Robert Duvall, indelible actor from ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Apocalypse Now,’ dies at 95

Robert Duvall, the towering and wildly versatile actor who carved out an enduring place in American cinema history as a stoic mob consigliere in “The Godfather,” a surf-loving army colonel in “Apocalypse Now” and a washed-up country crooner in “Tender Mercies,” died Sunday.

He was 95 years old.

Duvall died peacefully at his home in Middleburg, Virginia, with his wife by his side, according to a statement from his family.

He didn’t want a formal service, so his family encouraged fans to honor his memory by “watching a great movie, telling a good story around a table with friends, or taking a drive in the countryside to appreciate the beauty of the world.”

During a prolific Hollywood career that spanned nearly six decades, Duvall deftly alternated between leading and supporting roles, delivering performances of coiled fury and quiet gravitas. He fully inhabited each character, whether playing a ruthless television executive in “Network” (1976) or a passionate Pentecostal preacher in “The Apostle” (1997).

He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards and seven Golden Globes. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1984 for his role as alcoholic country singer Mac Sledge in Bruce Beresford’s “Tender Mercies.”

Robert Seldon Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego to Mildred Hart, an amateur actress, and William Duvall, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. He grew up on naval bases across the country, including the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1953.

He served two years in the United States Army during the Korean War. When Duvall returned to the United States, he studied acting under famed instructor Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where his classmates included Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and James Caan.

During these years, Duvall earned a living working odd jobs around New York and shared a room with Hoffman and Hackman. He has appeared in various Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including productions of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and “A View from the Bridge,” and landed guest appearances on popular television shows such as “The Twilight Zone.”

He didn’t make his film debut until he was 31, taking on the small but pivotal role of Arthur “Boo” Radley in the 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He continued to build his reputation throughout the 1960s, doing memorable work in the John Wayne film “True Grit” (1969) and the Francis Ford Coppola character study “The Rain People” (1969).

In the 1970s, Duvall established himself as one of the key figures of the “New Hollywood” movement. He frequently collaborated with visionary directors and helped reshape the face of American cinema stardom alongside other unconventional leading men – a group that included Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and former roommates Hoffman and Hackman.

He was an important member of Robert Altman’s large ensemble in the anti-war satire “M*A*S*H” (1970), in which he played the comically self-righteous Major Frank Burns, and he played the title character in George Lucas’ first feature film “THX 1138” (1971), a dystopian science fiction thriller released six years before the first “Star Wars.”

Duvall reached new heights of fame with his indelible performance as Tom Hagen, the Corleone family’s calm and calculating lawyer, in Coppola’s “The Godfather” (1972), which earned him his first Academy Award nomination, and “The Godfather II” (1974), which featured an expanded role for his character.

“It always comes back to ‘The Godfather.’ The former are two of the best films ever made. About a quarter of the way through, we knew we had something special,” Duvall told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2010.

He did not appear in the third chapter of “The Godfather,” released to mixed reviews in 1990, apparently because he could not reach an agreement with Paramount Pictures over his salary.

Duvall, who was once memorably described by People magazine as “Hollywood’s No. 1 No. 2,” continued to make his mark in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He received rave reviews as the cruel Lt. Col. Bull Meechum in “The Great Santini” (1979), an adaptation of Pat Conroy’s novel of the same name.

That same year, Duvall played the bellicose, larger-than-life surf enthusiast Lt. Col. Kilgore in Coppola’s explosive Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now,” delivering a world-famous line from under the brim of a black Stetson cavalry hat: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” »

“I don’t know how many people have come up to me over the years and said, as if to tell me a secret: ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning.’ They act like only the two of us know that line,” Duvall told The Daily Telegraph in 2003.

“But the funny thing is, they often change it, replacing ‘napalm’ with ‘gasoline’ or whatever comes to mind,” he added.

Four years after “Apocalypse,” Duvall took the lead in “Tender Mercies,” a heartfelt story of faith and redemption. Duvall sang himself for the film and the role earned him his first Academy Award.

The actor’s other notable roles in the 1980s included that of a sportswriter in Robert Redford’s baseball drama “The Natural” (1984) and that of a grizzled Los Angeles police veteran in “Colors” (1988), starring Sean Penn. He received some of the most rave reviews of his career as a former Texas Ranger in the 1989 four-part miniseries “Lonesome Dove.”

Duvall continued to work steadily throughout the 1990s, appearing in high-profile commercial projects such as “Days of Thunder” (1990), “The Paper” (1993), “Falling Down” (1994), “Phenomenon” (1995), and “Deep Impact” (1998). He received his sixth Academy Award nomination as a corporate lawyer in John Travolta’s drama “A Civil Action” (1998).

During the same decade, Duvall also completed one of his passion projects: “The Apostle,” a multi-layered drama that he directed, wrote and financed with $5 million of his own money. He starred as a fiery preacher searching for spiritual salvation in the bayous of Louisiana.

“I thought I should set up a big mirror so I could yell at the director,” Duvall told the Associated Press in 1997, describing his dual role on set. “But I didn’t have to do that. We even finished a day ahead of schedule. It’s a film I’m proud of.”

In recent years, Duvall has racked up additional credits, playing gruff cops, wisecracking mentors or deadpan father figures in films such as “Gone in 60 Seconds” (2000), “John Q” (2002), “Secondhand Lions” (2003), “Open Range” (2003), “We Own the Night” (2007) and “Crazy Heart” (2009), a contemporary riff on “Tender Mercies” with Jeff Bridges.

He was particularly memorable playing Confederate General Robert E. Lee in “Gods and Generals” (2003), a bearded hermit in the Depression drama “Get Low” (2009), an aging family patriarch opposite Robert Downey Jr. in “The Judge” (2014) and a racist political kingmaker in Steve McQueen’s “Widows” (2018). “The Judge” earned Duvall another Oscar nomination.

Duvall has directed a total of four narrative feature films: “Angelo My Love” (1983), “The Apostle,” “Assassination Tango” (2002) and “Wild Horses” (2015).

Duvall is survived by his wife, Argentine actress and director Luciana Duvall. He was previously married to Barbara Benjamin Marcus, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy.