Duvall, Robert

(born January 5, 1931, San Diego, Calif., U.S.) American actor noted for his ability to quietly inhabit any character, particularly average working people, whom he brings fully but subtly to life. In the words of critic Elaine Mancini, Duvall is “the most technically proficient, the most versatile, and the most convincing actor on the screen in the United States.”

Born to a U.S. Navy admiral, Duvall graduated from Illinois's Principia College in 1953 and served two years in the army during the Korean War. In the years that followed, he studied drama under the noted acting teacher Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and appeared in Off-Broadway and Broadway plays.

A brief but memorable film debut came in 1962 when Duvall played the simpleminded Arthur (“Boo”) Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. For the next several years, he continued to appear in small film and television roles. This path led to major supporting parts in films with large ensemble casts, such as the repressed and self-righteous Major Frank Burns in M*A*S*H (1970) and the business-minded Mafia attorney Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and its sequel, The Godfather, Part II (1974). The original 1972 role earned Duvall his first Oscar nomination.

In the late 1970s Duvall received two additional Oscar nominations for affecting portrayals of military men. His Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979) maniacally declares that he loves “the smell of napalm in the morning,” but Duvall convinces the audience of Kilgore's compassion for his own soldiers. Bull Meechum, the career marine of The Great Santini (1980), is a warrior without a war who during peacetime inflicts an often severe discipline on his family.

Duvall wrote many of his own songs for his beautifully nuanced performance as a faded country music star running a motel and filling station in Tender Mercies (1983); for this role he won the Oscar for best actor. He ended the 1980s with his highly praised performance in the Emmy Award-winning TV miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989).

In the 1990s, Duvall's credits include successful Hollywood pictures such as Days of Thunder (1990), Phenomenon (1996), and A Family Thing (1996). He wrote, directed, and starred in The Apostle (1997), a pet project he spent years developing and that earned him his third Oscar nomination for best actor. Duvall's performance in A Civil Action (1998) was honoured with his third Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

Duvall continued his prolific acting career, appearing as Robert E. Lee in the Civil War saga Gods and Generals (2003) and as a wealthy, eccentric old man who takes custody of his young nephew in Secondhand Lions (2003). Duvall won an Emmy for his role as a rancher who rescues five young Chinese girls sold into prostitution in the Old West in the television miniseries Broken Trail (2006). His later films include Lucky You (2007) and We Own the Night (2007).

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