Robert Duvall - Biography

Last Editor: Rebecca.Darby				Robert Duvall Biography -   Name : Robert Duvall Birth Name : Robert Selden Duvall Date of Birth : 5 January 1931 Place of Birth : San Diego, California, USA Height : 5' 10'' Nationality : American Profession : actor Also Credited As : Robert Duval

Robert Duvall Trivia -

Living with Luciana Pedraza. [1997 - present] Studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Is a direct descendent of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Fractured several ribs in April 2002 after falling off a horse while rehearsing for role in Open Range (2003). Served in the U.S. Army (serial #52 346 646) from 19 August 1953 to 20 August 1954, achieving rank of Private First Class and awarded the National Defense Service Medal. Received star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [18 September 2003] Was roommates and good friends with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman while all were struggling stage actors in New York before any of them struck it big. Among the three, Hoffman and Duvall were known for their ways with the women, and Duvall and Hackman were known for their short fuses, which led to numerous bar fights. The three often bonded over elaborate practical jokes. Can speak Spanish fluently. Owns a large estate in rural Virginia, where some skirmishes of the Civil War were fought (he has found shells and other artifacts on the property). Some scenes in Gods and Generals (2003) were filmed on his land. Being descended from Robert E. Lee, he can actually trace his family back to President George Washington. Washington himself had no biological children, but his wife, Martha Custis, did, and he adopted them after the death of Martha's first husband. Her son, John Custis, had a son of his own, Washington Custis, whose daughter, Mary Custis, was Robert E. Lee's wife. Interestingly, Duvall played Lee in Gods and Generals (2003), opposite Jeff Daniels, who had played Washington in The Crossing (1990). His favorite city is Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is an avid Tango dancer. His father was a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Was director Robert Altman's first choice for country singer in Nashville (1975), but he used Henry Gibson instead when Duvall insisted that Altman let him compose and sing his own songs in the film. Duvall later won an Oscar for assaying country singer Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies (1983), a film for which he wrote and sang the songs. While a struggling actor, he worked at a post office as a clerk but quit after six months. He says he didn't want to be there 20 years later, still working in a post office.

Robert Duvall Detailed Biography -

Actor and director Robert Duvall was born on January 5, 1931 in San Diego, California, the son of a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsiah, IL), then served a two-year hitch in the Army after graduating in 1953.Robert Duvall began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, studying with Sanford Meisner along with Dustin Hoffman, with whom Robert Duvall shared an apartment. Both were close to another struggling young actor named Gene Hackman. Meisner cast Robert Duvall in the play "The Midnight Caller" by Horton Foote, a link that would prove critical to his career as it was Foote who recommended Robert Duvall to play the mentally disabled Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), his motion picture debut. Robert Duvall began making a name for himself as a stage actor in New York, winning an Obie Award in 1965 playing incest-minded longshoreman Eddie Carbone in the off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge," a production for which his old roommate Hoffman was assistant director. He found steady work in episodic TV and appeared as a modestly billed character actor in motion pictures, appearing in Arthur Penn's The Chase (1966) with Marlon Brando, and in Robert Altman's Countdown (1968) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969), both of which he co-starred with James Caan. He was also memorable as the heavy who is shot by John Wayne at the climax to True Grit (1969) and was the first Major Frank Burns, creating the character in Altman's Korean War comedy MASH (1970). He also appeared as the eponymous lead in George Lucas' directoral debut, THX 1138 (1971). It was Coppola, casting The Godfather (1972), who reunited Robert Duvall with Brando and Caan and provided him with his career breathrough as Mob lawyer Tom Hagen. He received the first of his six Academy Award nominations for the role. Thereafter, Robert Duvall had steady work in featured roles in such films as The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Network (1976), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), and The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Occassionally, this actor's actor got the chance to assay a lead role, most notably in Tomorrow (1972), in which he was brilliant as William Faulkner's inarticulate backwoods farmer. He was less impressive as the lead in Badge 373 (1973), in which he played a character based on real-life NYC policeman Eddie Egan, whom his old friend Gene Hackman had won an Oscar playing, in fictionalized form, as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971). It was his appearance as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in another Coppola picture, Apocalypse Now (1979), which solidified Duvall's reputation as a great actor. He won his second Academy Award nomination for the role, and was named by the Guiness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor in the world!Robert Duvall created one of the most memorable characters ever assayed on film, and gave the world the memorable phrase "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Subsequently, Robert Duvall proved one of the few established character actors to move from supporting to leading roles, with his Oscar-nominated turns in The Great Santini (1979) and Tender Mercies (1983), the later of which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Now at the summit of his career, Duvall seemed to be afflicted with the fabled "Oscar Curse" that had overwhelmed the careers of fellow Academy Award winners Luise Rainer, Rod Steiger, and Cliff Robertson. He could not find work equal to his talents, either due to his post-Oscar salary demands or due to a lack of perception in the industry that he truly was leading man material. He did not appear in the The Godfather: Part III (1990) as the studio would not give in to his demands for a salary commensurate with that of Al Pacino, who was receiving $5 million to reprise Michael Corleone. His greatest achievement in his immediate post-Oscar period was his acclaimed characterization of the grizzled Texas Ranger in the TV mini-series "Lonesome Dove" (1989) (mini), for which he received an Emmy nomination. He received a second Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the Soviet dictator Stalin (1992) (TV), and a third Emmy nomination playing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in _Man Who Captured Eichmann, The (1996) . The shakeout of his career doldrums was that Robert Duvall eventually settled back into his status as one of the premier character actors in the industry, rivalled only by his old friend Gene Hackman.Robert Duvall, unlike Hackman, also has directed pictures, including the documentary We're Not the Jet Set (1975), Angelo My Love (1983) and Assassination Tango (2002). As writer-director, Robert Duvall gave himself one of his most memorable roles, the lead of the preacher on the run from the law in The Apostle (1997), a brilliant peformance for which he received his third Best Actor nomination and fifth Oscar nomination overall. The film brought Robert Duvall back to the front ranks of great actors, and was followed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for A Civil Action (1998). Robert Duvall will long be remembered as one of the great naturalistic American screen actors in the mode of Spencer Tracy and his frequent co-star Marlon Brando. His performances as Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Jackson Fentry in "Tomorrow," Tom Hagen in the first two "Godfather" movies, Frank Hackett in "Network," Colonel Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," Bull Meechum in "The Great Santini," Mac Sledge in "Tender Mercies," Gus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove," and Sonny Dewey in "The Apostle" rank as some of the finest acting ever put on film. It's a body of work that few actors can equal, let alone surpass.