Robert Duvall

Early life, family and education

Robert Selden Duvall came into the world on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California. His mother, Mildred Virginia Duvall, was an amateur actress, and his father, Rear Admiral William Howard Duvall, served in the United States Navy. He was the middle child of three boys, with an older brother, William Jr., and a younger brother, John, who grew up to become an entertainment lawyer. His father hailed from Virginia and could trace his lineage back to Mareen Duvall, an early settler of Maryland.

Raised in the Christian Science faith, Duvall later admitted he never actually went to church. Much of his youth was spent in Annapolis, Maryland, where his father was posted at the U.S. Naval Academy. He went to Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in drama from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1953. His dad had hoped he would follow in his footsteps to the Naval Academy, but Duvall confessed he was hopeless at everything except performing and could barely get through school.

Instead, he joined the U.S. Army after the Korean War, serving from August 19, 1953, to August 20, 1954, and leaving as a private first class. He later clarified that press reports of him fighting in fierce battles were wrong; he could barely handle the M-1 rifle in training. While at Camp Gordon in Georgia, he acted in an amateur staging of the comedy Room Service in nearby Augusta. In the winter of 1955, he used the G.I. Bill to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City under Sanford Meisner.

His fellow students included Gene Hackman and James Caan. To pay the bills, he worked as a clerk in a Manhattan post office. He stayed lifelong friends with Dustin Hoffman and Hackman, both fellow California natives he met when they were all struggling actors. In 1955, he shared an apartment in New York with Hoffman while they were both at the Playhouse, and at another point lived with Hackman while taking odd jobs like clerking at Macy's, sorting mail, and driving a truck.

Career

Duvall began his professional acting career with the Gateway Playhouse, an Equity summer theater based in Bellport, Long Island, New York. His stage debut was in its 1952 season, when he played the Pilot in Laughter in the Stars, an adaptation of The Little Prince. After a year away while serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to Gateway for its 1955 summer season, appearing in several plays including Time Out for Ginger, Picnic, The Cat and the Canary, The Crucible, and Dark of the Moon.

During Gateway's 1956 season, he played roles in Dial M for Murder, Bus Stop, and I Am a Camera. In its 1957 season, he appeared in Witness for the Prosecution, Thieves' Carnivall, and the role he described as the catalyst of his career: Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, directed by Ulu Grosbard. Arthur Miller attended one of Duvall's performances, and during that run Duvall met important people, allowing him to land a lead in the Naked City television series.

He made his feature film debut in a small role as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). His other early roles included Bullitt (1968), True Grit (1969), M*A*S*H (1970), THX 1138 (1971), and Tomorrow (1972), the last of which was developed at the Actors Studio and was his personal favorite. Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as an alcoholic former country music star in Tender Mercies (1983). His other Oscar-nominated roles included The Godfather (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), The Apostle (1997), A Civil Action (1998), and The Judge (2014). He also starred in numerous television productions, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for the AMC limited series Broken Trail (2006).

Personal life and death

Robert Duvall has been married four times and has no biological children. In 2007, he remarked that he was "shooting blanks" and had tried with many women both within and outside of marriage. His first wife was Barbara Benjamin, a former announcer and dancer on The Jackie Gleason Show whom he met while filming To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. She had also acted in Guys and Dolls and The Courtship of Eddie's Father under the name Barbara Brent.

Benjamin brought two daughters from a prior marriage into the union, which lasted from 1964 to 1975. Duvall’s second marriage was to Gail Youngs, from 1982 to 1986, which briefly made him the brother-in-law of actors John Savage, Robin Young, and Jim Youngs. His third wife was dancer Sharon Brophy, married from 1991 to 1995. In 2005, he married Luciana Pedraza, the granddaughter of Argentine aviation pioneer Susana Ferrari Billinghurst.

They met in Argentina when a closed flower shop led him to a bakery instead; both share a January 5 birthday, though Duvall is 41 years older. The couple had been together since 1997. Duvall produced, directed, and starred alongside Pedraza in the 2002 film Assassination Tango, much of it shot in Buenos Aires. A skilled Argentine tango dancer, he operated tango studios in Argentina and the United States, and also trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with his wife.

Politically, Duvall was described as libertarian or conservative. He received a personal invitation to President George W. Bush’s 2001 inauguration, supported Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 Republican primary bid, worked the floor at the 2008 GOP convention, appeared at a John McCain–Sarah Palin rally in New Mexico that September, and endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012. By 2014, he expressed dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, calling it "a mess" and considering a switch to independent.

In 2001, Duvall and Pedraza founded the Robert Duvall Children’s Fund, which renovates homes, schools, and medical facilities for families in northern Argentina. They also supported Pro Mujer, a nonprofit aiding impoverished women in Latin America, focusing on Pedraza’s home region in the Argentine Northwest.

Accolades and awards

Vincent Canby, the chief film critic for the New York Times, famously dubbed Robert Duvall "the American Olivier," a comparison to the legendary Laurence Olivier that stuck. Al Pacino, his co-star in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, called working with him an honor, describing Duvall as a born actor with a deep connection to his craft. Director Scott Cooper, who worked with Duvall on multiple films, told The Guardian that Duvall's legacy is secure and that he ranks among the greatest actors in history.

Duvall won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic former country music star in Tender Mercies (1983). His other honors include a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Over his career, the Academy recognized him for performances in The Godfather (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1981), Tender Mercies (1983), The Apostle (1997), A Civil Action (1998), and The Judge (2014).