Robert Duvall, 'Tender Mercies' Oscar winner, dies at 95

Robert Duvall's Impact on Cinema

By Bill Trott

Career Highlights

Feb 16 (Reuters) - Oscar winner Robert Duvall, a versatile actor who made lasting impressions in a range of parts from starring to supporting roles like the napalm-loving colonel of "Apocalypse Now" or the spectral Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird," has died at age 95, his wife said in a Facebook post.

Personal Life and Legacy

"For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented," Luciana Duvall said in the post.

Awards and Nominations

Duvall played forceful leaders such as Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum in "The Great Santini" and the title character in "Stalin," as well as broken-down and fallen characters in "Tender Mercies" and "The Apostle." He won awards for both types of roles.

Memorable Roles

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 U.S. Army, he moved to New York, where he roomed with Dustin Hoffman and befriended Gene Hackman when the three were struggling acting students.

After working on a variety of television shows, Duvall made a strong impression even in small roles, such as his first movie part as the mysterious recluse Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Duvall got the part at the suggestion of the film's screenwriter, Horton Foote, who had liked Duvall's work in one of his plays.

Foote later wrote "Tender Mercies," a 1983 film for which Duvall won the Academy Award for best actor as a washed-up country singer.

Perhaps Duvall's most memorable role came in Frances Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam epic "Apocalypse Now," playing the off-kilter, surfing-obsessed Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore.

Duvall only received a few minutes of screen time but almost stole the film as his character swaggered around a battlefield after a successful attack and exuberantly proclaimed, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." It smelled "like victory," Kilgore said.

The role brought Duvall one of his seven Academy Award nominations. Another was for Best Supporting Actor for Coppola's "The Godfather," playing Tom Hagen, consigliere to the Corleone Mafia family. Duvall appeared in the second "Godfather" film but rejected the third because he considered the salary offer inadequate.

Duvall also was nominated for Oscars for "The Great Santini," "The Apostle," "A Civil Action" and "The Judge" in 2014. In all, he appeared in almost 100 movies.

Duvall had a knack for playing cowboys. He won an Emmy for the television mini-series "Broken Trail," appeared opposite John Wayne in "True Grit," and picked up an Emmy nomination for the mini-series "Lonesome Dove." He often said his portrayal of the genial lawman-turned-cowboy Gus McRae in "Lonesome Dove" was his favorite role.

"I think I nailed a very specific individual guy who represents something important in our history of the Western movement," Duvall told the New York Times. "After that, I felt I could retire, that'd I'd done something."

When he grew weary of Hollywood, Duvall made his own movies. He wrote, directed and won an Oscar acting nomination for "The Apostle," the story of a conflicted preacher.

Duvall did the same with "Assassination Tango," a movie that allowed him to exhibit his passion for the tango and Argentina, wher he met his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza. They were both born on January 5 but 41 years apart.

Duvall split his time between Los Angeles, Argentina and a 360-acre (146-hectare) farm in Virginia, where he converted the barn into a tango dance hall.

(Writing and reporting by Bill Trott; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Nick Zieminski)