May his soul rest in peace. A conservative in Leftist Hollywood, he survived and flourished by raw talent:
He always gave a striking performance, especially if the role was a small one. I will miss him.
Robert Duvall Dies at Age 95
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Some of the roles I loved of his were either ones with subverted expectations (Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird and Frank Burns in the original MASH film) or when he brought gravitas, such as Days of Thunder and Deep Impact.
The most underrated pieces in his career were scenes when he portrayed Tom Hagen in The Godfather films, especially toward the end of Part II when he has his final encounter with Frank Pentangeli, with the sadness said encounter brought.
RIP, Mr. Duvall. One of a kind.
He will be missed. But of all his great roles – and that is a big list to go through – I think his best was The Great Santini. I caught that when I was in college and we had a free weekend of some cable movie channel. It was just coming on, and I remembered Siskel and Ebert giving it high praise once in a review. So I pulled up a stool and decided to watch and see if it was good. I sat on that stool and didn’t move until the movie was over. That has seldom happened. But that was Duvall (though credit to the rest of the movie, too).
The Great Santini was a hard role to play. A completely over the top character, both hero and villain of the film. An easy role to completely mess up no matter the skill of an actor. From a technical standpoint, that was Duvall’s greatest role.
I loved him as Gus MaCrae in “Lonesome Dove”. A truly great western! May he enjoy the beatific vision!