‘The Godfather’, ‘Great Santini’ star turned 95

Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for “Tender Mercies” and was nominated for his roles in films such as “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now” and “The Great Santini,” has died. He was 95.

Duvall’s death was announced on Facebook through a statement from his wife, Luciana Duvall.

Duvall’s gruff naturalism came to define the acting style of a generation that included Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman in films such as “Network” and “The Apostle,” which he also directed.

And while he may never have been as big a star as DeNiro, his unobtrusive ability to fully embrace the characters he played earned him respect from his peers and critics alike. As Francis Ford Coppola once told the New York Times, at a certain point it is “hard to tell the difference between leading men and great character actors.”

He was an actor who received seven Oscar nominations but also found time to shine in TV vehicles like “Lonesome Dove” and “Broken Trail,” which earned him a total of five Emmy nominations and two wins.

His first big-screen role, and one of his most memorable, was as the scary Boo Radley in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Although it took some time for Duvall’s career to take off, despite the strong start, he had come into his own in the early to mid-1970s, combining abilities for seamless character acting with occasional strong forays into bigger roles.

In 1969 he collaborated with a young director, Francis Ford Coppola, on the intimate drama “The Rain People,” and the following year he landed the juicy role of Frank Burns in Robert Altman’s “MASH.” He also starred in George Lucas’ experimental ‘THX 1138’. And the actor did interesting work on stage.

But the film that turned it all around was 1972’s “The Godfather,” in which he played the patient and cunning consigliere Tom Hagen, the role that earned him his first Oscar nomination. He reprized the role of Hagen in “The Godfather: Part II” in 1974. He also appeared in Coppola’s “The Conversation” and as Dr. Watson in Herbert Ross’ “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.”

In 1976, he had a memorable role as a ruthless television executive in “Network,” and three years later as Colonel Kilgore, he delivered the memorable “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” lines in Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” earning a second Oscar nomination.

In 1977, he and Ulu Grosbard teamed up to bring David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” to Broadway, to mixed reviews. The same year he made a national documentary called ‘We’re Not Jet Set’ and directed the small, delicately observed ‘Angelo, My Love’ in the early ’80s.

However, it wasn’t until “The Great Santini,” in which he played the title character, a stormy, militaristic father, that he established his reputation as a leading man on film, earning his first Oscar nomination as best actor in 1980. The following year, he won critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival opposite Robert De Niro in “True Confessions.”

Then, in 1984, his quiet, detailed performance in “Tender Mercies,” written by Horton Foote and directed by Bruce Beresford, won him the Oscar for best actor.

Afterwards, however, he often received top billing for secondary or co-starring roles, such as in ‘The Natural’, ‘Colors’, ‘Days of Thunder’, ‘Rambling Rose’, ‘Geronimo: An American Legend’ and ‘Deep Impact’.

Duvall received widespread attention for his 1997 film “The Apostle,” which he directed and starred in. He was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for his role as a womanizing preacher from Texas who has to start over after committing a violent crime. At the Independent Spirit Awards, “The Apostle” took best picture and earned a double nod for Duvall as an actor and director.

Duvall received a supporting actor Oscar nomination the following year for his role as a brilliant but eccentric lawyer who is attorney John Travolta’s nemesis in the courtroom drama “A Civic Action.”

Other efforts included the Nicolas Cage actioner “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s science fiction thriller “The Sixth Day”; sports pic ‘A Shot at Glory’ in which he attempted a Scottish brogue and hostage drama ‘John Q’.

Duvall wrote, directed and starred in the enigmatic 2003 film “Assassination Tango,” about a hit man with obsessive tendencies who is sent to Argentina and becomes involved with a dancer.

He returned to the Western genre in Kevin Costner’s 2003 film “Open Range,” after which actor played General Robert E. Lee in “Gods and Generals,” and starred in “Secondhand Lions,” a small film in which he and Michael Caine got to challenge each other as a pair of eccentric great-uncles against the young Haley Joel Osment.

Duvall was a crusty cop in James Gray’s “We Own the Night,” but the actor had a lot of fun mocking his infamous crusty characters in small roles in “Four Christmases” and the 2005 satire “Thank You for Smoking.”

The actor didn’t slow down as he approached his 80th birthday: In 2009, he appeared in John Hillcoat’s “The Road”; starred in the small but beloved “Get Low,” in which he played a bearded hermit who is, to use Roger Ebert’s phrase, “a sly old twinkler”; and did a supporting role, producing “Crazy Heart,” which reminded many of Duvall’s “Tender Mercies.”

The actor reunited with “Lonesome Dove” screenwriter Bill Wittliff for 2014’s “A Night in Old Mexico,” and that same year he starred in “The Judge” as a lawyer accused of murder and defended by the son (Robert Downey Jr.) who represents everything he despises about the law. The movie, said Variety“revolves around simple yet inspired casting, pitting Duvall’s iconic gravitas against Downey’s razor-sharp wit, then providing no shortage of opportunities for both men to chew the scenery.”

Duvall received his seventh Oscar nomination for his work in the film.

In 2015, the actor’s first directorial effort since 2002’s “Assassination Tango,” the ambitious indie film “Wild Horses,” premiered at SXSW.

One of his last film roles was in Scott Cooper’s “The Pale Blue Eye” in 2022.

Born in San Diego, Duvall was the son of a Navy vice admiral and grew up in various parts of the country, but mainly in Annapolis, Maryland, the site of the US Naval Academy. It was actually at the insistence of his parents and teachers that Duvall began studying drama. After graduating from Principia College and completing his military service, Duvall studied with Sanford Meisner at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse.

He hung out with friends like Robert Morse, Hackman and Hoffman. A one-off performance of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” in 1957, directed by Grosbard, led to television work on “Naked City” and guest appearances on “The Defenders,” “Armstrong Circle Theater,” “The FBI” and other shows.

Throughout the ’60s, even after the huge success of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, he made a living from character roles in films such as ‘Captain Newman MD’, ‘The Chase’, ‘The Detective’, ‘True Grit’ and ‘Bullitt’. And he was a leading man in such Westerns as “Lawman,” “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid” and “Joe Kidd.”

But he also did fine work in the theater in ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’, ‘Call Me by My Rightful Name’, ‘The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker’ and a full-fledged Off Broadway production of ‘A View From the Bridge’ in 1965, starring Jon Voight and Susan Anspach.

Urban crime dramas were his other staple besides westerns. In the 1970s, these included Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Badge 373’, ‘Breakout’ and ‘The Killer Elite’.

TV occasionally offered the actor a juicy, fully dimensional role. In 1979, he starred in the TV movie “Ike” as General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ten years later, he starred in the critically acclaimed CBS miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” which earned him an Emmy nomination. He played the Soviet dictator in the 1992 HBO film “Stalin,” for which he earned a second Emmy nomination. In 1997, he received an Emmy nomination for his role as the Nazi titular character in “The Man Who Captured Eichmann”; and in 2006, in addition to toplining, he produced the miniseries “Broken Trail,” whose success put cabler AMC on the map as a producer of original content — and earned Duvall two Emmys, one for his performance and one, shared with the other producers, for outstanding miniseries. For HBO he appeared in the 2012 telepic ‘Hemingway and Gelhorn’, in which he played a Russian general.

He is survived by a fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza, with whom he starred in ‘Assassination Tango’.