American actor and director ( give birth 1931 )
For the french alchemist, see Robert Duval
Robert Selden Duvall [ 1 ] ( ; born January 5, 1931 ) [ 2 ] is an american actor and film maker whose career spans more than seven decades. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a screen Actors Guild Award.

Duvall began appearing in dramaturgy during the recently 1950s, moving into television and film roles during the early 1960s, playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird ( 1962 ) and appearing in Captain Newman, M.D. ( 1963 ), as major Frank Burns in the blockbuster comedy M*A*S*H ( 1970 ) and the lead function in THX 1138 ( 1971 ), deoxyadenosine monophosphate good as Horton Foote ‘s adaptation of William Faulkner ‘s Tomorrow ( 1972 ), which was developed at The Actors Studio and is Duvall ‘s personal darling. [ 1 ] This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in commercially successful films. Duvall has starred in numerous films and television series, including The Twilight Zone ( 1963 ), The Outer Limits ( 1964 ), The F.B.I. ( 1966 ), Bullitt ( 1968 ), True Grit ( 1969 ), Joe Kidd ( 1972 ), The Godfather ( 1972 ), The Godfather Part II ( 1974 ), The Conversation ( 1974 ), Network ( 1976 ), Apocalypse Now ( 1979 ), The Great Santini ( 1979 ), Tender Mercies ( 1983 ) ( which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor ), The Natural ( 1984 ), Colors ( 1988 ), Lonesome Dove ( 1989 ), The Handmaid’s Tale ( 1990 ), Days of Thunder ( 1990 ), Rambling Rose ( 1991 ), Falling Down ( 1993 ), Secondhand Lions ( 2003 ), The Judge ( 2014 ), and Widows ( 2018 ) .

early life [edit ]

Duvall was born January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California, [ 3 ] the son of Mildred Virginia ( née Hart ; 1901–1985 ), [ 4 ] [ 5 ] an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall ( 1904–1984 ), [ 6 ] a Virginia -born U.S. Navy rear admiral. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] His mother was a relative of Civil War General Robert E. Lee, and a member of the Lee Family of Virginia, while his don was a descendant of settler Mareen Duvall. [ 9 ] Duvall was raised in the christian Science religion and has stated that, while it is his belief, he does not attend church. [ 10 ] He grew up chiefly in Annapolis, Maryland, [ 3 ] site of the United States Naval Academy. He recalled : “ I was a Navy terror. My founder started at the Academy when he was 16, made captain at 39 and retired as a rear admiral. ” He attended severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1953. [ 3 ] [ 11 ] His church father had expected him to attend the Naval Academy, but Duvall said “ I was frightful at everything but acting—I could barely get through school ”. He again defied his founder by serving in the United States Army [ 12 ] after the Korean War ( from August 19, 1953, to August 20, 1954 ) leaving the Army as private first class. [ 13 ] “ That ‘s led to some confusion in the urge, ” 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 trail “. [ 3 ] While stationed at Camp Gordon ( subsequently renamed Fort Gordon ) in Georgia, Duvall acted in an amateur production of the drollery Room Service in nearby Augusta, Georgia. [ 11 ] In the winter of 1955, Duvall began studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, [ 3 ] under Sanford Meisner, on the G.I. Bill. During his two years there, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and James Caan were among his classmates. [ 3 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] While studying act, he worked as a Manhattan post office clerk. Duvall remains friends today with fellow California-born actors Hoffman and Hackman, whom he knew during their years as struggling actors. [ 17 ] In 1955, Duvall roomed with Hoffman in a New York City apartment while they were studying together at the Playhouse. [ 18 ] Around this time, he besides roomed with Hackman, while working odd jobs such as clerking at Macy ‘s, sorting mail at the post agency, and driving a hand truck. [ 11 ] The three roommates have since earned, among themselves, 19 Academy Award nominations, with five wins .

career [edit ]

early career : 1952–1969 [edit ]

theater [edit ]

Duvall began his master acting career with the Gateway Playhouse, an Equity summer theater based in Bellport, Long Island, New York. arguably his degree 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 ‘s absence when he was with the U.S. Army ( 1953–1954 ), he returned to Gateway in its 1955 summer season, act : 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 of Dark of the Moon indicated that he had portrayed the Witchboy before and that he will “ repeat his celebrated portrayal ” of this character for the 1955 season ‘s revival of this play. For Gateway ‘s 1956 season ( his third gear temper with the Gateway Players ), he played the function of 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 ). The playbills for the 1956 season described him as “ an audience front-runner ” in the last season and as having “ appeared at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studied acting with Sandy Meisner this past winter ”. In its 1957 temper, he 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 even director at the Gateway Theatre ). [ 20 ] Miller himself attended one of Duvall ‘s performances as Eddie, and during that operation he met important people which allowed him, in two months, to land a “ dramatic moderate ” in the Naked City television series. [ 14 ] While appearing at the Gateway Theatre in the second one-half of the 1950s, he was besides appearing at the Augusta Civic Theatre, the McLean Theatre in Virginia and the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. The 1957 playbills besides 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 mimic and a member of Marcel Marceau ‘s company. By this time ( besides July 1957 ), his theatrical credits included performances as Jimmy in The Rainmaker and as Harvey Weems in Horton Foote ‘s The Midnight Caller. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] 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 ). [ 23 ] At the Neighborhood Playhouse, Meisner cast him in Tennessee Williams ‘ Camino Real and the championship role of Harvey Weems in Foote ‘s one-act toy The Midnight Caller. The latter was already separate of Duvall ‘s performance credits by mid-july 1957. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ] 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 turn closed three days later ( June 28 ) after five performances. His early 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 premier of William Snyder ‘s The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker on September 17, 1962, until June 9, 1963, at the Sheridan Square Playhouse. His most celebrated 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 operation 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. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ]

television receiver [edit ]

In 1959, Duvall made his inaugural 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 drama. His appearances during this prison term 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 F.B.I., and The Mod Squad .

movie [edit ]

Duvall ‘s screen introduction 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 Neighborhood Playhouse during a 1957 production of Foote ‘s bet, The Midnight Caller. Foote, who collaborated with Duvall many more times over the course of their careers, said he believed Duvall had a particular sleep together of common people and ability to infuse bewitching revelations into his roles. Foote has described Duvall as “ our phone number one actor. ” [ 32 ] After To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in a number of films during the 1960s, by and large in midsized parts, but besides in a few larger supporting roles. Some of his more luminary appearances include the character of Capt. Paul Cabot Winston in Captain Newman, M.D. ( 1963 ), Chiz in Countdown ( 1968 ), and Gordon in The Rain People. Duvall had a small part as a cab driver who ferries McQueen round just before the furrow setting in the film Bullitt ( 1968 ). He was the ill-famed criminal “ lucky ” Ned Pepper in True Grit ( 1969 ), in which he engaged in a climactic gunfight with John Wayne ‘s Rooster Cogburn on horseback .

Mid career : 1970–1989 [edit ]

Duvall became an important bearing in american films beginning in the 1970s. He drew a considerable sum of care in 1970 for his portrait of the malefic Major Frank Burns in the film MASH and for his depicting of the title role in THX 1138 in 1971 where he plays a fugitive trying to escape a society controlled by robots. His foremost 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 nominating speech for Best Supporting Actor. In 1976, Duvall played supporting roles in The Eagle Has Landed and as Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution inverse Nicol Williamson, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier. [ 33 ] By the mid-1970s Duvall was a top character actor ; People described him as “ Hollywood ‘s No. 1 No. 2 leash ”. [ 12 ] Duvall received another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and won both a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for his character as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now ( 1979 ). His line “ I love the smell of napalm in the dawn ” from Apocalypse Now is regarded as iconic in film history. The entire textbook is :

You smell that ? Do you smell that ? Napalm, son. nothing else in the global smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the good morning. You know, one meter we had a mound bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We did n’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin ‘ dink body. But the smell ! You know – that gasoline smell … the wholly hill ! Smelled like … victory. ( Pause ) Some day this war is going to end …

Duvall received a BAFTA Award nominating speech for his depiction of abhorrent television receiver executive Frank Hackett in the critically acclaimed film Network ( 1976 ) and garnered an Oscar nominating speech for Best Actor in a leave Role in The Great Santini ( 1979 ) as the hard-boiled Marine Lt. Col. “ Bull ” Meechum. The latter function was based on a Marine aviator, Colonel Donald Conroy, the founder of the book ‘s generator Pat Conroy. He besides co-starred with Laurence Olivier and Tommy Lee Jones in The Betsy ( 1978 ) and portrayed United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the television receiver miniseries Ike ( 1979 ). Francis Ford Coppola praised Duvall as “ one of the four or five best actors in the world ”. Wanting crown charge 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 ”. [ 12 ] He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play .

“ You ca n’t concoct or push ahead something other than what you have at that moment as yourself, as that character. It ‘s you at that here and now in time. … between action and trimmed, it ‘s a dainty global, but you ca n’t force that any more than you can force it in life sentence. ”

—Robert Duvall on acting [ 32 ]

Duvall continued to appear in films during the 1980s, including the roles of disillusioned sports writer Max Mercy in The Natural ( 1984 ) and Los Angeles police policeman Bob Hodges in Colors ( 1988 ). He won an academy award for Best Actor as state western singer Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies ( 1983 ). Duvall was said [ by whom? ] to have written the music, but the actor said he wrote lone a few “ background, secondary songs ”. Duvall did do his own scorch, insisting it be added to his shrink 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 person else ? I mean, there ‘s no point to that. ” [ 32 ] Actress Tess Harper, who co-starred, said Duvall inhabited the character so in full that she only got to know Mac Sledge and not Duvall himself. Director Bruce Beresford, besides, said the transformation was so credible to him that he could feel his peel 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 wholly and absolutely becomes that person to a academic degree which is preternatural. ” [ 32 ] Nevertheless, Duvall and Beresford did not get along well during the production and often clashed during film, including one day in which Beresford walked off the rig in frustration. [ 32 ] In 1989, Duvall appeared in the miniseries Lonesome Dove in the function of Captain Augustus “ Gus ” McCrae, Texas Rangers ( retired ). He has considered this detail function to be his personal favorite. [ 34 ] He won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award [ 35 ] nominating speech. For his function as a erstwhile Texas Ranger peace officer, Duvall was trained in the use of Walker revolvers by the Texas marksman Joe Bowman .

late career : 1990–present [edit ]

Duvall in 2002 For The Godfather Part III ( 1990 ), Duvall refused to take partially unless he was paid a wage comparable to Al Pacino ‘s. In 2004, Duvall said on 60 Minutes, “ if they paid Pacino doubly what they paid me, that ‘s fine, but not three or four times, which is what they did. ” [ 36 ] In 1992, Duvall founded the production company Butcher ‘s Run Films. [ 37 ] Duvall has maintained a busy film career, sometimes appearing in deoxyadenosine monophosphate many as four in one year. He received Oscar nominations for his portrayals of evangelical preacher Euliss “ Sonny ” Dewey in The Apostle ( 1997 ) —a film he besides wrote and directed—and played lawyer Jerome Facher in A Civil Action ( 1998 ). He directed Assassination Tango ( 2002 ), a thriller about one of his front-runner hobbies, tango. He portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals in 2003. other roles during this period that displayed the actor ‘s wide range included that of a crowd chief in Days of Thunder ( 1990 ), a retiring bull in Falling Down ( 1993 ), a hispanic barber in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway ( 1993 ), a New York tabloid editor in The Paper ( 1994 ), a rural doctor of the church in Phenomenon ( 1996 ), a father who owns a jumper horse farm in Something to Talk About ( 1995 ), an abusive father in 1996 ‘s Sling Blade, an astronaut in Deep Impact ( 1998 ), a mechanic in Gone in 60 Seconds ( 2000 ), a soccer passenger car in A Shot at Glory, A scientist in The 6th Day ( 2001 ), a police policeman in John Q ( 2002 ), a trail boss in Open Range ( 2003 ), another soccer coach in the drollery Kicking & Screaming, an old free emotional state in Secondhand Lions ( 2003 ), a Las Vegas poker ace in Lucky You, and a New York police headman in We Own the Night ( both 2007 ). He has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. [ 38 ] Duvall has sporadically worked in television receiver from the 1990s on. He won a Golden Globe Award and garnered an Emmy nomination for his portrait of soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in the 1992 television film Stalin. He was nominated for an Emmy again in 1997 for portraying Adolf Eichmann in The Man Who Captured Eichmann. In 2006, he won an Emmy for the function of Prentice “ Print ” Ritter in the revisionist western miniseries Broken Trail. In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush at the White House. [ 39 ] In 2014, he starred in The Judge alongside Robert Downey Jr. . While the movie itself received interracial reviews, [ 40 ] Duvall ‘s operation was praised. He was nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Award for his supporting character. In 2015, at age 84, Duvall became the oldest actor ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his character in the film The Judge, [ 41 ] a record that has since been surpassed by Christopher Plummer. In 2018 he appeared in the Steve McQueen directed heist thriller Widows as a defile power agent. The film earned critical acclaim. In 2021, he was interviewed by Stephen Colbert for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he discussed his film career, living with Dustin Hoffman, his function in Network, and his acting techniques .

personal life [edit ]

Duvall with wife Gail Youngs, NYC apartment, 1984 Duvall quoted a acquaintance about how being an actor helped in meeting women : “ Bob, it ’ s the greatest leg opener in the world, international relations and security network ’ thyroxine it ? “. [ 42 ] He has been married four times but does not have any children. “ I guess I ’ thousand shooting blanks, ” he said in 2007. [ 43 ] He has said, “ [ I ’ ve tested ] with a distribute of unlike women, in and out of marriage. ” [ 43 ] Duvall met his first wife, Barbara Benjamin, [ 2 ] a former dancer on The Jackie Gleason Show, during the shoot of To Kill a Mockingbird. [ 44 ] She had two daughters from her previous marriage. [ 44 ] The couple were married from 1964 until 1975. [ 2 ] His second wife was Gail Youngs, to whom he was married from 1982 to 1986. [ 2 ] His marriage to Youngs temporarily made him the brother-in-law of John Savage, [ 3 ] [ 45 ] Robin Young, and Jim Youngs. His one-third marriage was to Sharon Brophy, a dancer, from 1991 to 1995. [ 2 ] In 2005, Duvall married his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza, granddaughter of Argentine aviation pioneer Susana Ferrari Billinghurst. [ 46 ] He met Pedraza in Argentina, recall, “ The flower shop was closed, so I went to the bakery. If the bloom patronize had been open, I never would ‘ve met her. ” [ 47 ] They were both born on January 5, but Duvall is 41 years older. [ 48 ] They have been together since 1997. He produced, directed, and acted with her in Assassination Tango, with the majority of filming in Buenos Aires. Duvall is besides known as a very skilled Argentine Tango dancer, having a Tango Studio in Argentina and in the United States. [ 17 ] [ 46 ] [ 49 ] Duvall ‘s political views are variously described as libertarian or button-down. [ 17 ] He was personally invited to Republican President George W. Bush ‘s inauguration in 2001. In September 2007, he announced his support for republican Presidential campaigner Rudy Giuliani. [ 50 ] Duvall worked the floor at the GOP ‘s 2008 national conventionality. [ 51 ] In September 2008, he appeared onstage at a John McCain – Sarah Palin muster in New Mexico. Duvall endorsed Republican presidential campaigner Mitt Romney in 2012. [ 52 ] He revealed during a March 13, 2014, interview with The Daily Beast, however, that he will credibly become an freelancer, calling nowadays ‘s Republican Party “ a mess ”. [ 53 ] In 2001, Pedraza and Duvall founded the Robert Duvall Children ‘s fund to assist families in Northern Argentina through renovations of homes, schools, and medical facilities. [ 54 ] Duvall and Pedraza have been active supporters of Pro Mujer, a nonprofit organization charity organization dedicated to helping Latin America ‘s poorest women ( with Duvall and Pedraza concentrating on Pedraza ‘s family in the Argentine Northwest ). [ 55 ] [ 56 ] Duvall is known to train brazilian jiu-jitsu and practices soldierly arts with his wife. [ 57 ] In May 2009, Duvall spoke for historic conservation against Walmart ‘s proposal to build a storehouse across the road from the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield national park in Orange County, Virginia. [ 58 ] In 2011, he appeared at the Texas Children ‘s Cancer Center charity consequence, “ An evening with a Texas Legend ”, in Houston, where he was interviewed by Bob Schieffer. [ 59 ]

Filmography [edit ]

Awards and nominations [edit ]

References [edit ]

far read [edit ]

  • Mancin, Elaine; Thomas, Nicholas, ed. (1992). Duvall, Robert. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Actors and Actresses. St. James Press. pp. 313–315.