The title of one of O. Henry’s most famous short stories, “The Roads We Choose,” could become an epigraph to the fate of Robert Duvall, an outstanding master of American cinema and theater who recently passed away. The possibilities of choosing a life path are set by many circumstances, but, to a large extent, by the family. Born in San Diego, California, on one of the first days of 1931, the boy, who received the double name Robert Selden, was drafted into the army after graduating from college in 1953 and seemed to justify the hopes of his father, who rose to the rank of rear admiral.
But, as Robert Duvall himself later told about his one-year service, he did not gain much military experience there. The Korean war ended a month before he was drafted, and the recruit from San Diego preferred to participate in an amateur theater next to the barracks, where he played one of the roles in the slapstick comedy “Room Service,” which, quite possibly, he had watched ten years before on the big screen. on the screen, performed by the famous Marx brothers. Robert got his theatrical streak from his mother, who not only raised three sons, but also participated in amateur productions from her youth. By the way, one of my mother’s ancestors was the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, General Robert E. Lee, after whom Robert Duvall could get his name.
Nevertheless, Duvall’s entry into the Sanford Meisner course at the New York Theater School after the army in 1955 was decisive in choosing a professional path. Under the same veterans assistance program, his classmate was the great Gene Hackman, with whom Robert had been friends for seven decades. By the way, such outstanding Duvall colleagues as Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Kim Basinger and others learned acting skills using the famous Meisner method.
Robert Duvall’s first successes were brought by his roles in Broadway productions based on plays by Agatha Christie, Jean Anouilh, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller (the last of these helped the young actor establish the necessary contacts on television, where in the late 1950s he was invited to play in the crime series Naked City). But a more important meeting in the theatrical world for Duvall’s subsequent film career turns out to be an acquaintance with the playwright Horton Foot, in one of whose plays he played the main role.
In 1962, Horton, as the screenwriter of the film adaptation of the best-selling novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, recommended Robert Duvall for one of the most significant roles in this world classic film. And two decades later, Robert Duvall will play the main role in another film based on a script by Horton Foote, “Tender Mercies”, for which they both will receive a golden Oscar statuette. In the opinion of this outstanding but not so well-known playwright, Duvall was particularly successful in the roles of ordinary people, and in this role he was the number one actor.
In the sixties, Robert Duvall had several memorable roles on the big screen, for example, in one of F.F. Coppola’s early films “Rain Men”, in Peter Yates’ “Bullit”, in Henry Hathaway’s western “True Grit” (here his partner in the film was the legendary John Wayne) and several other films. And yet, the actor’s real talent was revealed in the film roles of the next decade.
In 1971, George Lucas’s “Galaxy THX-1138” was not particularly noticed on a few American screens. In this on-screen dystopia, produced by the same Coppola, Robert Duvall played the role of the character whose abbreviation is named after the picture. Decades later, this debut feature film from the future creator of Star Wars has gained cult status. Earlier in 1970, Duvall joined the outstanding cast of Robert Altman’s film M.A.S.H. In this classic American dramedy, which takes place during the Korean War, Duvall got one of the central roles – army surgeon Frank Burns.
In 1972, Duvall received his first Oscar nomination for his role as lawyer Tom Hagen in the first part of Coppola’s The Godfather. The actor will play the same role just as perfectly on the screen in the second part of the legendary film trilogy. At the end of the decade, Duvall will star in another Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. For the role of Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”), he will receive another Oscar nomination (for his supporting role) and will be awarded the British Academy and Golden Globe Awards. However, these iconic roles do not exhaust the list of Duvall’s film performances in the seventies.
As mentioned above, Duvall’s work in Bruce Beresford’s film Tender Mercies was awarded the Oscar (in the Leading Actor nomination). The actor became so deeply immersed in his character, the ruined with drinking country singer Mac Sledge (the more famous country film “Crazy Heart” was shot according to a similar scenario), that he himself began composing songs in this true American genre of music. And the director of the film described his impressions of working with the actor as follows::
“Duvall is able to completely transform into the person he plays. He completely transforms into this person, and it just looks incredible.”
Robert Duvall had such acting talent that he could reliably embody on the screen such great historical figures as President Eisenhower in the TV series “Ike” (1979), the Father of Nations in Ivan Passer’s TV series “Stalin” (1992), his legendary ancestor General Lee in the film “Gods and Generals” (2003). And his most memorable work in the western genre was his participation in the TV series “Lonesome Dove” (1989).
He also tried his hand at directing, shooting several films. And for the role of a middle-aged preacher in his film “The Apostle”, he was again nominated for an Oscar in 1997. One of the last big roles in Duvall’s credentials was the portrait of a judge in the 2014 film of the same name, which also earned the great actor an Academy Award nomination.
