In Memoriam: Robert Duvall

Commentary

The actor Robert Duvall passed away Feb. 15 at the age of 95. Classifying him as an actor doesn’t do his career in entertainment justice.

In addition to 145 acting credits, Duvall had 14 producer credits, four writing credits, and five directing credits. His work was honored by more than five dozen awards and nominations, topped by the Academy Award for Best Actor for 1983’s “Tender Mercies.” His active career in television and cinema spanned more than 60 years.

The range of roles he played would be the envy of any actor. The superlatives that come to mind in looking back at his body of work may be unoriginal, but they are most fitting: iconic, memorable, path-breaking, genius.

Duvall was a member of that dwindling generation of actors who emerged in the early 1960s. He had acting credits in a number of classic TV series of that decade: Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone”; “Route 66”; “The Untouchables”; “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”; “The Virginian”; “The Fugitive”; “Combat!”; “The Wild Wild West.” And let us not forget his triumphant return to television in 1989’s super-popular miniseries, “Lonesome Dove.”

He exploded onto the film scene with his unforgettable portrayal of Boo Radley in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” My wife, a former actress and director herself, showed excerpts of that film to her college theater classes. Duvall’s performance vividly illustrated how much could be communicated nonverbally as well as through how lines were spoken. He engaged the viewer, using subtle changes of expression to suggest various subtexts and intriguing questions: Is he unbalanced or just odd? Does he know things that he won’t state? What caused him to be that way, etc.?

I was a bit young to fully appreciate Duvall’s role in “Mockingbird” when it came out, but years later, I saw it and was dazzled. The first show I remember seeing him in upon its release was the 1970’s cynical “M*A*S*H” in which he played the smarmy, clueless, repellently pious and devoid of empathy Major Frank Burns. Duvall, a very pleasant fellow in real life, had the great actor’s ability to make himself thoroughly unlikable in little ways.

Indeed, “M*A*S*H” was one of many movies in which Duvall demonstrated his excellence at ensemble acting. Whether he played the lead character, a co-lead, or a supporting role, his performances were gold.

Some of the lead roles he played, in addition to the afore-mentioned “Tender Mercies,” included playing the title characters in 1979’s “Ike,” a TV miniseries about the war years of future president, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and another major figure of the 20th century, “Stalin,” in 1992. He also played the title character in 1997’s “The Apostle,” which he also wrote and directed; the tragedy “The Great Santini”; and “The Judge” (2014), in which he starred opposite Robert Downey, Jr.

The list is much longer for Duvall’s movie roles in which he worked alongside other top names in the business. Examples include Steve McQueen in “Bullitt” (1968); John Wayne in “True Grit” (1969); Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, etc., in “The Godfather,” Parts I and II (1972 and 1974); Alan Arkin, Laurence Olivier, and Vanessa Redgrave in “The Seven-Percent Solution” (1976); Brando and Martin Sheen in 1979’s dark, traumatic (apocalyptic?) “Apocalypse Now”; Robert Redford in “The Natural” (1984); Kevin Costner in “Open Range” (2003); Tom Cruise in 1990’s “Days of Thunder”; and 2012’s “Jack Reacher.” (Dear reader: I’m sure I’ve omitted some of your favorites here, for which I apologize.)

One of the odder movies starring Duvall was the 1996 movie “A Family Thing.” In that weirdly improbable script, Duvall and James Earl Jones played half-brothers who never knew about each other until well into middle age. While it was intriguing to watch the two venerable actors play off each other, the story wasn’t strong enough to overcome its stretched contrivance.

One of the most sensitive performances Duvall gave was in the 1991 movie “Rambling Rose.” It included a brief, awkward (and mercifully not over-explicit) sexual encounter with a young Laura Dern. Duvall masterfully displayed an utterly credible mixture of vulnerability, when he was taken by surprise, and then integrity as he extricated himself from a would-be disaster.

If I could recommend one Duvall movie that, for some reason, did not catch on when it was released in 2003, I would heartily recommend the delightful and endearing “Secondhand Lions,” in which he and Michael Caine play a couple of retired Texan members of the French Foreign Legion who share a coming-of-age summer with their grand-nephew, played by Haley Joel Osment. In this movie, we see the type of character I think Duvall most enjoyed playing: a tough, no-nonsense, crusty exterior hiding a tender, good heart that peeks through with a twinkle or glint in the eye.

Active in film until 2022, Robert Duvall was a star for the ages. Thank you for all the great memories, sir, and rest in peace.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.