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He had been acting for some 20 years when \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d released in 1972, established him as one of the most in-demand performers of Hollywood. He had made a previous film, \u201cThe Rain People,\u201d with Francis Coppola, and the director chose him to play Tom Hagen in the mafia epic that featured Al Pacino and Marlon Brando among others. Duvall was a master of subtlety as an Irishman among Italians, rarely at the center of a scene, but often listening and advising in the background, an irreplaceable thread through the saga of the Corleone crime family.<\/p>\n
\u201cStars and Italians alike depend on his efficiency, his tidying up around their grand gestures, his being the perfect shortstop on a team of personality sluggers,\u201d wrote the critic David Thomson. \u201cWas there ever a role better designed for its actor than that of Tom Hagen in both parts of \u2018The Godfather?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In another Coppola film, \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigor enjoyed surfing and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous passages in movie history, barked out on the battlefield by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: \u201cI love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn\u2019t find one of \u2018em, not one stinkin\u2019 dink body. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like \u2014 victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coppola once commented about Duvall: \u201cActors click into character at different times \u2014 the first week, third week. Bobby\u2019s hot after one or two takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honored, but still hungry <\/p>\n
He was Oscar-nominated as supporting actor for \u201cThe Godfather\u201d and \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d but a dispute over money led him to turn down the third Godfather epic, a loss deeply felt by critics, fans and \u201cGodfather\u201d colleagues. Duvall would complain publicly about being offered less than his co-stars.<\/p>\n
Fellow actors marveled at Duvall\u2019s studious research and planning, and his coiled energy. Michael Caine, who co-starred with him in the 2003 \u201cSecondhand Lions,\u201d once told The Associated Press: \u201cBefore a big scene, Bobby just sits there, absolutely quiet; you know when not to talk to him.\u201d Anyone who disturbed him would suffer the well-known Duvall temper, famously on display during the filming of the John Wayne Western \u201cTrue Grit,\u201d when Duvall seethed at director Henry Hathaway\u2019s advice to \u201ctense up\u201d before a scene.<\/p>\n
Duvall was awarded an Oscar in 1984 for his leading role as the troubled singer and songwriter Mac Sledge in \u201cTender Mercies,\u201d a prize he accepted while clad in a cowboy tuxedo with Western tie. In 1998, he was nominated for best actor in \u201cThe Apostle,\u201d a drama about a wayward Southern evangelist which he wrote, directed, starred in, produced and largely financed. With customary thoroughness, he visited dozens of country churches and spent 12 years writing the script and trying to get it made.<\/p>\n
Among other notable roles: the outlaw gang leader who gets ambushed by John Wayne in \u201cTrue Grit”; Jesse James in \u201cThe Great Northfield Minnesota Raid”; the pious and beleaguered Frank Burns in \u201cM-A-S-H”; the TV hatchet man in \u201cNetwork”; Dr. Watson in \u201cThe Seven-Per-Cent Solution”; and the sadistic father in \u201cThe Great Santini.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was doing \u2018Colors\u2019 in 1988 with Sean Penn, someone asked me how I do it all these years, keep it fresh. Well, if you don\u2019t overwork, have some hobbies, you can do it and stay hungry even if you\u2019re not really hungry,\u201d Duvall told The Associated Press in 1990.<\/p>\n
In his mid-80s, he received a supporting Oscar nomination as the title character of the 2014 release \u201cThe Judge,\u201d in which he is accused of causing a death in a hit-and-run accident. More recent films included \u201cWidows\u201d and \u201c12 Mighty Orphans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ungifted in school, gifted on stage<\/p>\n
Robert Selden Duvall grew up in the Navy towns of Annapolis and the San Diego area, where he was born in 1931. He spent time in other cities as his father, who rose to be an admiral, was assigned to various duties.<\/p>\n
The boy\u2019s experience helped in his adult profession as he learned the nuances of regional speech and observed the psyche of military men, which he would portray in several films.<\/p>\n
Duvall reportedly used his Navy officer father as the basis for his portrayal of the explosive militarist in \u201cThe Great Santini,\u201d based on the Pat Conroy novel. He commented in 2003: \u201cMy dad was a gentleman but a seether, a stern, blustery guy, and away a lot of the time.\u201d Bobby took after his mother, an amateur actress, in playing a guitar and performing. He was a wrestler like his father and enjoyed besting kids older than himself.<\/p>\n
He lacked the concentration for schoolwork and nearly flunked out of Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. His despairing parents decided he needed something to keep him in college so he wouldn\u2019t be drafted for the Korean War. \u201cThey recommended acting as an expedient thing to get through,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI\u2019m glad they did.\u201d He flourished in drama classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWay back when I was in college,\u201d Duvall told the AP in 1990, \u201cthere was a wonderful man named Frank Parker, who had been a dancer in World War I. We did a full-length mime play and I played a Harlequin clown. I really liked that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, I played an older guy in \u2018All My Sons,\u2019 and at one point I had this emotional moment, where this emotion was pouring out. Parker said at that moment he didn\u2019t think acting can be carried any further than that. And this guy was a very critical guy. So I thought, at that moment at least, this is what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
After two years in the Army, he used the G.I. Bill to finance his studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, hanging out with such other young hopefuls as Robert Morse, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. After a one-night performance in \u201cA View From the Bridge,\u201d Duvall began getting offers for work in TV series, among them \u201cThe Naked City\u201d and \u201cThe Defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between his high-paying jobs in major productions, Duvall devoted himself to directing personal projects: a documentary about a prairie family, \u201cWe\u2019re Not the Jet Set\u201d; a film about gypsies, \u201cAngelo, My Love\u201d; and \u201cAssassination Tango,\u201d in which he also starred.<\/p>\n
Duvall had been a tango dancer since seeing the musical \u201cTango Argentina\u201d in the 1980s and visited in Argentina dozens of times to study the dance and the culture. The result was the 2003 release about a hit man with a passion for tango.<\/p>\n
His co-star was Luciana Pedraza, 42 years his junior, whom he married in 2005. Duvall\u2019s three previous marriages \u2014 to Barbara Benjamin, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy \u2014 ended in divorce.<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
Former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas, who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor of matchless versatility and dedication whose classic roles included…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[29332,77846,219214,219213,137063,2356,2692,219217,92131,88,20354,219220,219210,219212,37742,793,219216,71539,140338,41362,219209,219219,2337,62168,206,3509,219218,86227,219208,219215,7155,90136,200479,219211,795,5148],"class_list":{"0":"post-472657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-al-pacino","9":"tag-annapolis","10":"tag-barbara-benjamin","11":"tag-bill-kilgore","12":"tag-bob-thomas","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-celebrity","15":"tag-david-thomson","16":"tag-dustin-hoffman","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-francis-ford-coppola","19":"tag-frank-burns","20":"tag-frank-parker","21":"tag-gail-youngs","22":"tag-gene-hackman","23":"tag-general-news","24":"tag-henry-hathaway","25":"tag-jesse-james","26":"tag-john-wayne","27":"tag-josef-stalin","28":"tag-luciana-duvall","29":"tag-luciana-pedraza","30":"tag-marlon-brando","31":"tag-michael-caine","32":"tag-movies","33":"tag-notable-deaths","34":"tag-pat-conroy","35":"tag-robert-duvall","36":"tag-robert-morse","37":"tag-robert-selden-duvall","38":"tag-san-diego","39":"tag-sean-penn","40":"tag-send-to-apple-news","41":"tag-sharon-brophy","42":"tag-u-s-news","43":"tag-virginia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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