Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor best known for “The Godfather,“ “Apocalypse Now” and many other tough-guy roles over an acclaimed screen career that spanned six decades, has died at 95.
In a Facebook post, his wife wrote, “For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented,” Luciana Duvall said.
“Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time,” she wrote. “Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort. To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything.”
Duvall, a versatile actor who made lasting impressions, played forceful leaders such as Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum in “The Great Santini” and the title character in “Stalin,” as well as broken-down and fallen characters in “Tender Mercies” and “The Apostle.”
The award-winning actor received his big break in 1962 with To Kill a Mockingbird starring as Boo Radley.
After Mockingbird, he attracted bigger roles including films Bullitt, True Grit, and M*A*S*H, in which he originated the role of the uptight Major Frank Burns.
But his magnum opus was 1972’s The Godfather, in which he played the patient and sly consigliere Tom Hagen, the role that brought him his first Oscar nomination.
He reprised his role as Hagen in “The Godfather: Part II” in 1974. He also appeared in Coppola’s “The Conversation” and as Dr. Watson in Herbert Ross’ “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.”
As Variety notes, Duvall was born in San Diego and was the son of a Navy rear admiral. He moved to various parts of the country during his upbringing, but primarily resided in Annapolis, Md., site of the U.S Naval Academy.
Dvall began to study drama at the insistence of his parents. After graduating from Principia College and the completion of his military service, Duvall studied under Sanford Meisner at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse.
He is survived by his fourth wife, Luciana Pedraza, with whom he starred in “Assassination Tango.”