Oscar winner, ‘Godfather’ mainstay

MARK J. TERRILL/AP

Robert Duvall (shown in 2003), a seven-time Oscar nominee, 

did not appear in the third “Godfather” film because of a dispute over money.

17 Feb 2026 - Chicago Sun-Times

BY BOB THOMAS Former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas, who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary.

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor of matchless versatility and dedication whose classic roles included the intrepid consigliere of the first two “Godfather” movies and the over-the-hill country music singer in “Tender Mercies,” has died at age 95.

Mr. Duvall died “peacefully” at his home Sunday in Middleburg, Virginia, according to an announcement from his publicist and from a statement posted on his Facebook page by his wife, Luciana Duvall.

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall wrote. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented.”

The bald, wiry Duvall didn’t have leading man looks, but few “character actors” enjoyed such a long, rewarding and unpredictable career, in leading and supporting roles, from an itinerant preacher to Josef Stalin. Beginning with his 1962 film debut as Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbor in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mr. Duvall created a gallery of unforgettable portrayals. They earned him seven Academy Award nominations and the best actor prize for “Tender Mercies,” which came out in 1983. He also won four Golden Globes, including one for playing the philosophical cattle-drive boss in the 1989 miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” a role he often cited as his favorite.

He had been acting for nearly 20 years when “The Godfather,” released in 1972, established him as one of the most in-demand performers of Hollywood. He had made a previous film, “The Rain People,” 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. Mr. 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.

On Instagram, Coppola wrote, “What a blow to learn of the loss of Robert Duvall. Such a great actor and such an essential part of (the production company) American Zoetrope from its beginning: The Rain People, The Conversation, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, THX 1138, Assassination Tango.”

Pacino, in a statement to the Associated Press, said, “It was an honor to have worked with Robert Duvall. He was a born actor as they say, his connection with it, his understanding and his phenomenal gift will always be remembered. I will miss him.”

In “Apocalypse Now,” Mr. Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigor enjoyed surfing and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Mr. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous lines in movie history, barked out by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

He was Oscar nominated as supporting actor for “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” but a dispute over money led him to turn down the third Godfather epic, a loss deeply felt by critics, fans and “Godfather” colleagues. Mr. Duvall would complain publicly about being offered less than his co-stars.

Mr. Duvall was awarded an Oscar in 1984 for his leading role as the troubled singer and songwriter Mac Sledge in “Tender Mercies,” a prize he accepted while clad in a cowboy tuxedo with Western tie. In 1998, he was nominated for best actor in “The Apostle,” a drama about a wayward Southern evangelist which he wrote, directed, starred in, produced and largely financed.

Among other notable roles: the outlaw gang leader who gets ambushed by John Wayne in “True Grit”; the beleaguered Frank Burns in “M*A*S*H”; the TV hatchet man in “Network”; and the sadistic father in “The Great Santini.”

In his mid-80s, he received a supporting Oscar nomination as the title character of the 2014 release “The Judge,” in which he is accused of causing a death in a hit-and-run accident.

Robert Selden Duvall grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and the San Diego area, where he was born in 1931. His father rose to be a Navy admiral.

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 hopefuls as Robert Morse, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman.

Mr. Duvall had been a tango dancer since seeing “Tango Argentina” in the 1980s and visited Argentina dozens of times. The result was the 2002 “Assassination Tango.”

His co-star was Luciana Pedraza, 42 years his junior, whom he married in 2005. Mr. Duvall’s three previous marriages — to Barbara Benjamin, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy — ended in divorce.

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Source: Internet Movie Database

SOME OF THE FILMS OF ROBERT DUVALL

“To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) “Bullitt” (1968)

“True Grit” (1969) “M*A*S*H” (1970)

“THX 1138” (1971)

“The Godfather” (1972)

“The Godfather Part II” (1974) “The Conversation” (1974) “Network” (1976)

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978)

“Apocalypse Now” (1979)

“The Great Santini” (1979)

“Tender Mercies” (1983)

“The Natural” (1984) “Falling Down” (1993)

“The Paper” (1994)

“The Apostle” (1997)

“Thank You For Smoking” (2005) “Crazy Heart” (2009)

“Jack Reacher” (2012)

“The Judge” (2014)