Washington, United States. Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall has died at age 95, according to a Facebook post by his wife, Luciana Duvall. She said he died peacefully on Sunday, and no cause of death was provided.
Wife announces death in 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 wrote.
Notable roles across film and television
Duvall was known for performances ranging from the napalm-loving Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Frances Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam film Apocalypse Now to the spectral Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. He also played Tom Hagen, a lawyer for the Corleone family, in The Godfather and its first sequel, and starred in the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove.
In Apocalypse Now, Duvall had only a few minutes of screen time but delivered one of the film’s best-known lines, when his character declared, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” adding that it smelled “like victory.”
Career range and awards
Duvall portrayed forceful leaders including Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum in The Great Santini and the title character in Stalin, as well as broken-down characters in Tender Mercies and The Apostle. He won awards for both types of roles.
Screenwriter Horton Foote suggested Duvall for To Kill a Mockingbird after liking his work in one of Foote’s plays. Foote later wrote Tender Mercies, a 1983 film in which Duvall won the Academy Award for best actor for portraying a washed-up country singer.
Early life and acting beginnings
Duvall, the 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 US Army, he moved to New York, where he roomed with Dustin Hoffman and befriended Gene Hackman while they were acting students. After working on a variety of television shows, he made a strong impression even in small film roles.
Which Robert Duvall performance stands out most to you?
