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Actor,
director, producer, screenwriter. Born January 5, 1931,
in San Diego, California. A highly acclaimed character actor,
Duvall first studied acting at Principia College in Illinois.
After his graduation in 1955, he served a two-year tour
of duty in the Korean War before moving to New York City,
where he honed his formidable acting ability at the Neighborhood
Playhouse. Sharing an apartment with fellow aspiring actor
Dustin Hoffman, the pair developed their famed versatility
under the tutelage of method acting guru Sanford Meisner.
Performing often on the stage during this period, Duvall’s
first commended performance was that of a longshoreman on
Broadway in Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge in 1957.
His
first big film break came when he was cast to play Arthur
‘Boo’ Radley in the Academy Award-winning 1963
film, To Kill a Mockingbird. Although, he had no lines,
and only a few seconds of film-time, the story line revolved
around his character and his brief performance left a lasting
impression. In 1969, after appearing in several roles in
film and television, he won his first starring movie role
in True Grit as outlaw Ned Pepper, the antagonist to John
Wayne’s Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn. In 1970,
he appeared in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, a satire about
the war he actually participated in, and in 1972, delivered
an acclaimed performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s
The Godfather. For his portrayal of Tom Hagen, the adopted
son of the Corleone family, he was honored with his first
Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. In
1974, he revisited the role in The Godfather: Part II, and
in 1979, teamed up Coppola again for Apocalypse Now, for
which he was awarded another Best Supporting Actor nomination
for his forceful rendering of Colonel Kilgour, one of his
most famous roles.
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