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Robert Duvall Biography

(1931–)

Related Works

1963 To Kill a Mockingbird
1965 The Chase
1968 Bullitt

1969 The Rain People
1969 True Grit
1970 M*A*S*H
1971 Lawman
1972 The Godfather
1972 The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
1972 Joe Kidd
1974 The Godfather Part Two
1974 The Outfit
1985 Breakout
1976 Killer Elite
1976 Network
1976 The Seven Per Cent Solution
1977 The Greatest
1977 The Eagle Has Landed
1978 The Betsy
1979 Apocalypse Now
1980 The Great Santini
1981 True Confessions
1981 The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper
1983 Tender Mercies
1984 The Stone Boy
1984 The Natural
1985 The Lightship
1987 Hotel Colonial
1987 Let's Get Harry
1988 Colors
1989 The Handmaid's Tale
1990 Days of Thunder
1990 A Show of Force
1991 Rambling Rose
1992 Newsies/The News Boys
1992 Falling Down
1992 Geronimo: An American Legend
1992 Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
1994 The Paper
1995 The Stars Fell on Henrietta
1995 Something to Talk About
1995 The Scarlett Letter
1996 A Family Thing
1996 Phenomenon
1997 The Gingerbread Man
1997 The Apostle
1998 Deep Impact
1998 Civil Action
2003 Gods and Generals
2003 Secondhand Lions
2003 Open Range

» More

(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.