Oscar winner Robert Duvall, a versatile actor who left lasting impressions in a variety of roles, from leads to supporting parts, such as the napalm-obsessed colonel in “Apocalypse Now” or the spectral Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, died at 95, his wife said in a Facebook post.
“For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented,” Luciana Duvall said in the post.
Duvall portrayed strong leaders like Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum in “The Great Santini” and the title character in “Stalin”, as well as decadent and defeated characters in “Tender Mercies” and “The Apostle”. He won awards for both types of roles.
Duvall, son of a Navy admiral and an amateur actress, grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. After graduating from Principia College in Illinois and serving in the U.S. Army, he moved to New York, where he shared an apartment with Dustin Hoffman and befriended Gene Hackman, back when the three were struggling acting students.
After working in several television programs, Duvall made a strong impression even in small roles, like his film debut as the mysterious recluse Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Duvall landed the role on the suggestion of the film’s screenwriter, Horton Foote, who had liked Duvall’s work in one of his plays.
Foote later wrote “Tender Mercies”, a 1983 film for which Duvall won the Best Actor Oscar portraying a washed-up country singer.
Perhaps Duvall’s most memorable role was in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now” (1979), playing the eccentric Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, obsessed with surfing.
Duvall had only a few minutes of screen time, but nearly stole the show when his character wanders the battlefield after a successful attack and enthusiastically proclaims: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” It smelled like “victory,” Kilgore said.
The role earned Duvall one of his seven Oscar nominations. Another was for Best Supporting Actor in “The Godfather”, playing Tom Hagen, counselor to the Corleone crime family. Duvall appeared in the second film of the franchise but refused the third because he considered the offered salary inadequate.
Duvall was also Oscar-nominated for “The Great Santini”, “The Apostle”, “A Civil Action” and “The Judge” (2014). In total, he appeared in nearly 100 films.
Duvall also had a talent for playing cowboys. He won an Emmy for the miniseries “Broken Trail” and starred alongside John Wayne in “True Grit”. The actor received an Emmy nomination for the miniseries “Lonesome Dove” and often said his portrayal of the sympathetic sheriff turned cowboy Gus McCrae was his favorite role.
“I think I managed to create a very specific character that represents something important in the history of the Old West movement,” Duvall told the New York Times. “After that, I felt like I could retire, that I had done something important.”
When he grew tired of Hollywood, Duvall made his own films. He wrote, directed and earned an acting Oscar nomination for “The Apostle”, a story about a conflicted preacher.
Duvall did the same with “Assassination Tango”, a film that let him showcase his passion for tango and Argentina, where he met his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza. They share a birthday on January 5, but with 41 years between them.
Duvall split his time between Los Angeles, Argentina and a 146-hectare farm in Virginia, where he converted a barn into a tango dance hall.
Source: brasil247.com