Starring Robert Duvall

ABOUT THE SERIES: 

The American Cinematheque is saddened by the loss of actor and filmmaker Robert Duvall. A chameleonic performer with a truly unique talent for mimicry, he leaves behind six decades of collaborations with generations of legendary directors, like Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Steve McQueen and Sidney Lumet, as well as his own directorial work on films like his critically acclaimed drama of faith and penance in the deep south, THE APOSTLE. Initially a stage actor, Duvall brought a studied physicality and careful eye for inflection to his roles, inhabiting them so deeply as to disappear into his characters. Join us as we revisit some of the films that made Robert Duvall a legend—and the characters that he made iconic.

A wordless, single-scene role in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD launched one of the greatest careers in American film. As bogeyman Boo Radley in the 1962 adaptation of the American classic, Duvall’s mute performance finds the character’s tragic center in his gentle shyness. To the filmmakers of New Hollywood, Duvall embodied a new, turbulent mode of American screen masculinity, of painfully mortal men struggling to define themselves or at war with their own ideals. Two of his most recognizable roles were in Francis Ford Coppola’s films, as the cool-headed mafia lawyer Tom Hagen and the thunderous surfing aficionado Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore. In THE GODFATHER and THE GODFATHER PART II, Duvall’s steely consigliere helped usher in a smarter, slicker vision of what a gangster movie could be. In APOCALYPSE NOW, meanwhile, he brought Kilgore to life with a swaggering charisma that threw the callous bloodlust of the American offensive into sharp focus as he delivered immortal lines about “the smell of napalm in the morning.” Duvall had wielded that satirical edge against corporate television Sidney Lumet’s NETWORK, one of his funniest roles in a filmography that crossed all genre boundaries.

Beyond crime stories and war epics, he channeled this turmoil into domestic and romantic dramas that were, in his hands, no less devastating. TENDER MERCIES saw him become Mac Sledge, an alcoholic country singer who finds grace with a widow and her young son. Duvall, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, sang his own compositions in the film, and prepared for the role by driving all over Texas to record local accents. His fascination with voice and dialects—born from a military brat childhood and an early knack for impressions—drove his hands-on, immersive approach to characterization.

A methodical, versatile actor of singular intensity, Robert Duvall was both a filmmaker’s actor—‘America’s Lawrence Olivier’—and an indelible part of the popular cinematic consciousness with a legacy as immortal as the pictures he starred in.