Robert Duvall, star of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, dies at 95
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Robert Duvall, the actor who appeared in the first two installments of The Godfather and starred in films such as Apocalypse Now, The Judge, and the miniseries Lonesome Dove, has passed away at the age of 95.
Duvall’s wife, Luciana Pedraza, announced in a statement that the actor died at his farm in Virginia: “To the world, he was an Oscar-winning actor, a director, and a storyteller. But to me, he was everything. His passion for acting was matched only by his deep love for the characters he portrayed, a great meal, and sitting at the head of the table. In each of his countless roles, Bob gave everything he had to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he left behind a lasting and unforgettable legacy for all of us.”
Duvall won the Academy Award in 1983 for his role as an alcoholic country singer in Tender Mercies, and over the course of his career he received six additional Oscar nominations. He revealed his distinctive talent when he appeared as the reclusive Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962, despite having no lines of dialogue. Screenwriter Horton Foote* had seen Duvall perform in The Midnight Caller and recommended him for the role.
Duvall collaborated with Foote on Tender Mercies, Tomorrow (1972), and The Chase (1966), which was adapted from Foote’s novel and play.
Francis Ford Coppola first cast Duvall in The Rain People, released in 1969, and later chose him to play the trusted family lawyer in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (1974), as well as the colonel in Apocalypse Now (1979). His line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” in Apocalypse Now became a piece of cinematic legend.
In 1983, he told Roger Ebert how they shot the jet flyover and explosions in a single take: “There was no time to think. Over the intercom I heard we only had 20 minutes with the jets. One pass and that was it. I sank into the character — if he wasn’t going to blink, I wasn’t going to blink.”
In 1989, Duvall portrayed former Texas Ranger Augustus McCrae in the CBS miniseries Lonesome Dove. He secured the role after James Garner, the producers’ first choice, said he could not ride horses for an extended period. Duvall, however, was an accomplished rider and had spent summers of his childhood on his uncle’s ranch in Montana.
In June 2021, he told Stephen Colbert: “One day I walked into the makeup room on Lonesome Dove and said, ‘Boys, we’re making the Godfather of Westerns.’ In my view, it was one of the greatest works of the late twentieth century.”
Avoiding the Hollywood spotlight, Duvall also appeared in films such as The Great Santini (1979), The Apostle (1997), and A Civil Action (1998), and co-starred with John Wayne in True Grit (1969).
He played Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), a ruthless television executive in Network (1976), a sportswriter in The Natural (1984), a NASCAR team chief in Days of Thunder (1990), a police detective in The Detective (1968), and appeared in True Confessions (1981) and Colors (1988), among many others.
In recent years, Duvall portrayed a Texas rancher in the family drama Wild Horses, appeared in the adaptation of In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck in 2016, collaborated with Steve McQueen on Widows, and starred in 12 Mighty Orphans (2021) and Hustle, alongside Adam Sandler*, in 2022.
In January 2016, he said he believed an actor must deceive himself: “To achieve a legitimate result, let the process take you there — don’t go straight for the result. Be ready to start from zero and say, ‘Let’s see what happens,’ instead of that old way of saying, ‘Give me something.’”
Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego. His father was a career military officer who rose to the rank of admiral, and when Duvall was ten, the family moved to the East Coast. After high school, he studied drama at Principia College in Elsah. Following two years of military service, he moved to New York in 1955 and was accepted into the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where he studied under Sanford Meisner. At the time, Duvall lived in a sixth-floor Broadway apartment with Dustin Hoffman, and they were friends with Gene Hackman, who shared their passion for acting and often cooked for them.
After filming Lonesome Dove, Duvall said: “Now I can retire — we made something I can be proud of. Playing Augustus McCrae was, for me, something like Hamlet.”
