Biography: Actor and director Robert Duvall was born on January 5, 1931 in San Diego, California, the son of a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, Illinois), then served a two-year hitch in the Army after graduating in 1953. Duvall began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, s ... show all Actor and director Robert Duvall was born on January 5, 1931 in San Diego, California, the son of a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, Illinois), then served a two-year hitch in the Army after graduating in 1953. Duvall began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, studying with Sanford Meisner along with Dustin Hoffman, with whom Duvall shared an apartment. Both were close to another struggling young actor named Gene Hackman. Meisner cast Duvall in the play "The Midnight Caller" by Horton Foote, a link that would prove critical to his career as it was Foote who recommended Duvall to play the mentally disabled Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)", his motion picture debut.
Duvall began making a name for himself as a stage actor in New York, winning an Obie Award in 1965 playing incest-minded longshoreman Eddie Carbone in the off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller 's "A View from the Bridge," a production for which his old roommate Hoffman was assistant director. He found steady work in episodic TV and appeared as a modestly billed character actor in motion pictures, appearing in Arthur Penn's "The Chase (1966)" with Marlon Brando, and in Robert Altman 's "The Countdown (1968)" and Francis Ford Coppola's "Rain People (1969)", both of which he co-starred with James Caan.
He was also memorable as the heavy who is shot by John Wayne at the climax to "The True Grit (1969)" and was the first Major Frank Burns, creating the character in Altman's Korean War comedy "MASH (1970)". He also appeared as the eponymous lead in George Lucas' directorial debut, "THX 1138 (1971)". It was Coppola, casting "Godfather (1972)", who reunited Duvall with Brando and Caan and provided him with his career breakthrough as Mob lawyer Tom Hagen. He received the first of his six Academy Award nominations for the role.
Thereafter, Duvall had steady work in featured roles in such films as "The Godfather: Part II (1974)", "The Killer Elite (1975)", "The Network (1976)", "Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)", and "The Eagle Has Landed (1976)". Occassionally, this actor's actor got the chance to assay a lead role, most notably in "The Tomorrow (1972)", in which he was brilliant as William Faulkner 's inarticulate backwoods farmer. He was less impressive as the lead in "Badge 373 (1973)", in which he played a character based on real-life NYC policeman Eddie Egan , whom his old friend Gene Hackman had won an Oscar playing, in fictionalized form, as Popeye Doyle in "French Connection (1971)".
It was his appearance as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in another Coppola picture, "Apocalypse Now (1979)", which solidified Duvall's reputation as a great actor. He won his second Academy Award nomination for the role, and was named by the Guiness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor in the world! Duvall created one of the most memorable characters ever assayed on film, and gave the world the memorable phrase "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
Subsequently, Duvall proved one of the few established character actors to move from supporting to leading roles, with his Oscar-nominated turns in "The Great Santini (1979)" and "The Tender Mercies (1983)", the later of which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Now at the summit of his career, Duvall seemed to be afflicted with the fabled "Oscar Curse" that had overwhelmed the careers of fellow Academy Award winners Luise Rainer, Rod Steiger, and Cliff Robertson. He could not find work equal to his talents, either due to his post-Oscar salary demands or due to a lack of perception in the industry that he truly was leading man material. He did not appear in the "Godfather: Part III (1990)" as the studio would not give in to his demands for a salary commensurate with that of Al Pacino, who was receiving $5 million to reprise Michael Corleone.
His greatest achievement in his immediate post-Oscar period was his acclaimed characterization of the grizzled Texas Ranger in the TV mini-series "The "Lonesome Dove" (1989) (mini)", for which he received an Emmy nomination. He received a second Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the Soviet dictator "Stalin (1992) (TV)", and a third Emmy nomination playing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in "Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996)".
The shakeout of his career doldrums was that Duvall eventually settled back into his status as one of the premier character actors in the industry, rivaled only by his old friend Gene Hackman. Duvall, unlike Hackman, also has directed pictures, including the documentary "The We're Not the Jet Set (1975)", "Angelo My Love (1983)" and "Assassination Tango (2002)". As writer-director, Duvall gave himself one of his most memorable roles, the lead of the preacher on the run from the law in "Apostle (1997)", a brilliant performance for which he received his third Best Actor nomination and fifth Oscar nomination overall. The film brought Duvall back to the front ranks of great actors, and was followed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for "Civil Action, A (1998)".
Robert Duvall will long be remembered as one of the great naturalistic American screen actors in the mode of Spencer Tracy and his frequent co-star Marlon Brando. His performances as Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Jackson Fentry in "Tomorrow," Tom Hagen in the first two "Godfather" movies, Frank Hackett in "Network," Colonel Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," Bull Meechum in "The Great Santini," Mac Sledge in "Tender Mercies," Gus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove," and Sonny Dewey in "The Apostle" rank as some of the finest acting ever put on film. It's a body of work that few actors can equal, let alone surpass. hide |
