Hollywood mourns the loss of Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, celebrated for iconic roles in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, who passed away peacefully at home.
LOS ANGELES: Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor whose iconic performances in ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’ cemented his legacy as a Hollywood giant, has died at the age of 95.
His wife Luciana Duvall confirmed his peaceful passing at home on Sunday. “Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time,” she wrote.
She added, “To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything.”
Duvall’s six-decade career was defined by a rare versatility and a meticulous dedication to his craft. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1983 for his role as a washed-up country singer in ‘Tender Mercies’.
He earned enduring fame for his portrayal of the soft-spoken mafia consigliere Tom Hagen in the first two ‘Godfather’ films. His co-star Al Pacino said in a statement, “He was a born actor as they say, his connection with it, his understanding and his phenomenal gift will always be remembered.”
Duvall delivered another legendary performance as the surfing-obsessed Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore in ‘Apocalypse Now’. The role earned him an Oscar nomination and produced one of cinema’s most quoted lines.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” his character famously mused in the 1979 Vietnam War epic. Duvall later revealed he toned down the initially over-the-top role, telling Larry King in 2015, “I did my homework. I did my research.”
His vast career included a breakout role as Boo Radley in 1962’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. He was 31 at the time and delivered a haunting performance without a single word of dialogue.
Actor Alec Baldwin highlighted this in a video tribute, saying Duvall “just shatters you” in that role. Duvall often said his personal favourite was playing cowboy Augustus McCrae in the 1989 TV mini-series ‘Lonesome Dove’.
British actress Jane Seymour shared a heartfelt tribute on Instagram, recalling working with him on the 1995 film ‘The Stars Fell on Henrietta’. “Those moments off camera were just as memorable as the work itself,” she wrote.
Blunt-talking and glitz-averse, Duvall received seven Oscar nominations in total and continued acting into his 90s. Film critic Elaine Mancini once described him as “the most technically proficient, the most versatile, and the most convincing actor on the screen in the United States.”
The Sun Malaysia
