Robert Duvall, star of Apocalypse Now and Godfather, dies at 95 Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall, the veteran actor who played a string of roles in classic American films including Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, MASH and To Kill a Mockingbird, has died at the age of 95.

“Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” his wife, Luciana Duval, wrote in a Facebook message.

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, director, and storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for the characters, a great meal, and the encounters. In each of his many roles, Bob gave his all to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he leaves something lasting and memorable for us all.”

Duvall is perhaps best known for his role as the cavalry-hat-wearing Kilgore in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, which yielded two of the most quotable lines of dialogue in cinematic history – “Charlie doesn’t surf!” and “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But he also had an enormous impact advisor Tom Hagen in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the reclusive Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird early in his career, and numerous supporting and character roles throughout the following decades. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, winning once, for Best Actor in 1984’s Tender Mercies as a country music singer trying to overcome alcoholism.

Born in San Diego, California in 1931, the son of a naval officer, he studied drama in college in St. Louis, Missouri, and briefly joined the Army. In 1955 he attended the Neighborhood Theater School in New York (along with James Caan, Gene Hackman, and Dustin Hoffman), sharing apartments with Hackman and Hoffman. Duvall worked steadily in television and theater, including an award-winning role in the 1965 production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Ulu Grosbard, and won his first film role as the mysterious Boo Radley in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Further small roles in Bullitt (1968) and True Grit (1969) enhanced his reputation, but it was his role in MASH – as the arrogant Frank Burns, mocked by Donald Sutherland’s Hawkeye and trapper John Elliott Gould – that brought him wider attention. After appearing in Francis Ford Coppola’s women’s road movie The Rain People (1969), Duvall cemented his connection to New Wave Hollywood with the lead role in George Lucas’s first film of 1970, the dystopian sci-fi tale THX 1138; Tom Hagen in the first two Godfather films (he ultimately would not be cast in the third film due to salary requirements); and Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, in a role initially intended for Hackman.

Duvall also continued to appear in more mainstream films, including the World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976), the network news media satire (1976), and the baseball drama The Natural (1984). He made his directorial debut in 1983 with Angelo, My Love, a semi-improvised drama about a Romani street kid in New York. Despite earning an Oscar for Tender Mercies, major roles rarely came his way, but he was a strong supporting presence throughout the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in a wide range of films: the Dennis Hopper-directed gangster thriller Colors, the Tom Cruise stock car hit Days of Thunder (1990), and the Margaret Atwood film adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale (1990).

In 1992, he returned to television to play Stalin in the award-winning HBO series directed by Ivan Passer. Another leading role came in 1997, in his second directorial effort, The Messenger, in which he played a preacher who kills his wife’s lover. He received his third Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for this role.

Duvall has directed two more films – Assassination Tango in 2002, in which he showed off his real-life talent for the Argentine dance style, and The Western Wild Horses in 2015. He has gone on to appear in a wide range of films, from Hollywood thrillers like The Gingerbread Man and Gone in 60 Seconds, to left-wing dramas like We Own the Night and The Road. A long-standing interest in football (the “association” type) led to roles in the low-budget Scottish drama A Shot at Glory (opposite Ally McCoist) in 2000, and the comedy Kicking and Screaming (2005) with Will Ferrell.

Duvall continued to work steadily through the 2000s, receiving another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2015 for The Judge, becoming at the time the oldest male actor ever to be nominated.

Duvall, a prominent GOP supporter in Hollywood for decades, said he abandoned his support for the party in 2014.

Duvall has been married four times: to Barbara Benjamin from 1964 to 1981, to Jill Youngs (1982–1986), to Sharon Brophy (1991–1995), and to Luciana Pedraza, whom he married in 2005. He has no children.