An Actor's Actor

Flopper

Diamond Member
Gold Supporting Member
Mar 23, 2010
32,127
9,039
1,330
Washington
An actor's actor is a person whose recognized by other actors for his or her acting ability. These people are rarely megastars. One such actor would be Robert Duval. If you're under 30, you may not have heard of him but you have surely heard of movies he has made. Here is short list of the over 150 films he has made:
To Kill a Mocking Bird,
The Godfather,
Bullet,
True Grit,
M*A*S*H,
Joe Kidd,
The Conversation,
The Godfather II,
The Eagle Has Landed,
The Seven Percent Solution,
Network,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Apocalypse Now,
The Great Santini,
True Confessions,
Tender Mercies,
The Stone Boy,
The Natural,
Let's Get Harry,
Colors,
Days of Thunder,
The Handmaid's Tail,
Rambling Rose,
Newsies,
Falling Down,
Geronimo, An American Legend,
The Paper,
Something to Talk About,
The Scarlet Letter,
Sling Blade,
A Family Thing,
Phenomenon,
The Apostle,
The Gingerbread Man,
A Civil Action,
Gone in 60 Seconds,
A Shot at Glory,
John Q,
Gods and Generals,
Secondhand Lions,
Open Range,
Thank You for Smoking,
Crazy Heart,
Six Days in Utopia,
Jack Reacher,
The Judge,

Wild Horses,
Windows


Robert Duval also played in over 70 TV show. His most notable role was Gus McCall in Lonesome Dove. He has played in over a hundred plays on and off Broadway and community theaters.

Some of the remarkable things about Duval is he has never been interested in being a celerity. His great love in life is acting. He says for every role he accepted he has turn down 3. Of all roles he has played, Stalin, Dwight Eisenhower, military men, drunken husbands, cops, politicians, homeless men, preachers, gunman, actors, westerners, etc. his preference is that of a westerner. He has lived on a 300 acre horse farm in Virginia for over 40 years and commutes to Hollywood or wherever the work is. In Tender Mercies for which he won an Academy Award, he plays an alcoholic country and western singer in which he wrote most his songs and preformed them. In Lonesome Dove he did his own riding as he does in most westerns. One director said when there is a scene with Duval, there is almost always an audience. Other cast members want to see how he plays his role as it's often quite different than the script.

Over his life time he has been nominated for 65 major awards and has won 59 including Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFA's, and Critics Choice Movie Awards.
 
Last edited:
Great actor, but definitely always needed reigning in by his director. He had a tendency to overact. His great performances (of which there are many) occurred when he was more under control.
 
I remember reading about him marrying some Latina half his age, and he spent a lot of time in her home country, it was somewhere in South America. He and Gene Hackman are about the same age, and both are alive and well. Both are also amazing actors. His performance in Lonesome Dove was so authentic that his performance will live on forever, as will that series. I believe he once said it was his favorite role.
 
Funny, I remember him for the bit parts he played like the the spook neighbor in TKMB and a taxi driver in Bullitt and the former Marine in the Reacher movie.
 
One of my favorites.
Trivia.... he had a tiny cameo in the movie "Slingblade"
What role did he play?
He played Karl's father
 
The following are what I have seen of his films. The dark colored films are my favorite.

Phenomenon
Sling Blade
Gone In 60 Seconds
John Q

Secondhand Lions

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly
 
Always loved watching him in The Great Santini

Great Actor
Robert Duval's father was a retired rear admiral in the Navy. Robert was raised in Annapolis, MD. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps but Robert had other ideas so they were often at odds. I've always wondered whether this movie, The Great Santini was influenced by Robert's relationship with his father.
 
An actor's actor is a person whose recognized by other actors for his or her acting ability. These people are rarely megastars. One such actor would be Robert Duval. If you're under 30, you may not have heard of him but you have surely heard of movies he has made. Here is short list of the over 150 films he has made:
To Kill a Mocking Bird,
The Godfather,
Bullet,
True Grit,
M*A*S*H,
Joe Kidd,
The Conversation,
The Godfather II,
The Eagle Has Landed,
The Seven Percent Solution,
Network,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Apocalypse Now,
The Great Santini,
True Confessions,
Tender Mercies,
The Stone Boy,
The Natural,
Let's Get Harry,
Colors,
Days of Thunder,
The Handmaid's Tail,
Rambling Rose,
Newsies,
Falling Down,
Geronimo, An American Legend,
The Paper,
Something to Talk About,
The Scarlet Letter,
Sling Blade,
A Family Thing,
Phenomenon,
The Apostle,
The Gingerbread Man,
A Civil Action,
Gone in 60 Seconds,
A Shot at Glory,
John Q,
Gods and Generals,
Secondhand Lions,
Open Range,
Thank You for Smoking,
Crazy Heart,
Six Days in Utopia,
Jack Reacher,
The Judge,

Wild Horses,
Windows


Robert Duval also played in over 70 TV show. His most notable role was Gus McCall in Lonesome Dove. He has played in over a hundred plays on and off Broadway and community theaters.

Some of the remarkable things about Duval is he has never been interested in being a celerity. His great love in life is acting. He says for every role he accepted he has turn down 3. Of all roles he has played, Stalin, Dwight Eisenhower, military men, drunken husbands, cops, politicians, homeless men, preachers, gunman, actors, westerners, etc. his preference is that of a westerner. He has lived on a 300 acre horse farm in Virginia for over 40 years and commutes to Hollywood or wherever the work is. In Tender Mercies for which he won an Academy Award, he plays an alcoholic country and western singer in which he wrote most his songs and preformed them. In Lonesome Dove he did his own riding as he does in most westerns. One director said when there is a scene with Duval, there is almost always an audience. Other cast members want to see how he plays his role as it's often quite different than the script.

Over his life time he has been nominated for 65 major awards and has won 59 including Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFA's, and Critics Choice Movie Awards.

Love all Duval's work.

The Great Santini is by Pat Conroy set at the Marine Air Station at Laurel Bay, Paris Island. It's a composite of those Marine Air Corp pilots...like my dear uncle.. And, it is stunning in it character portrayal.
 
Last edited:
An actor's actor is a person whose recognized by other actors for his or her acting ability. These people are rarely megastars. One such actor would be Robert Duval. If you're under 30, you may not have heard of him but you have surely heard of movies he has made. Here is short list of the over 150 films he has made:
To Kill a Mocking Bird,
The Godfather,
Bullet,
True Grit,
M*A*S*H,
Joe Kidd,
The Conversation,
The Godfather II,
The Eagle Has Landed,
The Seven Percent Solution,
Network,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Apocalypse Now,
The Great Santini,
True Confessions,
Tender Mercies,
The Stone Boy,
The Natural,
Let's Get Harry,
Colors,
Days of Thunder,
The Handmaid's Tail,
Rambling Rose,
Newsies,
Falling Down,
Geronimo, An American Legend,
The Paper,
Something to Talk About,
The Scarlet Letter,
Sling Blade,
A Family Thing,
Phenomenon,
The Apostle,
The Gingerbread Man,
A Civil Action,
Gone in 60 Seconds,
A Shot at Glory,
John Q,
Gods and Generals,
Secondhand Lions,
Open Range,
Thank You for Smoking,
Crazy Heart,
Six Days in Utopia,
Jack Reacher,
The Judge,

Wild Horses,
Windows


Robert Duval also played in over 70 TV show. His most notable role was Gus McCall in Lonesome Dove. He has played in over a hundred plays on and off Broadway and community theaters.

Some of the remarkable things about Duval is he has never been interested in being a celerity. His great love in life is acting. He says for every role he accepted he has turn down 3. Of all roles he has played, Stalin, Dwight Eisenhower, military men, drunken husbands, cops, politicians, homeless men, preachers, gunman, actors, westerners, etc. his preference is that of a westerner. He has lived on a 300 acre horse farm in Virginia for over 40 years and commutes to Hollywood or wherever the work is. In Tender Mercies for which he won an Academy Award, he plays an alcoholic country and western singer in which he wrote most his songs and preformed them. In Lonesome Dove he did his own riding as he does in most westerns. One director said when there is a scene with Duval, there is almost always an audience. Other cast members want to see how he plays his role as it's often quite different than the script.

Over his life time he has been nominated for 65 major awards and has won 59 including Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFA's, and Critics Choice Movie Awards.
Of all his movies, his greatest line was. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning".
 
The following are what I have seen of his films. The dark colored films are my favorite.

Phenomenon
Sling Blade
Gone In 60 Seconds
John Q

Secondhand Lions

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly
To me there are 3 movies in which Duvall gave standout performances.

The first is To Kill a Mockingbird which was his breakout roll as Boo Radley.


Duvall had one line in this scene but during editing Robert Mulligan the director cut it saying, Duvall's expression says it all.

The second is little known movie titled the The Apostle in which he stared, wrote and directed. Farrah Fawcette and Billy Boy Thornton co-starred. It is the story a Pentecostal Preacher with a checkered past. It is filmed on location in Southwest Louisiana. Duval was nominated for an academy award for Best Actor and the film won several awards.


The Third is Tender Mercies. It's about a recovering alcoholic country and western singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas. The screen play is written by Horton Foote and Duvall wrote and sang most of his songs.

It contains one of Duvall's most understated performances. It's mostly done with his eyes. The actor who shouted, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" here plays a character who wants to be rid of shouting. The film itself never shouts. Its title evokes its mood, although this is not a story about happiness. "I don't trust happiness. I never did, I never will," Mac Sledge tells Rosa Lee, in a scene framed entirely in a medium-long shot that possibly won him the Oscar.
 
Last edited:
Love all Duval's work.

The Great Santini is by Pat Conroy set at the Marine Air Station at Laurel Bay, Paris Island. It's a composite of those Marine Air Corp pilots...like my dear uncle.. And, it is stunning in it character portrayal.
Actually, The Great Santini was based on Conroy‘s father and his time growing up the son of a Marine pilot
His father got a kick out of the attention
 
Actually, The Great Santini was based on Conroy‘s father and his time growing up the son of a Marine pilot
His father got a kick out of the attention

I know. My uncle was the same peer group. It was uncanny how Conroy captured their personalities.
 

Forum List

Back
Top