Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Selden Duvall January 5, 1931 San Diego, California, U.S. |
Education | Principia College (BA) |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1952–present |
Works | Full list |
Spouses | Barbara Benjamin Marcus
(m. 1964; div. 1981)Gail Youngs
(m. 1982; div. 1986)Sharon Brophy
(m. 1991; div. 1995) |
Awards | Full list |
Robert Selden Duvall[1] (/duːˈvɔːl/; born January 5, 1931)[2][3] is an American actor and filmmaker. With a career spanning seven decades, he is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Duvall began his career on TV with minor roles in 1960 on
Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Tender Mercies (1983). His other Oscar-nominated films include The Godfather (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), The Apostle (1997), A Civil Action (1998), and The Judge (2014). Other notable roles include The Outfit (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Network (1976), True Confessions (1981), The Natural (1984), Days of Thunder (1990), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Rambling Rose (1991), Falling Down (1993), The Paper (1994), The Scarlet Letter (1995), Sling Blade (1996), Open Range (2003), Four Christmases (2008), Crazy Heart (2009), Get Low (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), and Widows (2018).
Throughout his career, Duvall has starred on numerous television programmes. He won the
Early life
Duvall was born January 5, 1931, in
His father had expected him to attend the Naval Academy, but Duvall said "I was terrible at everything but acting—I could barely get through school". He again defied his father by serving in the
In the winter of 1955, Duvall attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City,[5] under Sanford Meisner, on the G.I. Bill. During his two years there, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and James Caan were among his classmates.[5][15][16][17] While studying acting, he worked as a Manhattan post office clerk. Duvall remains friends today with fellow California-born actors Hoffman and Hackman, whom he knew during their years as struggling actors.[18] In 1955, Duvall roomed with Hoffman in a New York City apartment while they were studying together at the Playhouse.[19][20] Around this time, he also roomed with Hackman, while working odd jobs such as clerking at Macy's, sorting mail at the post office, and driving a truck.[12]
Career
Early career: 1952–1969
Theater
Duvall began his professional acting career with the
After a year's absence when he was with the
In its 1957 season, Duvall appeared as Mr. Mayher in Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution (July 1957), as Hector in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnivall (July 1957), and the role which he once described as the "catalyst of his career": Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge (from July 30 to August 3, 1957, and directed by Ulu Grosbard, who was by then a regular director at the Gateway Theatre).[22] Miller himself attended one of Duvall's performances as Eddie, and during that performance he met important people which allowed him, in two months, to land a "spectacular lead" in the Naked City television series.[15]
While appearing at the Gateway Theatre in the second half of the 1950s, Duvall was also appearing at the Augusta Civic Theatre, the McLean Theatre in
At the Neighborhood Playhouse, Meisner cast him in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real and the title role of Harvey Weems in Foote's one-act play The Midnight Caller. The latter was already part of Duvall's performance credits by mid-July 1957.[23][24][26][27][28][29][30]
Duvall made his
Television
In 1959, Duvall made his first television appearance on .
Film
His film debut was as
After To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in a number of films during the 1960s, mostly in midsized parts, but also in a few larger supporting roles. Some of his more notable appearances include the role of Capt. Paul Cabot Winston in
Mid-career: 1970–1989
Duvall became an important presence in American films beginning in the 1970s. He drew a considerable amount of attention in 1970 for his portrayal of the malevolent Major
By the mid-1970s Duvall was a top character actor; People described him as "Hollywood's No. 1 No. 2 lead".[13] Duvall received another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and won both a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for his role as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979). His line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now is regarded as iconic in cinema history. The full text is:
You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. But the smell! You know – that gasoline smell... the whole hill! Smelled like... victory. (Pause) Some day this war is going to end...
Duvall received a BAFTA Award nomination for his portrayal of detestable television executive Frank Hackett in the critically acclaimed film
Francis Ford Coppola praised Duvall as "one of the four or five best actors in the world". Wanting top billing in films, in 1977 Duvall returned to Broadway to appear as Walter Cole in David Mamet's American Buffalo, stating "I hope this will get me better film roles".[13] He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
"You can't concoct or push ahead something other than what you have at that moment as yourself, as that character. It's you at that moment in time. ... Between action and cut, it's a nice world, but you can't force that any more than you can force it in life."
—Robert Duvall on acting[34]
Duvall continued appearing in films during the 1980s, including the roles of a detective in
Actress Tess Harper, who co-starred, said Duvall inhabited the character so fully that she only got to know Mac Sledge and not Duvall himself. Director Bruce Beresford, too, said the transformation was so believable to him that he could feel his skin crawling up the back of his neck the first day of filming with Duvall. Beresford said of the actor, "Duvall has the ability to completely inhabit the person he's acting. He totally and utterly becomes that person to a degree which is uncanny."[34] Nevertheless, Duvall and Beresford did not get along well during the production and often clashed during filming, including one day in which Beresford walked off the set in frustration.[34]
In 1989, Duvall appeared in the miniseries
Later career: 1990–present
For The Godfather Part III (1990), Duvall declined to reprise the part of Tom Hagen, unless he was paid a salary comparable to Al Pacino's. In 2004, Duvall said on 60 Minutes, "if they paid Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine, but not three or four times, which is what they did."[38] In 1992, Duvall founded the production company Butcher's Run Films.[39] Duvall has maintained a busy film career, sometimes appearing in as many as four in one year. He received Oscar nominations for his portrayals of evangelical preacher Euliss "Sonny" Dewey in The Apostle (1997)—a film he also wrote and directed—and lawyer Jerome Facher in A Civil Action (1998).
He directed
Other roles during this period that displayed the actor's wide range included that of a crew chief in
He has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[40]
Duvall has periodically worked in television from the 1990s on. He won a Golden Globe Award and garnered an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in the 1992 television film Stalin. He was nominated for an Emmy again in 1997 for portraying Adolf Eichmann in The Man Who Captured Eichmann. In 2006, he won an Emmy for the role of Prentice "Print" Ritter in the revisionist Western miniseries Broken Trail.
In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush at the White House.[41] In 2014, he starred in The Judge alongside Robert Downey Jr. While the movie itself received mixed reviews,[42] Duvall's performance was praised. He was nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Award for his supporting role. In 2015, at age 84, Duvall became the oldest actor ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film The Judge,[43] a record that has since been surpassed by Christopher Plummer.
In 2018, he appeared in the Steve McQueen-directed heist thriller Widows as a corrupt power broker. The film earned critical acclaim.
Personal life
Relationships
Duvall has been married four times but does not have any children. "I guess I'm shooting blanks," he said in 2007.[45] He has said, "[I’ve tried] with a lot of different women, in and out of marriage."[45] Duvall met his first wife, Barbara Benjamin,[3] a former announcer and dancer on The Jackie Gleason Show, during the shooting of To Kill a Mockingbird.[46] She had also appeared in Guys and Dolls (1955) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963) using the name Barbara Brent.[47] She had two daughters from her previous marriage.[46] They were married from 1964 until 1975.[3] His second wife was Gail Youngs, to whom he was married from 1982 to 1986.[3] His marriage to Youngs temporarily made him the brother-in-law of John Savage,[5][48] Robin Young, and Jim Youngs. His third marriage was to Sharon Brophy, a dancer, from 1991 to 1995.[3]
In 2005, Duvall married his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza, granddaughter of Argentine aviation pioneer Susana Ferrari Billinghurst.[49] He met Pedraza in Argentina, recalling, "The flower shop was closed, so I went to the bakery. If the flower shop had been open, I never would've met her."[50] They were both born on January 5, but Duvall is 41 years older.[51] They have been together since 1997. He produced, directed, and acted with her in Assassination Tango, with the majority of filming in Buenos Aires. Duvall is also known as a very skilled Argentine tango dancer, having a tango studio in Argentina and in the United States.[18][49][52]
Duvall is known to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu and practices martial arts with his wife.[53]
Politics
Duvall's political views are variously described as libertarian or conservative.[18] He was personally invited to Republican President George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001. In September 2007, he announced his support for Rudy Giuliani's campaign in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries.[54] Duvall worked the floor at the GOP's 2008 national convention.[55] In September 2008, he appeared onstage at a John McCain–Sarah Palin rally in New Mexico, and he endorsed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.[56] However, in 2014, Duvall said in an interview he had become an independent.[57]
Philanthropy and activism
In 2001, Pedraza and Duvall founded the Robert Duvall Children's Fund to assist families in Northern Argentina through renovations of homes, schools, and medical facilities.[58] Duvall and Pedraza have been active supporters of Pro Mujer, a nonprofit charity organization dedicated to helping Latin America's poorest women (with Duvall and Pedraza concentrating on Pedraza's home in the Argentine Northwest).[59][60]
In May 2009, Duvall spoke for historic preservation against
In February 2023, Duvall spoke at a council meeting in suburban Virginia against a proposed Amazon facility. The facility was nonetheless approved.[63]
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
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- ^ "Robert Duvall". IMDb. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
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- ^ "Allied Warship Commanders – William Howard Duvall, USN". UBoat. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
- ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. "A Third Set of Ten Hollywood Figures (or Groups Thereof), with a Coda on Two Directors". New England Historic Genealogical Society. Archived from the original on January 21, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
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- ^ "The Religious Affiliation of Robert Duvall". Adherents.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2005.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ "Robert Duvall at the neighborhood Playhouse 1957". twitter. Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
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- ^ "Retrieved January 2–3, 2012". Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
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- ^ "Retrieved January 3, 2012". Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
- ^ Horton Foote, Genesis of an American Playwright (Longview, Texas: Markham Press Fund of Baylor University Press, 2004): p. 103. Retrieved from Google Books, December 31, 2011.
- ^ Roy M. Anker, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004): p. 138. Retrieved from Google Books, December 31, 2011.
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- ^ Robert Duvall Biography in Journal of Religion and Film (1998). Retrieved at robertduvall.net23.net, January 2, 2012.
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Further reading
- Mancin, Elaine (1992). "Duvall, Robert". In Nicholas, Thomas (ed.). International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Actors and Actresses. St. James Press. pp. 313–315.
External links
- Robert Duvall at IMDb
- Robert Duvall at the Internet Broadway Database
- Robert Duvall at the Internet Off-Broadway Database