Actor Robert Duvall, known for his roles in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, died on Sunday at his home in Middleburg, Va. He was 95.
His wife Luciana Duvall shared the news in a statement on Facebook, writing, “Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.”
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all,” she wrote.
“Thank you for the years of support you showed Bob and for giving us this time and privacy to celebrate the memories he leaves behind.”
Duvall was a seven-time Academy Award nominee, who won his only Oscar for his leading role as a country singer in Tender Mercies in 1984. He also won an Emmy in 2007 for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries for his role as Prentice Ritter in Broken Trail.
Duvall’s career spanned 60 years with his first big-screen role as Boo Radley in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1969, he worked with Francis Ford Coppola on the drama The Rain People and the following year, he got the role of Frank Burns in M*A*S*H. He also starred in George Lucas’s THX 1138.
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Duvall went on to reach new heights of fame with his performance as Corleone family lawyer Tom Hagen in Coppola’s The Godfather in 1972 and The Godfather Part II in 1974.
“It always comes back to The Godfather. The first ones are two of the best films ever made. About a quarter of the way into it, we knew we had something special,” Duvall told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2010.
In another Coppola film, Apocalypse Now, Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigor enjoyed surfing and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous passages in movie history, barked out on the battlefield by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body.
“The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like — victory.”
Coppola once commented about Duvall: “Actors click into character at different times — the first week, third week. Bobby’s hot after one or two takes.”
Among other notable roles: the outlaw gang leader who gets ambushed by John Wayne in True Grit; Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid; the TV hatchet man in Network; Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; and the sadistic father in The Great Santini.
“When I was doing Colors in 1988 with Sean Penn, someone asked me how I do it all these years, keep it fresh. Well, if you don’t overwork, have some hobbies, you can do it and stay hungry even if you’re not really hungry,” Duvall told The Associated Press in 1990.
Between his high-paying jobs in major productions, Duvall devoted himself to directing personal projects: a documentary about a prairie family, We’re Not the Jet Set; a film about gypsies, Angelo, My Love; and Assassination Tango, in which he also starred.
Duvall had been a tango dancer since seeing the musical Tango Argentina in the 1980s and visited in Argentina dozens of times to study the dance and the culture. The result was the 2003 release about a hit man with a passion for tango.
His co-star was Luciana Pedraza, whom he married in 2005. Duvall’s three previous marriages — to Barbara Benjamin, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy — ended in divorce.
— with files from The Associated Press
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