Robert Duvall, who played the smooth mafia lawyer also known as a consiglieri in “The Godfather” has died at the age of 95.
Duvall was also known for his roles in the baseball movie starring Robert Redford and Gone in Sixty Seconds starring Nicholas Cage.
Death
His death on Sunday was confirmed by his wife, Luciana Pedraza Duvall.
“Yesterday, we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home,” she wrote.
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall said. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court.”
Luciana asked for privacy for the family as they celebrate his memories.
ALSO READ: James Earl Jones: Voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa dies at 93
Oscar
Duvall won his Academy Award in 1983 for his role as a washed-up country singer in “Tender Mercies”.
He won an Oscar for Best Actor and was nominated six other times. Over his six-decade-long career, he shone in both lead and supporting roles and eventually became a director. He kept acting in his 90s.
The Godfather
His most memorable roles included the soft-spoken, loyal mob consigliere Tom Hagen in the first two instalments of “The Godfather” and the maniacal Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now”.
Cinema giant Francis Ford Coppola – who directed Duvall in “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” – called his loss “a blow”.
“Such a great actor and such an essential part of American Zoetrope from its beginning,” Coppola said in a statement on Instagram.
Al Pacino
Fellow “Godfather Part II” stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino also paid tribute to Duvall on Monday.
Pacino wrote in a statement shared with Variety, “It was an honour to have worked with Robert Duvall.
“He was a born actor, as they say – his connection with it, his understanding, and his phenomenal gift will always be remembered. I will miss him.”
Famous line
As Colonel Kilgore, Duvall earned an Oscar nomination and became a bona fide star after years playing lesser roles, in a performance where he utters what is now one of cinema’s most famous lines.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” his war-loving character – bare-chested, cocky and sporting a big black cowboy hat – muses as low-flying US warplanes bomb a beachfront tree line where he wants to go surfing.
ALSO READ: Val Kilmer, star of ‘Batman Forever’ and ‘Top Gun’, dies aged 65
About the Author
