Robert Duvall
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.
For the French alchemist, see Robert Duval. For the Maryland politician, see Robert E. Duvall. For the Kentucky politician, see Robert Duvall (politician).
Robert Duvall
- Actor
- film director
- producer
1952–present
Duvall began his career on TV with minor roles in 1960 on Playhouse 90 and the Armstrong Circle Theatre TV series before transitioning to Broadway and film.[4] Duvall made his Broadway debut in the play Wait Until Dark in 1966. He returned to the stage in David Mamet's play American Buffalo in 1977, earning a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play nomination. He made his feature film acting debut portraying Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Other early roles include Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), Bullitt (1968), True Grit (1969), M*A*S*H (1970), THX 1138 (1971), Joe Kidd (1972), and Tomorrow (1972), the last of which was developed at the Actors Studio and is his personal favorite.[1]
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 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for the AMC limited series Broken Trail (2007). His other Emmy-nominated roles are in the CBS miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), the HBO film Stalin (1992), and the TNT film The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996).
Early life[edit]
Duvall was born January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California,[5] to Mildred Virginia Duvall (née Hart), an amateur actress, and Admiral William Howard Duvall,[6] a Virginia-born United States Navy rear admiral.[7][8] The second of three sons, he has an elder brother, William Jr. and a younger brother, John (1934–2000), who was an entertainment lawyer.[9] His mother was a relative of American Civil War General Robert E. Lee, and a member of the Lee Family of Virginia, while his father was a descendant of settler Mareen Duvall.[10] Duvall was raised in the Christian Science religion and has stated that, while it is his belief, he does not attend church.[11] He grew up primarily in Annapolis, Maryland,[5] site of the United States Naval Academy. He recalled: "I was a Navy brat. My father started at the Academy when he was 16, made captain at 39 and retired as a rear admiral." He attended Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1953.[5][12]
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 United States Army[13] after the Korean War (from August 19, 1953, to August 20, 1954) leaving the Army as private first class.[14] "That's led to some confusion in the press," he explained in 1984, "Some stories have me shooting it out with the Commies from a foxhole over in Frozen Chosin. Pork Chop Hill stuff. Hell, I barely qualified with the M-1 rifle in basic training".[5] While stationed at Camp Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower) in Georgia, Duvall acted in an amateur production of the comedy Room Service in nearby Augusta, Georgia.[12]
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]