Robert Duvall
Encyclopedia
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA
over the course of his career.
A veteran character actor
, Duvall has starred in some of the most acclaimed and popular films and TV shows of all time, among them The Twilight Zone
, The Outer Limits
, To Kill a Mockingbird
, THX 1138
, Joe Kidd
, The Godfather
, The Godfather Part II
, MASH
, Network
, True Grit, Bullitt
, The Conversation
, Apocalypse Now
, Tender Mercies
, The Natural
and Lonesome Dove.
He began appearing in theatre
as a handsome young lead actor during the late 1950s, moving into television
and film
roles during the early 1960s in such works as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (as Boo Radley) and Captain Newman, M.D.
(1963). He started to land much larger roles during the early 1970s with films like the blockbuster comedy MASH (1970) (as Major Burns) and the lead in George Lucas
's THX 1138
(1971). This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in films which were also commercial successes: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Network (1976), The Great Santini
(1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), and True Confessions
(1981).
Since then Duvall has continued to act in both film and television with such productions as Tender Mercies (1983) (for which he won an Academy Award), The Natural (1984), Colors
(1988), the television mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989), Stalin
(1992), The Man Who Captured Eichmann
(1996), A Family Thing (1996), The Apostle
(1997) (which he also wrote and directed), A Civil Action
(1998), Gods and Generals
(2003), Broken Trail
(2006) and Get Low
(2010).
, the son of Mildred Virginia (née
Hart), an amateur actress and relative of American Civil War
General Robert E. Lee
, and William Howard Duvall, a Virginia
-born U.S. Navy
admiral. Duvall's father was a Methodist of distant French Huguenot descent, while his mother was a Christian Scientist of German
and English
descent; Duvall was raised in the Christian Science
religion and has stated that while it is his belief, he does not attend church. Duvall grew up in the traditional life of a career military family, moving frequently from military base to military base, living for a time in Annapolis
, Maryland
, near the United States Naval Academy
. He attended Severn School
in Severna Park
, Maryland
and The Principia
in St. Louis, Missouri
and graduated, in 1953, from Principia College
in Elsah, Illinois. He served in the United States Army
from 19 August 1953 to 20 August 1954, leaving as Private First Class
. While stationed at Camp Gordon (now known as Fort Gordon) in Georgia
, Duvall acted in an amateur production of the comedy "Room Service
" in nearby Augusta
.
After leaving the Army, Duvall studied acting
at the Neighborhood Playhouse
School of Theatre in New York
under Sanford Meisner
. While working to become an actor, he worked as a Manhattan post office
clerk. Duvall is friends with actors Dustin Hoffman
and Gene Hackman
whom he knew during their years as struggling actors. At one point, Duvall roomed with Hoffman while they were looking for work.
, in Bellport, Long Island where he played the role of Virgil Blessing in BUS STOP. He was known as Bob Duval at that time. He made his professional debut Off-Broadway
at the Gate Theatre
as Frank Gardner in George Bernard Shaw
's Mrs. Warren's Profession
on June 25, 1958. Other notable early theatre credits include the role of Doug in the premiere of Michael Shurtleff
's Call Me By My Rightful Name
in 1961 and the role of Bob Smith in the premiere of William Snyder
's The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker
in 1962, both at Off-Broadway theatres. He won an Obie Award
in 1965 for his performance of Eddie in Arthur Miller
's A View From the Bridge
at the Sheridan Square Playhouse
; a production directed by Ulu Grosbard
and Dustin Hoffman
. The following year he made his Broadway
debut as Harry Roat, Jr in Frederick Knott
's Wait Until Dark
.
In 1959, Duvall made his first television
appearance on Armstrong Circle Theatre
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
, The Outer Limits
, The Fugitive
, T.H.E. Cat, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
, The Time Tunnel
and The Mod Squad
to name just a few.
Duvall's screen 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 Neighborhood Playhouse during a 1957 production of Foote's play, The Midnight Caller
. Foote, who would collaborate 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 has described Duvall as "our number one actor."
After To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in a number of films during the 1960s, mostly in mid sized 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 (1968), and Gordon in The Rain People
. Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who ferries McQueen around just before the chase scene in the film Bullitt (1969). 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.
and for his portrayal of the title role in the cult classic
THX 1138
in 1971. His first major critical success came portraying consigliere (family counsel) Tom Hagen
in The Godfather
(1972) and The Godfather Part II
(1974). The former film earned him an Academy Award nomination 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
opposite Nicol Williamson
, Alan Arkin
, Vanessa Redgrave
and Sir Laurence Olivier.
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 now regarded as iconic
in cinema
history. The full text is as follows:
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
and overbearing parent LtCol. "Bull" Meechum. The latter role was loosely based on a Marine aviator, Colonel Donald Conroy
, the father of the book's author Pat Conroy
. He also portrayed United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower
in the television miniseries
Ike
(1979).
In 1977 Duvall returned to Broadway to appear as Walter Cole in David Mamet
's American Buffalo
. For his performance he received a Drama Desk Award
nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play
. To date, Duvall has not returned to the New York stage.
Duvall continued to appear in important films during the 1980s, including the roles of cynical 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). Foote was rumored to have written the part for Duvall, who had always wanted to play a country singer and contributed ideas for the character. Foote denied this, claiming he found it too constraining to write roles for specific actors, but he did hope Duvall would be cast. Duvall was said to have written the music, but the actor said he wrote only a few "background, secondary songs." Duvall did do 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."
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." Nevertheless, 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.
In 1989, Duvall appeared in the landmark mini-series Lonesome Dove
in the role of Augustus "Gus" McCrae. He has stated in several forums, including CBS Sunday Morning, that this particular role was his personal favorite. He won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award
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
.
Duvall has maintained a busy film career, sometimes appearing in as 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 also wrote and directed — and lawyer Jerome Facher in A Civil Action
(1998).
He directed Assassination Tango
(2002), a thriller about one of his favorite hobbies, tango
. He portrayed General Robert E. Lee
in Gods and Generals
in 2003 and is a relative of the Confederate
general.
Other roles during this period that displayed the actor's wide range included that of a crew chief in Days of Thunder
(1990), a retiring cop in Falling Down
(1992), an Hispanic barber in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
(1993), a New York tabloid editor in The Paper
(1994), a rural doctor in Phenomenon
(1996), an abusive father in 1996's Slingblade, an astronaut in Deep Impact
(1998), a trail boss in Open Range
(2003), a soccer coach in the comedy Kicking & Screaming, an old free spirit in Secondhand Lions
(2003), a Las Vegas poker champion in Lucky You
and a New York police chief in We Own the Night
(both 2007).
He has been referred to as "The King of Action". He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
on September 18, 2003.
Duvall has periodically worked in television during the last two decades. He won a Golden Globe and garnered an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Soviet
leader
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 role 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
.
Duvall founded a production company, Butcher's Run Films, but it appears to have ceased operation.
, Robin Young
, and Jim Youngs
). Third to Sharon Brophy (1991–1996).
In 2005, Duvall wed Luciana Pedraza
, granddaughter of famous Argentine
aviator Susana Ferrari Billinghurst
. He met Pedraza on a street in Buenos Aires
, Argentina
. They were both born on January 5, but Duvall is 41 years older. They have been together since 1997. He produced, directed, and they acted together in Assassination Tango, with the majority of filming in Buenos Aires.
Duvall and Pedraza have been active supporters of Pro Mujer, a non-profit charity organization dedicated to helping Latin America's poorest women (with Duvall and Pedraza concentrating on Pedraza's home of northern Argentina) help themselves through micro-credit, business training and health care links.
He has fathered no children, although he says he has made a number of attempts to do so.
or conservative. He was personally invited to Republican
President
George W. Bush
's inauguration
in 2001. In September 2007, he announced his support for Republican Presidential candidate
Rudy Giuliani
. Duvall worked the floor at the GOP's 2008 national convention
and, according to an August 29, 2008 MSNBC
article, Duvall narrated most of the videos for the convention. In September 2008, he appeared on stage at a John McCain
-Sarah Palin
rally in New Mexico
.
's proposal to build a store across the road from the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield
national park in Orange County, Virginia.
In 2011, Duvall appeared at a record-breaking Houston charity event when he was interviewed by Bob Schieffer
for 'An Evening with a Texas Legend'. The event raised over $9 million for Texas Children's Cancer Center
.
British Academy Film Awards
The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is the British counterpart of the Oscars. As of 2008, it has taken place in the Royal Opera House, having taken over from the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square...
over the course of his career.
A veteran character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
, Duvall has starred in some of the most acclaimed and popular films and TV shows of all time, among them The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that originally aired on Showtime,the Sci Fi Channel and in syndication between 1995 and 2002...
, To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird (film)
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name directed by Robert Mulligan. It stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch....
, THX 1138
THX 1138
THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
, Joe Kidd
Joe Kidd
Joe Kidd is a 1972 American western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges....
, The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling the story of the Corleone family following the events of the first film while also depicting the...
, MASH
MASH (film)
MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...
, Network
Network (film)
Network is a 1976 American satirical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System , and its struggle with poor ratings. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet...
, True Grit, Bullitt
Bullitt
Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L....
, The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
, Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
, Tender Mercies
Tender Mercies
Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas...
, The Natural
The Natural (film)
The Natural is a 1984 film adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1952 baseball novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall...
and Lonesome Dove.
He began appearing in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
as a handsome young lead actor during the late 1950s, moving into television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
roles during the early 1960s in such works as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (as Boo Radley) and Captain Newman, M.D.
Captain Newman, M.D.
Captain Newman, M.D. is a 1963 film starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and Bobby Darin. It was directed by David Miller and filmed on location at Fort Huachuca, Arizona....
(1963). He started to land much larger roles during the early 1970s with films like the blockbuster comedy MASH (1970) (as Major Burns) and the lead in George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
's THX 1138
THX 1138
THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
(1971). This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in films which were also commercial successes: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Network (1976), The Great Santini
The Great Santini
The Great Santini is a 1979 film which tells the story of a Marine officer whose success as a military aviator contrasts with his shortcomings as a husband and father. The film explores the high price of heroism and self-sacrifice...
(1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), and True Confessions
True Confessions (film)
True Confessions is a 1981 film directed by Ulu Grosbard, loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder case of 1947. The film stars Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, was produced by Chartoff-Winkler Productions and is adapted from the novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne.-Plot summary:In the...
(1981).
Since then Duvall has continued to act in both film and television with such productions as Tender Mercies (1983) (for which he won an Academy Award), The Natural (1984), Colors
Colors (film)
Colors is a 1988 police procedural crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall and directed by Dennis Hopper. The story takes place in South Central Los Angeles, and is about Bob Hodges , an experienced LAPD Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums Police Officer III, and his rookie partner,...
(1988), the television mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989), Stalin
Stalin (1992 film)
Stalin is a 1992 television film, produced for HBO, starring Robert Duvall portraying Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The film won three Golden Globe Awards among various awards including cinematography awards for Vilmos Zsigmond...
(1992), The Man Who Captured Eichmann
The Man Who Captured Eichmann
The Man Who Captured Eichmann is a 1996 movie about the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli secret service Mossad.The film ends with the take-off of the El Al aircraft taking Eichmann to face trial in Jerusalem. In real life, this aircraft was a turboprop-powered Bristol...
(1996), A Family Thing (1996), The Apostle
The Apostle
The Apostle is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Robert Duvall, who stars in the title role. John Beasley, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton, June Carter Cash, Miranda Richardson and Billy Joe Shaver also appear...
(1997) (which he also wrote and directed), A Civil Action
A Civil Action
A Civil Action is a 1998 American drama film starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr...
(1998), Gods and Generals
Gods and Generals (film)
Gods and Generals is a 2003 American film based on the novel Gods and Generals by Jeffrey Shaara. It depicts events that take place prior to those shown in the 1993 film Gettysburg, which was based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Shaara's father, Michael...
(2003), Broken Trail
Broken Trail
Broken Trail is a 2006 Western miniseries that originally aired on American Movie Classics as their first original movie. It stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church, and was directed by Walter Hill....
(2006) and Get Low
Get Low (film)
Get Low is a 2009 drama film directed by Aaron Schneider, written by Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell, and starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Bill Cobbs, Lori Beth Edgeman, Andrea Powell, Rebecca Grant, Scott Cooper, and Chandler Riggs...
(2010).
Early life
Duvall was born in San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, the son of Mildred Virginia (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Hart), an amateur actress and relative of American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, and William Howard Duvall, a Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
-born U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
admiral. Duvall's father was a Methodist of distant French Huguenot descent, while his mother was a Christian Scientist of German
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
and English
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
descent; Duvall was raised in the Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
religion and has stated that while it is his belief, he does not attend church. Duvall grew up in the traditional life of a career military family, moving frequently from military base to military base, living for a time in Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, near the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
. He attended Severn School
Severn School
Severn School was founded in 1914 by Rolland M. Teel in Severna Park, Maryland, as a preparatory school for the United States Naval Academy. Today, Severn is a day school enrolling boys and girls in grades 6 through 12...
in Severna Park
Severna Park, Maryland
Severna Park is a census-designated place in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 28,507 at the 2000 census.-History:Robinson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.-Geography:...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and The Principia
The Principia
The Principia is an educational institution for Christian Scientists located on two campuses in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Principia School, located in West St. Louis County, serves students from early childhood through high school...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
and graduated, in 1953, from Principia College
Principia College
Principia College is a four-year private co-educational liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. The campus sits on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River between Alton and Grafton, located about thirty miles north of St. Louis. In 1934, Principia College graduated its first class as a full...
in Elsah, Illinois. He served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
from 19 August 1953 to 20 August 1954, leaving as Private First Class
Private First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
. While stationed at Camp Gordon (now known as Fort Gordon) in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Duvall acted in an amateur production of the comedy "Room Service
Room Service (1938 film)
Room Service is an RKO film comedy starring the Marx Brothers and based on the 1937 play of the same name by Allen Boretz and John Murray. It co-stars Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Alexander Asro, and Frank Albertson.-Plot outline:...
" in nearby Augusta
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
.
After leaving the Army, Duvall studied acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
at the Neighborhood Playhouse
Neighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...
School of Theatre in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
under Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....
. While working to become an actor, he worked as a Manhattan post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
clerk. Duvall is friends with actors Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
whom he knew during their years as struggling actors. At one point, Duvall roomed with Hoffman while they were looking for work.
Early career: 1956–1969
Duvall began his career in the theatre, performing in the summer theatre company, Gateway PlayhouseGateway Playhouse
Gateway Playhouse is a summer theatre located on the eastern edge of Bellport, Long Island. The street address is 215 South Country Road. It's the oldest of three professional theatres on the island and nationally recognized as one of the top ten summer theatres in the nation. Gateway Playhouse...
, in Bellport, Long Island where he played the role of Virgil Blessing in BUS STOP. He was known as Bob Duval at that time. He made his professional debut Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre (New York City)
The Gate Theatre was an Off-Broadway theatre in New York City that was active during the 1950s through 1970s. Located at 162 Second Avenue in the East Village, the theatre the was founded in 1957 by Lily Turner. It closed in the early 1970s.-External links:...
as Frank Gardner in George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's Mrs. Warren's Profession
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Mrs Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893. The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren, a brothel owner, described by the author as "on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman" and her daughter, Vivie...
on June 25, 1958. Other notable early theatre credits include the role of Doug in the premiere of Michael Shurtleff
Michael Shurtleff
Michael Shurtleff was a major force in casting on Broadway during the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote Audition, a book for actors on the audition process...
's Call Me By My Rightful Name
Call Me By My Rightful Name
Call Me By My Rightful Name is an American play by Michael Shurtleff which is based on a story by S.F. Pfoutz. The production premiered Off-Broadway on January 31, 1961 at the One Sheridan Square theatre where it ran for a total of 127 performances...
in 1961 and the role of Bob Smith in the premiere of William Snyder
William Snyder (playwright)
William Hartwell Snyder, Jr. was an American playwright and a longtime faculty member of the theatre department at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He is best known for his play The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker.-Biography:Snyder attended Yale University's School of Drama where he...
's The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker
The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker
The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker is an American play by William Snyder. The work premiered Off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse on September 17, 1962, closing on June 9, 1963 after 304 performances. The production was directed by Ulu Grosbard and used set and lighting designs by...
in 1962, both at Off-Broadway theatres. He won an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
in 1965 for his performance of Eddie in Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's A View From the Bridge
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...
at the Sheridan Square Playhouse
Sheridan Square Playhouse
The Sheridan Square Playhouse was an Off-Broadway theatre in New York City that was active from 1958 through the early 1990s. Closed as a theatre in 1996, the theatre was located at 99 7th Avenue South in Greenwich Village.-History:...
; a production directed by Ulu Grosbard
Ulu Grosbard
Ulu Grosbard is a Belgian-born, naturalized American theatre and film director and film producer.Born in Antwerp, Grosbard emigrated to Havana with his family in 1942. In 1948, they moved to the United States, where he earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Chicago...
and Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
. The following year he made his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut as Harry Roat, Jr in Frederick Knott
Frederick Knott
Frederick Major Paull Knott was an English playwright, best known for writing the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, which was later filmed in Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock....
's Wait Until Dark
Wait Until Dark
Wait Until Dark is a play by Frederick Knott.-Synopsis:Susy Hendrix is a blind Greenwich Village housewife who becomes the target of three con-men searching for the heroin hidden in a doll, which her husband Sam innocently transported from Canada as a favor to a woman who has since been murdered...
.
In 1959, Duvall made his first television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearance on Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.-Synopsis:...
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
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
, The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
, T.H.E. Cat, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
, The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...
and The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...
to name just a few.
Duvall's screen debut was as Boo Radley in the critically acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird (film)
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name directed by Robert Mulligan. It stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch....
(1962). He was cast in the film on the recommendation of screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
Horton Foote
Horton Foote
Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...
, who met Duvall at Neighborhood Playhouse during a 1957 production of Foote's play, The Midnight Caller
The Midnight Caller (play)
The Midnight Caller is a play by American playwright Horton Foote. The work was first performed in 1957 as part of a student production at the Neighborhood Playhouse with a cast including Robert Duvall. It had its professional premiere Off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse where it opened...
. Foote, who would collaborate 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 has described Duvall as "our number one actor."
After To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in a number of films during the 1960s, mostly in mid sized 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.
Captain Newman, M.D.
Captain Newman, M.D. is a 1963 film starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and Bobby Darin. It was directed by David Miller and filmed on location at Fort Huachuca, Arizona....
(1963), Chiz in Countdown (1968), and Gordon in The Rain People
The Rain People
The Rain People is a 1969 film by Francis Ford Coppola. Alongside Shirley Knight, leading players are James Caan and Robert Duvall, both of whom would later work with Coppola in The Godfather. Future film director and Coppola friend George Lucas worked as an aide on this film, and made a short...
. Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who ferries McQueen around just before the chase scene in the film Bullitt (1969). He was the notorious malefactor "Lucky" Ned Pepper in True Grit (1969), in which he engaged in a climactic shootout with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
's Rooster Cogburn on horseback.
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 Major Frank Burns in the film MASHMASH (film)
MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...
and for his portrayal of the title role in the cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
THX 1138
THX 1138
THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
in 1971. His first major critical success came portraying consigliere (family counsel) Tom Hagen
Tom Hagen
Thomas "Tom" Feargal Hagen is a fictional character in the Godfather books and films. He was portrayed by Robert Duvall in the films. He is the informally adopted son of Don Vito Corleone and serves as the family lawyer and consigliere . Mild-mannered and soft-spoken, he often serves as a voice of...
in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
(1972) and The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling the story of the Corleone family following the events of the first film while also depicting the...
(1974). The former film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1976 Duvall played supporting roles in The Eagle Has Landed
The Eagle Has Landed
The Eagle Has Landed is a book by Jack Higgins set during World War II. It first published in 1975. It was made into a film of the same name in 1976 starring Michael Caine...
and as Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (film)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is a 1976 Universal Studios Sherlock Holmes film, directed by Herbert Ross and written by Nicholas Meyer. It is based on Meyer's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, and Laurence Olivier.-Plot synopsis:When Dr...
opposite Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
, Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
, Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
and Sir Laurence Olivier.
Duvall received another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
and won both a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for his role as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
(1979). His line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now is now regarded as iconic
Cultural icon
A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group...
in cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
history. The full text is as follows:
Duvall received a BAFTA Award nomination for his portrayal of television executive Frank Hackett in the critically acclaimed film Network
Network (film)
Network is a 1976 American satirical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System , and its struggle with poor ratings. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet...
(1976) and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in The Great Santini
The Great Santini
The Great Santini is a 1979 film which tells the story of a Marine officer whose success as a military aviator contrasts with his shortcomings as a husband and father. The film explores the high price of heroism and self-sacrifice...
(1979) as the hard-boiled Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
and overbearing parent LtCol. "Bull" Meechum. The latter role was loosely based on a Marine aviator, Colonel Donald Conroy
Donald Conroy
Donald "The Great Santini" Conroy was a United States Marine Corps colonel and a member of the famed Black Sheep Squadron during the Korean War. He was also a veteran of World War II and of two tours of duty in Vietnam. He is best known as the being the inspiration for the character LtCol...
, the father of the book's author Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy , is a New York Times bestselling author who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs. Two of his novels, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into Oscar-nominated films.-Early life:...
. He also portrayed United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
in the television miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Ike
Ike (TV miniseries)
Ike is a 1979 television miniseries about the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The screenplay by Melville Shavelson was based on Kay Summersby's 1948 memoir Eisenhower Was My Boss and her 1975 autobiography, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair. Directed by Boris Sagal and Melville Shavelson, the...
(1979).
In 1977 Duvall returned to Broadway to appear as Walter Cole in David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
's American Buffalo
American Buffalo (play)
American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet which had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two more showcase productions, it opened on Broadway on February 16, 1977...
. For his performance he received a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, acting awards were given without making distinctions between roles in straight dramas as opposed to musicals, nor were...
. To date, Duvall has not returned to the New York stage.
Duvall continued to appear in important films during the 1980s, including the roles of cynical sportswriter Max Mercy in The Natural
The Natural (film)
The Natural is a 1984 film adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1952 baseball novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall...
(1984) and Los Angeles police officer Bob Hodges in Colors
Colors (film)
Colors is a 1988 police procedural crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall and directed by Dennis Hopper. The story takes place in South Central Los Angeles, and is about Bob Hodges , an experienced LAPD Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums Police Officer III, and his rookie partner,...
(1988). He won an Oscar for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
as country western singer
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies
Tender Mercies
Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas...
(1983). Foote was rumored to have written the part for Duvall, who had always wanted to play a country singer and contributed ideas for the character. Foote denied this, claiming he found it too constraining to write roles for specific actors, but he did hope Duvall would be cast. Duvall was said to have written the music, but the actor said he wrote only a few "background, secondary songs." Duvall did do 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."
Actress Tess Harper
Tess Harper
Tess Harper is an American actress.-Early life:Born Tessie Jean Washam on August 15, 1950 in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. Her parents' names are Ed and Rosemary Washam. She grew up around lots of quilts and quilt makers. On her own time, she liked to sit on the porch-swing and read...
, 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
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
, 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." Nevertheless, 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.
In 1989, Duvall appeared in the landmark mini-series Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Pulitzer Prize–winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series, but the third installment in the series chronologically...
in the role of Augustus "Gus" McCrae. He has stated in several forums, including CBS Sunday Morning, that this particular role was his personal favorite. He won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination. For his role as a former Texas Ranger peace officer, Duvall was trained in the use of Walker revolvers by the Texas marksman
Marksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
Joe Bowman
Joe Bowman (marksman)
Joe Bowman, born Joseph Lee Bowman , was a Houston bootmaker and marksman called "The Straight Shooter", considered to have been a guardian of Texas and western frontier culture. Shortly after his death, Bowman was inducted posthumously into the Texas Heroes Hall of Honor at the Frontier Times...
.
Later career: 1990–present
The Apostle
The Apostle is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Robert Duvall, who stars in the title role. John Beasley, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton, June Carter Cash, Miranda Richardson and Billy Joe Shaver also appear...
(1997) — a film he also wrote and directed — and lawyer Jerome Facher in A Civil Action
A Civil Action
A Civil Action is a 1998 American drama film starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr...
(1998).
He directed Assassination Tango
Assassination Tango
Assassination Tango is a 2002 crime film written, produced, directed by, and starring Robert Duvall. It is a thriller about an assassin's discovery of Argentine tango. Other actors include Rubén Blades, Kathy Baker and Duvall's wife, Luciana Pedraza. Francis Ford Coppola was one of the executive...
(2002), a thriller about one of his favorite hobbies, tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
. He portrayed General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
in Gods and Generals
Gods and Generals (film)
Gods and Generals is a 2003 American film based on the novel Gods and Generals by Jeffrey Shaara. It depicts events that take place prior to those shown in the 1993 film Gettysburg, which was based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Shaara's father, Michael...
in 2003 and is a relative of the Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
general.
Other roles during this period that displayed the actor's wide range included that of a crew chief in Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder is a 1990 American auto racing film released by Paramount Pictures, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes and Michael Rooker. The film also features appearances...
(1990), a retiring cop in Falling Down
Falling Down
Falling Down is a 1993 crime-drama film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster , a divorcee and unemployed former defense engineer...
(1992), an Hispanic barber in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway is a 1993 drama-romance film directed by Randa Haines and written by Steve Conrad, starring Richard Harris, Robert Duvall, Sandra Bullock, Shirley MacLaine, and Piper Laurie.-Plot:...
(1993), a New York tabloid editor in The Paper
The Paper
The Paper is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, and Glenn Close. The film depicts 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life.-Plot:...
(1994), a rural doctor in Phenomenon
Phenomenon (film)
Phenomenon is a 1996 romantic fantasy-drama film written by Gerald Di Pego, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, and Robert Duvall....
(1996), an abusive father in 1996's Slingblade, an astronaut in Deep Impact
Deep Impact (film)
Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...
(1998), a trail boss in Open Range
Open Range
Open Range is a 2003 American Western film co-starring, co-produced, and directed by Kevin Costner, based on the novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine. Starring alongside Costner are Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, and Michael Gambon....
(2003), a soccer coach in the comedy Kicking & Screaming, an old free spirit in Secondhand Lions
Secondhand Lions
Secondhand Lions is a 2003 American dramedy film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy who is sent to live with his eccentric uncles on a farm in the U.S...
(2003), a Las Vegas poker champion in Lucky You
Lucky You (film)
Lucky You is a 2007 drama directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, and Robert Duvall. The film was shot on location in Las Vegas...
and a New York police chief in We Own the Night
We Own the Night
We Own the Night is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. It is the third film directed by Gray, and the second film to feature Phoenix and Wahlberg together, the first being The Yards...
(both 2007).
He has been referred to as "The King of Action". He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
on September 18, 2003.
Duvall has periodically worked in television during the last two decades. He won a Golden Globe and garnered an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
leader
Leader
A leader is one who influences or leads others.Leader may also refer to:- Newspapers :* Leading article, a piece of writing intended to promote an opinion, also called an editorial* The Leader , published 1909–1967...
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
in the 1992 television film Stalin
Stalin (1992 film)
Stalin is a 1992 television film, produced for HBO, starring Robert Duvall portraying Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The film won three Golden Globe Awards among various awards including cinematography awards for Vilmos Zsigmond...
. He was nominated for an Emmy again in 1997 for portraying Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
in The Man Who Captured Eichmann
The Man Who Captured Eichmann
The Man Who Captured Eichmann is a 1996 movie about the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli secret service Mossad.The film ends with the take-off of the El Al aircraft taking Eichmann to face trial in Jerusalem. In real life, this aircraft was a turboprop-powered Bristol...
. In 2006, he won an Emmy for the role of Prentice "Print" Ritter in the revisionist Western
Revisionist Western
The Revisionist Western, Modern Western or Anti-Western traces to the mid 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie....
miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Broken Trail
Broken Trail
Broken Trail is a 2006 Western miniseries that originally aired on American Movie Classics as their first original movie. It stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church, and was directed by Walter Hill....
.
In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
Duvall founded a production company, Butcher's Run Films, but it appears to have ceased operation.
Marriages
Duvall has been married four times: First to Barbara Benjamin from 1964 until 1975. He then married Gail Youngs (1982–1986; temporarily becoming the brother-in-law of John SavageJohn Savage (actor)
John Savage is an American film actor, producer, production manager, and composer.- Acting career :...
, Robin Young
Robin Young
Robin Young is an American television and radio personality. She has been a Boston, Massachusetts-based radio and television host since the mid-1970s when she hosted Evening Magazine for WBZ-TV....
, and Jim Youngs
Jim Youngs
Jim Youngs is an American actor. Youngs was born in Old Bethpage, New York, the brother of actor John Savage, actress/producer Gail Youngs, and journalist/producer/director Robin Young.-Career:...
). Third to Sharon Brophy (1991–1996).
In 2005, Duvall wed Luciana Pedraza
Luciana Pedraza
Luciana Duvall is an Argentine actress and director. She is married to American fellow actor Robert Duvall, and is the granddaughter of Argentine aviation pioneer Susana Ferrari Billinghurst....
, granddaughter of famous Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
aviator Susana Ferrari Billinghurst
Susana Ferrari Billinghurst
Susana Ferrari Billinghurst was an Argentine aviator. She was the first woman in South America to earn a commercial pilot's license, in 1937.-Career:...
. He met Pedraza on a street in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. They were both born on January 5, but Duvall is 41 years older. They have been together since 1997. He produced, directed, and they acted together in Assassination Tango, with the majority of filming in Buenos Aires.
Duvall and Pedraza have been active supporters of Pro Mujer, a non-profit charity organization dedicated to helping Latin America's poorest women (with Duvall and Pedraza concentrating on Pedraza's home of northern Argentina) help themselves through micro-credit, business training and health care links.
He has fathered no children, although he says he has made a number of attempts to do so.
Politics
Duvall's political views are variously described as libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
or conservative. He was personally invited to Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's inauguration
Inauguration
An inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. An example is the ceremony in which the President of the United States officially takes the oath of office....
in 2001. In September 2007, he announced his support for Republican Presidential candidate
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
. Duvall worked the floor at the GOP's 2008 national convention
2008 Republican National Convention
The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008...
and, according to an August 29, 2008 MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
article, Duvall narrated most of the videos for the convention. In September 2008, he appeared on stage at a John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
-Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
rally in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
Charity work
In May 2009 he spoke for historic preservation against Wal-MartWal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
's proposal to build a store across the road from the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield
Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by...
national park in Orange County, Virginia.
In 2011, Duvall appeared at a record-breaking Houston charity event when he was interviewed by Bob Schieffer
Bob Schieffer
Bob Lloyd Schieffer is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since...
for 'An Evening with a Texas Legend'. The event raised over $9 million for Texas Children's Cancer Center
Texas Children's Cancer Center
Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers is the largest pediatric oncology and blood disease center in the United States. U.S. News & World Report ranked the cancer center #1 in Texas and #4 in the United States. It is located in Houston, Texas....
.
Filmography
| Title | Year | Role | Medium | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armstrong Circle Theatre Armstrong Circle Theatre Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.-Synopsis:... |
1959 | Berks | TV series | Season 10, episode 2: "The Jailbreak" |
| Armstrong Circle Theatre | 1960 | TV series | Season 10, episode 16: "Positive Identification" | |
| Playhouse 90 Playhouse 90 Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California... |
1960 | TV series | Season 4, episode 8: "John Brown's Raid" | |
| 1961 | Al Rogart | TV series | Season 1, episode 12: "Perjury" | |
| Great Ghost Tales | 1961 | William Wilson William (Amos) Wilson William Wilson became a figure in the folklore of southeastern and south-central Pennsylvania in the late 18th century and early 19th century. He is often referred to as The Pennsylvania Hermit. His sister Elizabeth had been condemned for the murder of her children, although many believed her to... |
TV series | Season 1, episode 1: "William Wilson" |
| Shannon Shannon (1961 TV series) Shannon is an American crime drama series that aired in syndication from September 1961 to June 1962. The series stars George Nader as the title character.-Synopsis:... |
1961 | Joey Nolan | TV series | Season 1, episode 10: "The Big Fish" |
| Cain's Hundred Cain's Hundred Cain's Hundred is an American crime drama series that aired on NBC from 1961 to 1962. The series was produced by Vanadas Productions, Inc. in association with MGM Television.-Synopsis:... |
1961 | Tom Nugent | TV series | Season 1, episode 6: "King of the Mountain" |
| Route 66 Route 66 (TV series) Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod... |
1961 | Roman | TV series | Season 1, episode 25: "The Newborn" |
| Route 66 | 1961 | Arnie | TV series | Season 2, episode 4: "Birdcage on My Foot" |
| Naked City Naked City (TV series) Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format.... |
1961 | Lewis Nunda | TV series | Season 2, episode 13: "A Hole in the City" |
| To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird (film) To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name directed by Robert Mulligan. It stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch.... |
1962 | Arthur "Boo" Radley | Feature film | |
| Naked City | 1962 | L. Francis 'Frank' Childe | TV series | Season 3, episode 23: "The One Marked Hot Gives Cold " |
| Naked City | 1962 | Johnny Meigs | TV series | Season 4, episode 6: "Five Cranks for Winter... Ten Cranks for Spring" |
| Naked City | 1962 | Barney Sonners | TV series | Season 4, episode 8: "Torment Him Much and Hold Him Long " |
| 1963 | Eddie Moon | TV series | Season 4, Episode 17: "Blues for a Gone Goose" | |
| 1963 | Luke Jackson | TV series | Season 2, episode 24: "Metamorphosis" | |
| Route 66 | 1963 | Lee Winters | TV series | Season 3, episode 18: "Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain" |
| 1963 | Charley Parkes | TV series | Season 4, episode 8: "Miniature Miniature (The Twilight Zone) "Miniature" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Charley Parkes thinks he sees a figure in a museum dollhouse that comes alive.Charley returns to the museum numerous times and gazes into the dollhouse... " |
|
| 1963 | Johnny Keel | TV series | Season 1, episode 24: "The Golden Door" | |
| Stoney Burke Stoney Burke (TV series) Stoney Burke is a short-lived Western television series broadcast on the ABC television network from October 1, 1962 until May 20, 1963. The series starred Jack Lord, who would later go on to star in the popular television series, Hawaii Five-O.... |
1963 | Joby Pierce | TV series | Season 1, episode 23: "Joby" |
| Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American Police procedural/legal drama that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.The majority of episodes consisted of two segments... |
1963 | Morton Ware | TV series | Season 1, episode 10: "The Quality of Justice" |
| 1963 | Eric Christian | TV series | Season 1, episode 4: "Never Wave Goodbye" | |
| Captain Newman, M.D. Captain Newman, M.D. Captain Newman, M.D. is a 1963 film starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and Bobby Darin. It was directed by David Miller and filmed on location at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.... |
1963 | Capt. Paul Cabot Winston | Feature film | |
| 1964 | TV series | Season 1, episode 25: "Man with an Edge" | ||
| Kraft Suspense Theatre Kraft Suspense Theatre Kraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly... |
1964 | Harvey Farnsworth | TV series | Season 1, episode 22: "Portrait of an Unknown Man" |
| 1964 | Louis Mace | TV series | Episode 31: "The Chameleon" | |
| 1964 | Adam Ballard | TV series | Episodes 42 and 43: "The Inheritors" | |
| Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series) Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the... |
1965 | Zar | TV series | Season 1, episode 20: "The Invaders" |
| Combat Combat Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed.... |
1965 | Karl | TV series | Season 3, episode 16: "The Enemy" |
| 1965 | Bill Andrews | TV series | Season 4, episode 30: "Only a Child" | |
| 1965 | Leslie Sessions | TV series | Season 2, episode 16: "Brass Ring" | |
| Nightmare in the Sun Nightmare in the Sun Nightmare in the Sun is a film drama directed by John Derek and Marc Lawrence, and written by George Fass and Fanya Foss, about a murderous affair.... |
1965 | Motorcyclist | Feature film | |
| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967... |
1966 | Frank Reeser | TV series | Season 3, episode 15: "Guilty or Not Guilty" |
| 1966 | Johnny Albin | TV series | Season 2, episode 5: "The Scourge" | |
| Combat | 1966 | Peter Halsman | TV series | Season 5, episode 14: "Cry for Help" |
| Hawk | 1966 | Dick | TV series | Season 1, episode 6: "The Theory of the Innocent Bystander" |
| Felony Squad Felony Squad Felony Squad is a half-hour television crime drama originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 12, 1966 to January 31, 1969, a span encompassing seventy-three episodes.-Overview:... |
1966 | Albie Froehlich | TV series | Season 1, episode 8: "Death of a Dream" |
| Shane Shane (TV series) Shane is an American Western television series based on the 1949 book of the same name by Jack Schaefer . The series was created by Herschel Daugherty and Gary Nelson, and starred David Carradine as the title character... |
1966 | Tom Gary | TV series | Season 1, episode 9: "Poor Tom's A-Cold" |
| T.H.E. Cat | 1966 | Scorpio | TV series | Season 1, episode 9: "Crossing at Destino Bay" |
| Fame Is the Name of the Game Fame Is the Name of the Game Fame Is the Name of the Game is an American TV-movie, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, that aired on NBC and served as the pilot episode of the subsequent series The Name of the Game. The film stars Tony Franciosa as an investigative journalist and presents the screen debut of 20-year-old Susan... |
1966 | Eddie Franchot | television film | |
| 1966 | Edwin Stewart | Feature film | ||
| 1967 | Raul Nimon | TV series | Season 1, episode 24: "Chase Through Time" | |
| Cimarron Strip Cimarron Strip Cimarron Strip is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1968. Starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown, the series was produced by the creators of Gunsmoke... |
1967 | Joe Wyman | TV series | Season 1, episode 18: "The Roarer" |
| 1967 | Dr. Horace Humphries | TV series | Season 3, episode 10: "The Night of the Falcon " | |
| 1967 | Ernie Milden | TV series | Season 2, episodes 25 and 26: "The Executioners" | |
| T.H.E. Cat | 1967 | Laurent | TV series | Season 1, episode 24: "The Long Chase" |
| Combat | 1967 | Michel | TV series | Season 5, episode 25: "The Partisan" |
| Cosa Nostra, Arch Enemy of the FBI | 1967 | Ernie Milden | television film | |
| Flesh and Blood | 1968 | Howard | television film | |
| CBS Playhouse | 1968 | Dr. Margolin | TV series | Season 2, episode 1: "The People Next Door" |
| Run for Your Life Run for Your Life (TV series) Run for Your Life is an American television drama series starring Ben Gazzara as a man with only a short time to live. It ran on NBC from 1965 to 1968. The series was created by Roy Huggins, who had previously explored the "man on the move" concept with The Fugitive.-Synopsis:Gazzara plays lawyer... |
1968 | Richard Fletcher | TV series | Season 3, episode 19: "The Killing Scene" |
| Judd, for the Defense Judd, for the Defense Judd, for the Defense is an American legal drama originally broadcast on the ABC network on Friday nights from September 8, 1967, to September 19, 1969.-Synopsis:... |
1968 | Raymond Cane | TV series | Season 1, episode 24: "Square House" |
| 1968 | Joseph Troy | TV series | Season 4, episode 9: "The Harvest" | |
| 1968 | Nestor | Feature film | ||
| Countdown | 1968 | Chiz | Feature film | |
| Bullitt Bullitt Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L.... |
1968 | Cab driver | Feature film | |
| 1969 | Matt Jenkins | TV series | Season 1, episode 23: "Keep the Faith, Baby" | |
| 1969 | Gerald Wilson | TV series | Season 5, episode 2: "Nightmare Road" | |
| True Grit | 1969 | Ned Pepper | Feature film | |
| 1969 | Gordon | Feature film | ||
| MASH MASH (film) MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise... |
1970 | Frank Burns | Feature film | |
| 1970 | Despard | Feature film | ||
| THX 1138 THX 1138 THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch... |
1971 | THX 1138 | Feature film | |
| Lawman | 1971 | Vernon Adams | Feature film | |
| 1972 | Tom Hagen Tom Hagen Thomas "Tom" Feargal Hagen is a fictional character in the Godfather books and films. He was portrayed by Robert Duvall in the films. He is the informally adopted son of Don Vito Corleone and serves as the family lawyer and consigliere . Mild-mannered and soft-spoken, he often serves as a voice of... |
Feature film | ||
| 1972 | Jesse James | Feature film | ||
| Tomorrow Tomorrow (1972 film) Tomorrow is 1972 film directed by Joseph Anthony. The screenplay was written by Horton Foote, adapted from a play he wrote which was based on a story by William Faulkner... |
1972 | Jackson Fentry | Feature film | |
| Joe Kidd Joe Kidd Joe Kidd is a 1972 American western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges.... |
1972 | Frank Harlan | Feature film | |
| 1973 | Earl Macklin | Feature film | ||
| Badge 373 Badge 373 Badge 373 is a 1973 crime thriller film inspired, as was The French Connection, by the life and career of Eddie Egan, here called "Eddie Ryan"... |
1973 | Eddie Ryan | Feature film | |
| Lady Ice Lady Ice Lady Ice is a 1973 crime film about an insurance investigator who becomes involved with a wealthy young woman he suspects of fencing stolen jewelry. The film was directed by Tom Gries, and stars Donald Sutherland, Jennifer O'Neill, and Robert Duvall.... |
1973 | Ford Pierce | Feature film | |
| 1974 | The Director | Feature film | uncredited | |
| 1974 | Tom Hagen | Feature film | ||
| 1975 | George Hanson | Feature film | ||
| Breakout | 1975 | Jay Wagner | Feature film | |
| 1976 | Oberst Max Radl | Feature film | ||
| 1976 | Dr. Watson | Feature film | ||
| Network Network (film) Network is a 1976 American satirical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System , and its struggle with poor ratings. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet... |
1976 | Frank Hackett | Feature film | Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Best Actor in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... |
| 1977 | Bill McDonald | Feature film | ||
| We're Not the Jet Set | 1977 | n/a | Documentary | Director |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 film) Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 science fiction film based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. It is a remake of the 1956 film of the same name. It was directed by Philip Kaufman and starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy.A San Francisco health inspector and... |
1978 | Priest on swing | Feature film | uncredited |
| 1978 | Loren Hardeman III | Feature film | ||
| Ike Ike (TV miniseries) Ike is a 1979 television miniseries about the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The screenplay by Melville Shavelson was based on Kay Summersby's 1948 memoir Eisenhower Was My Boss and her 1975 autobiography, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair. Directed by Boris Sagal and Melville Shavelson, the... |
1979 | Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army... |
TV mini-series | |
| Apocalypse Now Apocalypse Now Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces... |
1979 | Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore | Feature film | |
| 1979 | Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum, USMC | Feature film | ||
| Ike: The War Years | 1980 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | television film | |
| True Confessions True Confessions (film) True Confessions is a 1981 film directed by Ulu Grosbard, loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder case of 1947. The film stars Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, was produced by Chartoff-Winkler Productions and is adapted from the novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne.-Plot summary:In the... |
1981 | Thomas Spellacy | Feature film | Venice Film Festival Pasinetti Cup for Best Actor Venice Film Festival The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the... |
| 1981 | Gruen | Feature film | ||
| Tender Mercies Tender Mercies Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas... |
1983 | Mac Sledge | Feature film | |
| 1983 | Bill Vigars | television film | Nominated—CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Presentation | |
| Angelo My Love Angelo My Love Angelo My Love is a 1983 American drama film about New York City gypsies, directed by Robert Duvall. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.... |
1983 | n/a | Feature film | Director |
| 1984 | Joe Hillerman | Feature film | ||
| 1984 | Max Mercy | Feature film | ||
| Let's Get Harry Let's Get Harry Let's Get Harry is a 1986 action film directed by Stuart Rosenberg. It stars Michael Schoeffling, Thomas F. Wilson, Glenn Frey, Rick Rossovich, Gary Busey, Mark Harmon and Robert Duvall... |
1986 | Norman Shrike | Feature film | |
| Belizaire the Cajun Belizaire the Cajun Belizaire the Cajun is a 1986 film directed by Glen Pitre and starring Armand Assante. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.... |
1986 | The Preacher | Feature film | |
| Waylon Jennings: America | 1986 | Doctor | Video short | |
| The Lightship The Lightship The Lightship is a 1985 American drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.- Cast :* Robert Duvall - Caspary* Arliss Howard - Eddie* Klaus Maria Brandauer - kapitan Miller* Badja Djola - Nate* William Forsythe - Gene* Tim Phillips - Thorne... |
1986 | Calvin Caspary | Feature film | Venice Film Festival Pasinetti Cup for Best Actor Venice Film Festival The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the... |
| Hotel Colonial | 1987 | Roberto Carrasco | Feature film | |
| Colors Colors (film) Colors is a 1988 police procedural crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall and directed by Dennis Hopper. The story takes place in South Central Los Angeles, and is about Bob Hodges , an experienced LAPD Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums Police Officer III, and his rookie partner,... |
1988 | Officer Bob Hodges | Feature film | |
| Lonesome Dove | 1989 | Augustus "Gus" McCrae | TV mini-series | Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1990 | Howard | Feature film | ||
| Days Of Thunder Days of Thunder Days of Thunder is a 1990 American auto racing film released by Paramount Pictures, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes and Michael Rooker. The film also features appearances... |
1990 | Harry Hogge | Feature film | |
| 1990 | The Commander | Feature film | ||
| Rambling Rose Rambling Rose (film) Rambling Rose is a 1991 American film set in Georgia during the Great Depression starring Laura Dern, Diane Ladd and Robert Duvall, directed by Martha Coolidge.... |
1991 | Daddy Hilyer | Feature film | Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male |
| Convicts | 1991 | Soll | Feature film | |
| Stalin Stalin (1992 film) Stalin is a 1992 television film, produced for HBO, starring Robert Duvall portraying Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The film won three Golden Globe Awards among various awards including cinematography awards for Vilmos Zsigmond... |
1992 | Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee... |
television film | |
| Newsies Newsies Newsies is a 1992 Disney musical film starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, and Bill Pullman. Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret also appeared in supporting roles. The movie is widely claimed to have gained a cult following after its initial failure at the box office... |
1992 | Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Politzer József, was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading... |
Feature film | |
| 1992 | Joseph Grand | Feature film | ||
| Falling Down Falling Down Falling Down is a 1993 crime-drama film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster , a divorcee and unemployed former defense engineer... |
1993 | Martin Prendergast | Feature film | |
| Wrestling Ernest Hemingway Wrestling Ernest Hemingway Wrestling Ernest Hemingway is a 1993 drama-romance film directed by Randa Haines and written by Steve Conrad, starring Richard Harris, Robert Duvall, Sandra Bullock, Shirley MacLaine, and Piper Laurie.-Plot:... |
1993 | Walter | Feature film | |
| Geronimo: An American Legend Geronimo: An American Legend Geronimo: An American Legend is a 1993 film, starring Wes Studi as Geronimo, Jason Patric as 1st Lt. Charles B. Gatewood, Gene Hackman as Brig. Gen. George Crook, Robert Duvall as Chief of Scouts Al Sieber, and Matt Damon as 2nd Lt. Britton Davis. The film was directed by Walter Hill from a... |
1993 | Al Sieber | Feature film | |
| 1994 | Bernie White | Feature film | ||
| Something to Talk About Something to Talk About (film) Something to Talk About is a 1995 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, from a screenplay written by Callie Khouri. It stars Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid as an estranged couple, Kyra Sedgwick as Roberts's sister, and Robert Duvall and Gena Rowlands as their parents. The... |
1995 | Wyly King | Feature film | |
| 1995 | Mr. Cox | Feature film | ||
| 1995 | Roger Chillingworth | Feature film | ||
| Sling Blade Sling Blade Sling Blade is a 1996 American drama film set in rural Arkansas, written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, who also stars in the lead role. It tells the story of a mentally impaired man named Karl Childers who is released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has lived since killing his mother... |
1996 | Karl's father | Feature film | Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 1996 | Adolf Eichmann Adolf Eichmann Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust... |
television film | ||
| 1996 | Earl Pilcher Jr. | Feature film | ||
| Phenomenon Phenomenon (film) Phenomenon is a 1996 romantic fantasy-drama film written by Gerald Di Pego, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, and Robert Duvall.... |
1996 | Doc Brunder | Feature film | |
| 1997 | Euliss 'Sonny' Dewey — The Apostle E.F. | Feature film | ||
| 1998 | Dixon Doss | Feature film | ||
| 1998 | Jerome Facher | Feature film | ||
| Deep Impact Deep Impact (film) Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman... |
1998 | Capt. Spurgeon 'Fish' Tanner | Feature film | |
| Saturday Night Live Saturday Night Live Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture... |
1998 | various | TV series | Season 23, episode 14, hosted by Garth Brooks Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart... |
| Gone in 60 Seconds | 2000 | Otto Halliwell | Feature film | |
| 2000 | Dr. Griffin Weir | Feature film | ||
| 2000 | Gordon McLeod | Feature film | ||
| John Q John Q John Q is a 2002 film directed by Nick Cassavetes starring Denzel Washington as John Quincy Archibald, a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it... |
2002 | Lt. Frank Grimes | Feature film | |
| Assassination Tango Assassination Tango Assassination Tango is a 2002 crime film written, produced, directed by, and starring Robert Duvall. It is a thriller about an assassin's discovery of Argentine tango. Other actors include Rubén Blades, Kathy Baker and Duvall's wife, Luciana Pedraza. Francis Ford Coppola was one of the executive... |
2002 | John J. Anderson | Feature film | Writer/Director |
| Gods and Generals Gods and Generals (film) Gods and Generals is a 2003 American film based on the novel Gods and Generals by Jeffrey Shaara. It depicts events that take place prior to those shown in the 1993 film Gettysburg, which was based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Shaara's father, Michael... |
2003 | Gen. Robert E. Lee | Feature film | |
| Secondhand Lions Secondhand Lions Secondhand Lions is a 2003 American dramedy film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy who is sent to live with his eccentric uncles on a farm in the U.S... |
2003 | Hub | Feature film | |
| Open Range Open Range Open Range is a 2003 American Western film co-starring, co-produced, and directed by Kevin Costner, based on the novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine. Starring alongside Costner are Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, and Michael Gambon.... |
2003 | Boss Spearman | Feature film | |
| American Experience American Experience American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history... |
2005 | Narrator | TV series, documentary | Season 17, Episode 10: "The Carter Family: Will the Circle" |
| Kicking & Screaming | 2005 | Buck Weston | Feature film | |
| Thank You for Smoking | 2005 | Doak "The Captain" Boykin | Feature film | |
| Broken Trail Broken Trail Broken Trail is a 2006 Western miniseries that originally aired on American Movie Classics as their first original movie. It stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church, and was directed by Walter Hill.... |
2006 | Prentice "Print" Ritter | TV mini-series | |
| Lucky You Lucky You (film) Lucky You is a 2007 drama directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, and Robert Duvall. The film was shot on location in Las Vegas... |
2007 | Mr. Cheever | Feature film | |
| We Own the Night We Own the Night We Own the Night is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. It is the third film directed by Gray, and the second film to feature Phoenix and Wahlberg together, the first being The Yards... |
2007 | Albert Grusinsky | Feature film | |
| Four Christmases Four Christmases Four Christmases is a Christmas-themed romantic comedy film about a couple who go to see their divorced parents in one day... |
2008 | Howard | Feature film | |
| Crazy Heart Crazy Heart Crazy Heart is a 2009 American musical-drama film, written and directed by Scott Cooper and based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb. Jeff Bridges plays a down-and-out country music singer-songwriter who tries to turn his life around after beginning a relationship with a young... |
2009 | Wayne Kramer | Feature film | |
| 2009 | Old Man (Eli) | Feature film | Nominated—St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards 2009 The 6th St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards were announced on the 15 December and given on 21 December 2009.-Best Actor:**George Clooney – Up in the Air*Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart... |
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| Get Low Get Low (film) Get Low is a 2009 drama film directed by Aaron Schneider, written by Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell, and starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Bill Cobbs, Lori Beth Edgeman, Andrea Powell, Rebecca Grant, Scott Cooper, and Chandler Riggs... |
2010 | Felix Bush | Feature film | |
| 2011 | Don Quixote | Feature film | pre-production | |
| Seven Days in Utopia Seven Days in Utopia Seven Days in Utopia is the inspirational drama sport film directed by Matt Russell, starring Robert Duvall, Lucas Black, and Melissa Leo.The film is based on the 2009 book Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia by Dr. David Lamar Cook, a psychologist who received a Ph.D... |
2011 | Johnny Crawford | Feature film | |
| Hemingway & Gellhorn Hemingway & Gellhorn Hemingway & Gellhorn is an upcoming HBO film about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. It will be directed by Philip Kaufman. The film began shooting in San Francisco in March 2011... |
2012 | Russian General | television film | filming |
External links
- Political contributions of Robert Duvall
- Napalm' speech tops movie poll The BBC
- Artículo Star Pulse 19/6/2006- "Hollywood legend Robert Duvall discovers he married into a family of great Argentinean aviators".
- Robert Duvall photos at amctv.com
- The Cowboy Career of Robert Duvall at amctv.com
- Robert Duvall Fan Page 'Hat Creek'
- Photographs and literature on Robert Duvall
- Robert Duvall at Emmys.com