I’ll keep on acting ’til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven’t lost my enthusiasm yet!
–Robert Duvall
I’ve been thinking about Robert Duvall lately. First, I saw the remake of True Grit, a film the actor made with John Wayne in 1969. He was Ned Pepper, the bad guy fighting the Duke’s marshal Roster Cogburn, and he’s particularly memorable in one of the film’s final scenes in which he and three other creeps face off against Wayne in an open field, all on horseback. After a threat from Wayne’s Cogburn, Duvall’s Pepper rejoins with “I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!” Cogburn’s response? “Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch!,” he shouts, putting firearms in hands and reins in mouth.
(In the Coen Brothers’ new version, Jeff Bridges plays a marble-mouthed Cogburn and Barry Pepper, who bears more than passing facial resemblance to Duvall, is the ornery Ned Pepper.)
Then I read that Robert Duvall has, in fact, just turned 80 years young. Amazing. The man is as active as ever, not only acting in films, but producing independent movies as well.
Over the last year, Duvall, a San Diego native who was born into a military family, has been in the limelight for both acting and producing. He’s an acting Oscar contender again for Get Low, a small film he helped produce, in which he plays a hermit who has lived in the woods for 40 years, but suddenly appears to stage his own funeral—while he is still alive. It’s a performance in typical Duvall style; low-keyed but commanding, free of any histrionics. In 2009, Duvall scored with another film he produced: Crazy Heart, a movie that snagged an Academy Award for Jeff Bridges, playing a down-and-out country singer seeking redemption. Duvall appeared as Bridges’ old crony; the film bore quite a bit of similarity with 1983’s Tender Mercies, which showcased Duvall’s own Best Actor Oscar-winning turn as C&W performer Mac Sledge.
I just looked up Duvall’s credits and they are truly overwhelming. Of course, the actor will always be remembered as the gung-ho Lt. Col. Kilgore, who loved the “smell of napalm in the morning” in Francis Coppola’s 1979 Apocalypse Now!, or as the quietly efficient German-Irish Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen in Coppola’s first two Godfather movies.
But one tends to forget all the famous people the actor has brought to life: Jesse James in Philip Kaufman’s The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid; Dwight D. Eisenhower, Josef Stalin and Adolf Eichmann in TV and cable movies; and Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals. Then there were the fictional characters that could as well have been real, thanks to Duvall’s vivid, lived-in performances: Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, the original Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, a TV production president in Network, hard-ass marine pilot “Bull” Meechum in The Great Santini, a persuasive sports reporter in The Natural, veteran L.A. cops in Colors and Falling Down, a crusty tabloid editor in The Paper and “Sunny” Dewey, a Southern preacher whose own sins get in the way of what he sermonizes about in The Apostle, which Duvall also directed. There’s also Duvall’s tour-de-force in the mini-series Lonesome Dove, in which he and Tommy Lee Jones are former Texas Rangers who encounter all sorts of colorful characters and treacherous situations while heading a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. Duvall has called it is the favorite of all of his roles since it aired in February of 1989.
Of course, Duvall is not above taking on films that seem to be larks, high-paying Hollywood supporting assignments, no doubt to help finance his own projects or smaller efforts he believes in for which he works for a smaller salary. But even in Gone in 60 Seconds, Days of Thunder, Deep Impact, The 6th Day and Four Christmases, the actor brings a sense of dignity and stalwart professionalism to the goofiness—intentional or not—that surrounds him.
Duvall, a tango enthusiast who has settled down with Argentinian dancer Luciana Pedraza, his co-star in 2002’s Assassination Tango, continues to keep his schedule busy. He recently filmed a prominent role in Seven Days to Utopia, an inspirational gold tale shot on a low budget in Texas. He’s also actively developing other small scale projects to his liking.
I had the opportunity to meet Duvall once, years ago in Las Vegas. He was attending a convention, promoting the video debut of The Apostle. Releasing company Universal threw him a party at a country club, and I eventually worked my way to the actor. I remember that it was at the time the American Film Institute came out with their list of the greatest films ever made. Duvall’s name made the list more than any other actor. I introduced myself and shook his hand. He told me the suits at the party couldn’t name the movies. “Somebody mentioned The Deer Hunter,” he smiled. “I wasn’t even in that one!”
I told him I thought I knew the six films that were on the list and proceeded to run through them: The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather Part II, To Kill a Mockingbird, M*A*S*H and Network.
Duvall nodded in affirmation.
“You know your stuff, sir,” he said.
“Just a fan, sir,” I replied. “Just a fan.”