Robert Duvall, star of ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Apocalypse Now,’ dead at 95

Robert Duvall, the Academy Award-winning actor identified for roles in a few of American cinema’s biggest movies, together with “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” has died at age 95.

“Yesterday we stated goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished good friend, and one of many biggest actors of our time. Bob handed away peacefully at house, surrounded by love and luxury,” learn a statement posted on the actor’s official Fb web page by his spouse, Luciana.

A press release from Duvall’s consultant confirmed the actor’s demise, studying partially, “Academy Award profitable actor Robert Selden Duvall handed away peacefully in his house in Middleburg, Virginia the night of Sunday, February 15, 2026 along with his spouse Luciana Duvall by his facet. He was 95.”

“In step with Duvall’s needs, no formal service shall be held,” the assertion continued. “As an alternative, the household encourages those that want to honor his reminiscence to take action in a approach that displays the life he lived by watching a fantastic movie, telling story round a desk with buddies, or taking a drive within the countryside to understand the world’s magnificence.”

Duvall introduced a signature naturalism to the roles he performed, an unmannered fashion that infused his myriad characters with a relaxed depth – a counterpoint to his self-confessed usually hot-tempered on-set disposition – and earned him a status as one in every of his era’s best actors. Starting along with his memorable movie debut as Boo Radley in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” wherein he did not utter a phrase, Robert Duvall went on to look in additional than 90 movies over the following seven a long time, working with a few of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers and performers.

Duvall shared the display because the outlaw Ned Pepper reverse John Wayne in 1969’s “True Grit,” originated the function of Maj. Frank Burns in Robert Altman’s 1970 darkish comedy “M*A*S*H,” and starred within the title function in “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ 1971 directorial debut, “THX 1138.” Duvall additionally performed Corleone household consigliere Tom Hagen in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Half II” reverse his performing hero, Marlon Brando, and had a pivotal function the ruthless community VP Frank Hackett within the acclaimed 1976 media satire “Community.”

Because the shirtless, cowboy hat-wearing Lt. Col. Invoice Kilgore in Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam Warfare epic “Apocalypse Now,” Duvall delivered the movie’s most oft-quoted line: “I really like the odor of napalm within the morning.” 4 years later, Duvall received the Academy Award for Finest Actor for enjoying Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic nation music star trying to make amends in “Tender Mercies.”

Different profession highlights included enjoying cynical sportswriter Max Murphy within the 1984 Robert Redford baseball fable “The Pure”; NASCAR crew chief Harry Hogge reverse Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman within the 1990 motion hit “Days of Thunder”; Sgt. Martin Prendergast, the retiring LAPD officer who spends his ultimate day on the job pursuing Michael Douglas’ unhinged character in 1993’s “Falling Down”; and a felony courtroom decide accused of homicide who’s defended by his estranged son, performed by Robert Downey Jr., within the 2014 authorized drama “The Decide.”

Of all his many celebrated performing roles, nevertheless, Duvall repeatedly stated his favourite was that of retired Texas Ranger Augustus “Gus” McCrae within the 1989 TV Western miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” which Duvall referred to as “The ‘Godfather’ of Westerns'” in a 2021 interview with Stephen Colbert. The sequence was one in every of a number of TV tasks wherein Duvall starred. Others included enjoying the title function in 1992’s HBO movie drama “Stalin,” for which he received a Golden Globe – his fourth lifetime win – and the 2006 AMC Western miniseries “Damaged Path,” which earned Duvall a Primetime Emmy Award for Excellent Lead Actor, along with one other for producing the sequence.

“Time teaches you lots of issues. It will get slightly simpler as you become old,” Duvall, then 72, told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson in 2003, reflecting in his craft. He went on to cite a line from his beloved “Lonesome Dove” character, Gus McCrae: “The older the violin, the sweeter the music. Perhaps that applies someplace.”

Robert Selden Duvall was born in San Diego, California, on Jan. 5, 1931, to Mildred, an newbie actress, and William, a rear admiral in the US Navy, as the center son of three boys. His household quickly moved to Annapolis, Maryland, house of the U.S. Naval Academy, the place Duvall spend most of his youth. Regardless of his father’s want that he enroll within the Academy, Duvall graduated from Principia Faculty in Elsah, Illinois with a level in drama in 1953, after which he enlisted within the U.S. Military and was honorably discharged two years later.

Duvall moved to New York following his navy discharge and used the GI Invoice to enroll within the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. Throughout this identical time, Duvall roomed with a fellow struggling actor who was a current transplant from California, Dustin Hoffman, and likewise befriended Hoffman’s California performing classmate, Gene Hackman. Following his commencement two years later, Duvall labored principally in native and regional theater earlier than making his tv debut in 1959 within the anthology TV drama sequence “Armstrong Circle Theatre.”

Extra TV roles adopted – in all, Duvall made some 50 visitor appearances although 1969 in hit TV reveals together with “Route 66,” “Bare Metropolis,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Untouchables,” “The Fugitive,” “The Outer Limits” and extra. He additionally made his Broadway debut in “Wait Till Darkish” in 1966, one in every of solely two such appearances he made, the second being within the unique Broadway forged of playwright David Mamet’s celebrated work, “American Buffalo.”

On the identical time, Duvall started constructing his movie resume, making his big-screen debut within the now-classic Robert Mulligan-directed 1962 movie adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Duvall performed the reclusive Boo Radley in a single scene, reverse fellow Neighborhood Playhouse alumnus Gregory Peck in his Oscar-winning function as legal professional Atticus Finch. A handful of modest movie roles adopted till Duvall landed the featured function of the outlaw Ned Pepper within the 1969 John Wayne Western traditional “True Grit.”

That function reverse one in every of cinema’s residing legends raised Duvall’s Hollywood profile. Larger movie roles rapidly adopted, together with that of the repressed, by-the-book Maj. Frank Burns within the 1970 field workplace smash “M*A*S*H,” the success of which impressed the long-running TV sequence of the identical title. Duvall’s most memorable movie function to that time, nevertheless, got here two years later, when Francis Ford Coppola forged him as Corleone household consigliere Tom Hagen in “The Godfather,” a job Duvall reprised in 1974’s “The Godfather Half II.” His work in “The Godfather” earned Duvall his first Academy Award nomination.

Together with “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Half II,” Duvall appeared in 5 movies directed by Coppola in 5 years, starting with the 1969 drama “The Rain Folks,” 1974’s “The Dialog” reverse his outdated good friend, Gene Hackman, and ending along with his Oscar-nominated function as Lt. Col. Invoice Kilgore in Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam Warfare epic, “Apocalypse Now.”

Duvall labored steadily for the rest of his life. He earned his third Oscar nod for 1980’s “The Nice Santini,” and his first win three years later enjoying washed-up nation singer Mac Sledge in 1983’s “Tender Mercies,” written by Pulitzer Prize winner Horton Foote. The latter additionally received an Academy Award for the movie – his second win, the primary being for adapting Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Duvall’s movement image debut.

Requested by ABC’s Chris Connelly in 2014 if profitable an Oscar modified his life, Duvall was succinct: “I turned extra recognizable in airports. That is about it.”

In complete, Duvall was nominated for seven Academy Awards, the ultimate three for his performances in 1997’s “The Apostle,” which he additionally wrote and directed; 1998’s “A Civil Motion,” co-starring with John Travolta as a corrupt company legal professional; and 2014’s “The Decide.” His nomination for “The Decide,” at age 84, then made him the oldest actor ever nominated within the Finest Supporting Actor class, till Christopher Plummer, at age 86, was nominated three years later for “All of the Cash within the World.”

Different notable later movies wherein Duvall appeared embrace “The Handmaid’s Story” in 1990, 1996’s “Sling Blade,” 1998’s sci-fi motion thriller “Deep Influence,” “Loopy Coronary heart” in 2009 – this time with Jeff Bridges enjoying a down-on-his luck nation singer – and as a capturing vary proprietor within the 2012 Tom Cruise hit “Jack Reacher.”

Along with his Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe wins, Robert Duvall received a BAFTA and a Display screen Actors Guild Award, the previous for “Apocalypse Now” and the latter for “A Civil Motion,” in addition to dozens of different crucial and fashionable award nominations and wins. He was additionally awarded the National Medal of Arts by then-President George W. Bush in 2005.

“Nicely, you hang around with younger individuals. I can study from them; they’ll study from me,” Duvall answered when Connelly requested him how he stored working into his eighth decade. “I feel that is what retains me going, at the least.”

“The day will come once they definitively wipe the drool and also you name it quits,” Duvall added. “Till that point comes, you attempt to dwell life to the fullest.”

Duvall was married 4 occasions, most just lately in 2005 to Luciana Pedraza, who survives him. He had no youngsters.