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Robert Duvall, the legendary actor known for his roles as the suave mafia lawyer Tom Hagen in The Godfather and the surf-obsessed Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, has died at the age of 95, his wife Luciana Duvall confirmed on Monday.
“Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home,” Luciana wrote.
Blunt-talking, prolific and averse to Hollywood glitz, Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor and was nominated six additional times. Over a career spanning more than six decades, he excelled in both leading and supporting roles and later became a director.
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall added. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court.”
Duvall won his Oscar in 1983 for portraying a washed-up country singer in Tender Mercies.
Among his most memorable performances were Tom Hagen in The Godfather films and Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, which earned him an Oscar nomination and cemented his status as a star after years of smaller roles.
Kilgore’s line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” has become iconic. Originally conceived as an even more over-the-top character named Colonel Carnage, Duvall had the role toned down, reflecting his meticulous approach. “I did my homework. I did my research,” he told veteran talk show host Larry King in 2015.
Duvall was a late bloomer in Hollywood, delivering his breakout performance as the enigmatic Boo Radley in the 1962 adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He went on to play a wide range of roles, including a domineering executive in Network (1976), a strict Marine officer in The Great Santini (1979), and his Oscar-winning role in Tender Mercies.
His favourite role, according to Duvall, was Augustus McCrae, the grizzled, wisecracking Texas Ranger-turned-cowboy in the 1989 TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, adapted from Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
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,” a testament to a career that left an indelible mark on cinema.
