983).[76] He also received a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Over his distinguished career he was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:[76]
- 45th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nomination, The Godfather (1972)
- 52nd Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nomination, Apocalypse Now (1979)
- 53rd Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role, nomination, The Great Santini (1981)
- 56th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role, win, Tender Mercies (1983)[76]
- 70th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role, nomination, The Apostle (1997)
- 71st Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nomination, A Civil Action (1998)
- 87th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nomination, The Judge (2014)
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Further reading
- Mancin, Elaine (1992). "Duvall, Robert". In Nicholas, Thomas (ed.). International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Actors and Actresses. St. James Press. pp. 313–315.
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Robert Duvall, who drew from a seemingly bottomless reservoir of acting craftsmanship to transform himself into a business-focused Mafia lawyer, a faded country singer, a cynical police detective, a bullying Marine pilot, a surfing-obsessed Vietnam commander, a mysterious Southern recluse and scores of other film, stage and television characters, died on Sunday. He was 95.
His death was announced in a statement by his wife, Luciana Duvall, who said he had died at home. She gave no other details. He had long lived on a sprawling horse farm in The Plains, in Fauquier County, Va., west of Washington.
Mr. Duvall’s singular trait was to immerse himself in roles so deeply that he seemed to almost disappear into them — an ability that was “uncanny, even creepy the first time” it was witnessed, said Bruce Beresford, the Australian who directed him in the 1983 film “Tender Mercies.”
In that film, Mr. Duvall played Mac Sledge, a boozy, washed-up country star who comes to terms with life through marriage to a widow with a young son. The performance earned him an Academy Award for best actor, his sole Oscar in a career that brought him six other nominations in both leading and supporting roles.
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“He is the character,” Mr. Beresford said of Sledge. “He’s not Duvall at all.”
Mr. Duvall, though, wasn’t buying it. “What do you mean?” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 1989. “I don’t become the character! It’s still me — doing myself, altered.”
Audiences and reviewers remained unconvinced. For them, Mr. Duvall, with a voice far from silky and features falling more than a few degrees short of movie-star handsome, effectively became someone entirely new, time and again.
Across a film career that took flight in the early 1960s, he stood out for an intense studiousness that shaped his every role. Even as a boy, in a Navy family that moved around the country, he had an ear for people’s speech patterns and an eye for their mannerisms. “I hang around a guy’s memories,” he once said. Insights that he gleaned were routinely tucked away in his head for potential future use.
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To prepare for the role of Mac Sledge, he sang with a country band and drove around East Texas with a friend, who finally had to ask what they were up to. “We’re looking for accents,” Mr. Duvall said.
On similar hunts, he hung out with assorted, and sordid, types. He befriended hoodlums in East Harlem while preparing for a role that would help make him a star: that of Tom Hagen, the sensible consigliere to the Corleone crime family in Francis Ford Coppola’s first two “Godfather” movies in the early 1970s.
He palled with police detectives before playing a hard-bitten investigator in “True Confessions” (1981). To prepare for one of his signature stage roles — as the hustler Teach in the original 1977 Broadway production of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” — he spent time with an ex-convict, taking from him the idea of carrying his gun over his genitals.
He did similar immersions for other notable roles, whether as Lt. Col. Bull Meechum, the frustrated warrior without a war (except within his own family) in “The Great Santini” (1979); or Frank Hackett, the aptly named hatchet-man executive in “Network” (1976), Paddy Chayefsky’s scalding take on television news; or Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, who loved “the smell of napalm in the morning” in Mr. Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979). For years, Mr. Duvall told interviewers, people would routinely come up to him and recite that line, as if it were some little secret known only to him and them.
‘The American Olivier’
His chameleonlike skill invited comparisons to the incomparable Laurence Olivier; indeed, in 1980, Vincent Canby of The Times flat-out called him “the American Olivier.” A similar sentiment was expressed earlier by Herbert Ross, who directed “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” (1976), in which Mr. Duvall, barely recognizable yet again, played Dr. John Watson to Nicol Williamson’s Sherlock Holmes. (Olivier himself played Holmes’s archnemesis Prof. James Moriarty in the movie.)
Only Mr. Duvall and George C. Scott, Mr. Ross said at the time, “have the range and variety of Laurence Olivier.”
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That Mr. Duvall could become practically whomever he chose was foreshadowed in his first film, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a 1962 classic based on Harper Lee’s novel about racial prejudice in a Southern town. He played Boo Radley, the reclusive, hollow-eyed neighbor who fascinates and ultimately rescues the two small children of the defense lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck).
As Mr. Duvall’s career flourished in the 1970s and ’80s, it surprised many of his fans, on looking back, to discover him in that film. One person apparently not surprised was Harper Lee. When Mr. Duvall landed the part, she sent him a congratulatory telegram. “Hey, Boo,” she wrote. It was, he said later, his only contact with her.
Mr. Duvall had his own favorite role, and it was none of his major big-screen characters. He repeatedly told interviewers that his heart was fully with Augustus McCrae, an old Texas Ranger on a cattle drive in “Lonesome Dove,” a 1989 CBS television mini-series based on a Larry McMurtry novel.
“Let the English play Hamlet and King Lear,” Mr. Duvall said, “and I will play Augustus McCrae, a great character in literature.”
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He was nominated for an Emmy Award for that performance. But he waited nearly two decades for an Emmy win, for a role with echoes of Gus McCrae: the worn-out cowboy Prentice Ritter in “Broken Trail” (2006), a two-part AMC movie. (As an executive producer on the show, he also won an Emmy for outstanding mini-series.)
Mr. Duvall tried his hand at film directing a few times, usually putting up the money for projects that intrigued him. There was “We’re Not the Jet Set” (1977), a documentary about a Nebraska rodeo family. A chance encounter with a boy on the street led to “Angelo My Love” (1983), a film about Gypsy life in New York City.
No project under his direction contained more of his soul than “The Apostle” (1997), which he also wrote, financed and starred in. He played Sonny Dewey, a wayward Pentecostal preacher in search of redemption, and received another Oscar nomination.
Mr. Duvall was generally wary of directors, and some of them found him difficult to work with. He fought bitterly on the set with Henry Hathaway, who directed him, alongside John Wayne, in the original “True Grit” (1969).
“I don’t try to be a hard guy to work with,” Mr. Duvall said in a 1981 interview with American Film magazine. “But I decide what I’m going to do with a character. I will take direction, but only if it kind of supplements what I want to do. If I have instincts that I feel are right, I don’t want anybody to tamper with them. I don’t like tamperers, and I don’t like hoverers.”
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Not all directors irritated him. He liked working with Ulu Grosbard, who guided him in “True Confessions,” as well as onstage in an early Duvall triumph, as the tormented longshoreman Eddie Carbone in a 1965 Off Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” and later in Mr. Mamet’s “American Buffalo.” (Once his film career kicked into high gear, Mr. Duvall did not return often to the theater, but he described his occasional stage work as “an investment in the long run — it makes you a better actor.”)
And then there was Mr. Coppola, who as much as anyone put Mr. Duvall on the Hollywood map. “Coppola made them so beautifully,” the actor said of the first two “Godfather” films. His admiration did not stretch far enough, however, to impel him to recreate the role of Tom Hagen for “The Godfather: Part III” (1990) — a pale sequel, most reviewers agreed.
“It boiled down to money,” he told Esquire magazine in 2010. “If you’re gonna pay Pacino twice what you pay me, fine. But five times? Come on, guys.”
Early TV Roles
Robert Selden Duvall was born on Jan. 5, 1931, in San Diego, the second of three sons of William Duvall, a rear admiral, and Mildred (Hart) Duvall, an amateur actress said to have been a relative of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
The father’s naval career meant that the family moved around a lot. Robert found his way into acting while at Principia College, a small liberal arts school in southwestern Illinois — a career choice shaped in large measure, he once said, by a realization that he was “terrible” at everything else.
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After two years in the Army, serving principally at what is now Fort Gordon in Georgia, he went to New York in 1955, where he studied under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Two of his closest friends, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, were fellow acting students. To support himself, Mr. Duvall worked for a while in a post office branch. But soon enough, television roles fell his way, on shows like “Playhouse 90,” “Naked City” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Then came the invitation to play Boo Radley.
Throughout his career, Mr. Duvall tried to keep Hollywood at arm’s length. He preferred living elsewhere — for many years on the Northern Virginia ranch with his fourth wife, the former Luciana Pedraza, an Argentine woman 41 years his junior. They met in the 1990s in Buenos Aires, which he visited often after developing a passion for the tango.
Complete information about his survivors was not immediately available.
He was a Hollywood outlier on another front: politics. He was an ardent conservative, strongly supporting Republican presidential candidates, in a film world dominated by political liberals. In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded him a National Medal of Arts. Mr. Duvall, however, was not conspicuously a supporter of President Trump.
As the years passed, major roles fell Mr. Duvall’s way less frequently. Or perhaps he sought them less. All the same, he still commanded meaty parts, which he imbued with characteristic intelligence, whether as an engagingly irascible editor in “The Paper” (1994), or a sensitive small-town doctor in “Phenomenon” (1996), or a retired astronaut brought back to duty to rescue a world threatened by a giant comet in “Deep Impact” (1998), or a diligent lawyer in “A Civil Action” (1998), or an understanding bartender ministering to a boozing country singer in “Crazy Heart” (2009). One of his last major roles, in 2014, was in “The Judge,” in which he played an aging jurist in a small town who is accused of murder.
From early on, Mr. Duvall enjoyed the life of a supporting actor. “Somebody once said that the best life in the world is the life of a second leading man,” Mr. Duvall told The Times. “You travel, you get a per diem, and you’ve probably got a better part anyway. And you don’t have the weight of the entire movie on your shoulders.”
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Robert Duvall: A Life in Pictures
The actor, who had a knack for embodying a wealth of varied characters, had a sprawling and celebrated career.
The actor Robert Duvall, who died on Sunday at 95 years old, was known for his chameleon-like ability to intensely embody wide-ranging characters across a career that spanned many decades. His defining performances included a business-focused Mafia lawyer, a military man who loved napalm and a worn-out cowboy.
His movie career began in the 1960s, and he’d go on to make a habit of scouting for inspiration. In East Texas, he hunted for accents; in East Harlem, he hung out with hoodlums. Before playing an investigator, Duvall palled with police detectives.
In an interview with The New York Times in 1989, he rebuffed the praise for his precision. “What do you mean?” he said. “I don’t become the character! It’s still me — doing myself, altered.”
Here is a look back at his career.
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” the 1962 classic based on Harper Lee’s novel, was Duvall’s first film. He played Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbor who was fascinated with and ultimately rescues Atticus Finch’s (Gregory Peck) two children (Mary Badham and Phillip Alford) from an attack.
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Duvall’s career took flight in the 1960s. His performances were shaped by an intense case study of each character, including in an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” in which he played Charley Parkes, an isolated misfit.
Duvall worked with George Lucas, left, on the set of “THX 1138,” which was Lucas’s feature directorial debut in 1971.
To prepare for his role as the hustler Teach in the 1977 Broadway production of the David Mamet play “American Buffalo,” Duvall spent time with an ex-convict, taking from him the idea of carrying his gun over his genitals.
Duvall, left, talking to Francis Ford Coppola. For years, fans would come up to Duvall and recite a line from Coppola’s 1979 war epic, “Apocalypse Now.” Duvall played Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, who loved “the smell of napalm in the morning.”
Coppola, a treasured collaborator of Duvall’s, helped put the actor on the Hollywood map not only with “Apocalypse Now” but also with the first two “Godfather” films. Duvall played Tom Hagen, seen here in “The Godfather” (1972).
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Duvall grew up in a Navy family, and they moved regularly throughout his childhood. Each destination helped him develop an ear for people’s speech patterns and an eye for their mannerisms, a skill that would inform his Hollywood career.
Duvall, here with Dolly Parton, won his only Academy Award for his portrayal of Mac Sledge, a country singer, in Bruce Beresford’s 1983 drama “Tender Mercies.”
Duvall as Col. Bull Meechum, the frustrated warrior without a war in “The Great Santini” (1979).
Duvall earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a lawyer in the 1998 courtroom drama “A Civil Action.” He starred opposite John Travolta (center). The two later appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that year.
Duvall often said in interviews that his favorite role was not a major big-screen character, but instead Augustus McCrae, an old Texas Ranger on a cattle drive in “Lonesome Dove,” a 1989 CBS television mini-series based on a Larry McMurtry novel.
He was nominated for an Emmy for “Lonesome Dove” but waited two decades for a win, which came from a performance of a similar nature: the worn-out cowboy Gus McCrae in “Broken Trail” (2006), a two-part AMC movie.
Duvall photographed in 2010 at his home in The Plains, in Fauquier County, Va., west of Washington. Duvall and his wife, Luciana Duvall, traded Hollywood for a sprawling horse farm. He died at home.
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