Robert Duvall

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Robert Duvall

American actor

Also known as: Robert Seldon Duvall

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Oct 29, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

In full:: Robert Seldon Duvall

Born:: January 5, 1931, San Diego, California, U.S.

Also Known As:: Robert Seldon Duvall; Robert Selden Duvall

Awards And Honors:: Academy Award (1984); Academy Award (1984): Actor in a Leading Role; Emmy Award (2007): Outstanding Miniseries; Emmy Award (2007): Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie; Golden Globe Award (1993): Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; Golden Globe Award (1990): Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; Golden Globe Award (1984): Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama; Golden Globe Award (1980): Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Notable Works:: “Assassination Tango”

Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):: "Tomorrow" (1972); "Widows" (2018); "In Dubious Battle" (2016); "Wild Horses" (2015); "The Judge" (2014); "A Night in Old Mexico" (2013); "Jack Reacher" (2012); "Jayne Mansfield's Car" (2012); "Seven Days in Utopia" (2011); "Crazy Heart" (2009); "Get Low" (2009); "The Road" (2009); "Four Christmases" (2008); "We Own the Night" (2007); "Lucky You" (2007); "Broken Trail" (2006); "Thank You for Smoking" (2005); "American Experience" (2005); "Kicking & Screaming" (2005); "Secondhand Lions" (2003); "Open Range" (2003); "Gods and Generals" (2003); "Assassination Tango" (2002); "John Q" (2002); "The 6th Day" (2000); "A Shot at Glory" (2000); "Gone in Sixty Seconds" (2000); "A Civil Action" (1998); "Deep Impact" (1998); "The Gingerbread Man" (1998); "The Apostle" (1997); "Sling Blade" (1996); "Phenomenon" (1996); "A Family Thing" (1996); "The Scarlet Letter" (1995); "Something to Talk About" (1995); "The Stars Fell on Henrietta" (1995); "The Paper" (1994); "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" (1993); "Geronimo: An American Legend" (1993); "Falling Down" (1993); "La peste" (1992); "Newsies" (1992); "Convicts" (1991); "Rambling Rose" (1991); "Days of Thunder" (1990); "A Show of Force" (1990); "The Handmaid's Tale" (1990); "Lonesome Dove" (1989); "Colors" (1988); "Hotel Colonial" (1987); "Let's Get Harry" (1986); "Belizaire the Cajun" (1986); "The Lightship" (1985); "The Natural" (1984); "The Stone Boy" (1984); "Tender Mercies" (1983); "The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper" (1981); "True Confessions" (1981); "The Great Santini" (1979); "Apocalypse Now" (1979); "Ike" (1979); "The Betsy" (1978); "The Godfather: A Novel for Television" (1977); "The Greatest" (1977); "The Eagle Has Landed" (1976); "Network" (1976); "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976); "The Killer Elite" (1975); "Breakout" (1975); "The Godfather: Part II" (1974); "The Outfit" (1973); "Badge 373" (1973); "Lady Ice" (1973); "Joe Kidd" (1972); "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" (1972); "The Godfather" (1972); "Lawman" (1971); "THX 1138" (1971); "The Revolutionary" (1970); "MASH" (1970); "The F.B.I." (1965–1969); "The Rain People" (1969); "True Grit" (1969); "The Mod Squad" (1969); "Bullitt" (1968); "CBS Playhouse" (1968); "The Detective" (1968); "Judd for the Defense" (1968); "Run for Your Life" (1968); "The Wild Wild West" (1967); "Cimarron Strip" (1967); "Countdown" (1967); "Combat!" (1965–1967); "T.H.E. Cat" (1966–1967); "The Time Tunnel" (1967); "Shane" (1966); "The Felony Squad" (1966); "Hawk" (1966); "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre" (1966); "The Chase" (1966); "The Defenders" (1961–1965); "Nightmare in the Sun" (1965); "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1965); "The Fugitive" (1963–1965); "The Outer Limits" (1964); "Kraft Suspense Theatre" (1964); "The Lieutenant" (1964); "Captain Newman, M.D." (1963); "Arrest and Trial" (1963); "Stoney Burke" (1963); "The Virginian" (1963); "The Twilight Zone" (1963); "Route 66" (1961–1963); "The Untouchables" (1963); "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962); "Naked City" (1961–1962); "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1962); "Shannon" (1961); "Cain's Hundred" (1961); "Great Ghost Tales" (1961); "Armstrong Circle Theatre" (1959–1960); "Playhouse 90" (1960); "The Robert Herridge Theater" (1960)

Robert Duvall (born January 5, 1931, San Diego, California, U.S.) is an American actor noted for his ability to quietly inhabit any characters, particularly average working people, bringing them 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 reclusive Arthur (“Boo”) Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. For the next several years, he continued to appear in small film and television roles. That 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 Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor.

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

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Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

*Apocalypse Now*Robert Duvall (center) in *Apocalypse Now* (1979).

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. His nuanced depiction earned him a second Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. 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 was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor.

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 that role, he won the Academy Award 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 included 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. In 2002 he returned to directing with Assassination Tango, in which he played a hit man who, while on an assignment, becomes interested in the tango; he also wrote the drama.

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). After taking on supporting roles in several films—including We Own the Night (2007), Four Christmases (2008), and Crazy Heart (2009)—Duvall starred as a hermit who plans his own funeral party in the whimsical Depression-era comedy Get Low (2009). He portrayed a sagacious rancher in the inspirational golf drama Seven Days in Utopia (2011), a shooting-range owner in the action movie Jack Reacher (2012), and a judge accused of vehicular homicide in The Judge (2014). Duvall received his fourth Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for the latter role.

His later movies included the crime drama Wild Horses (2015), which he also directed and cowrote, and the thriller Widows (2018). In 2021 he appeared in 12 Mighty Orphans, a football drama based on a true story from the 1930s.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.