Robert Duvall has died at 95. He played Tom Hagen in The Godfather, Part II, and famously pointed out that “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns” (worth remembering before considering marriage; no lawyer can sue you for divorce if you aren’t dumb enough to agree to a marriage!)
And, of course, every Robinson R44 pilot who ever thought about applying a “Death From Above” sticker to the nose of the four-seater will remember Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.
I’ll remember Duvall in the lesser-known The Apostle (1997), which he also directed (don’t miss the soundtrack!). 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
From the NYT:
Robert Duvall, who drew from a seemingly bottomless reservoir of acting craftsmanship to transform himself into a business-focused Mafia lawyer, a faded country singer, a cynical police detective, a bullying Marine pilot, a surfing-obsessed Vietnam commander, a mysterious Southern recluse and scores of other film, stage and television characters, died on Sunday. He was 95.
Throughout his career, Mr. Duvall tried to keep Hollywood at arm’s length. He preferred living elsewhere — for many years on the Northern Virginia ranch with his fourth wife, the former Luciana Pedraza, an Argentine woman 41 years his junior. They met in the 1990s in Buenos Aires, which he visited often after developing a passion for the tango.
He was a Hollywood outlier on another front: politics. He was an ardent conservative, strongly supporting Republican presidential candidates, in a film world dominated by political liberals.
From early on, Mr. Duvall enjoyed the life of a supporting actor. “Somebody once said that the best life in the world is the life of a second leading man,” Mr. Duvall told The Times. “You travel, you get a per diem, and you’ve probably got a better part anyway. And you don’t have the weight of the entire movie on your shoulders.”
He was always great in the smaller roles (which were not really, at least the way he played them). My fav: Falling Down, which is lighter darker fare, especially if you like anti-hero Michael Douglas’ character. Duvall plays a dyed-in-the-wool cop: https://youtu.be/-UZY16_K3Pw
Who can forget this classic:
You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
I was just thinking about Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now (some AI thing Phil was using reminded me of him):
I mean, what are they going to say, man, when he’s
gone, huh? Because he dies, when it dies, man, when it
dies, he dies. What are they going to say about him? What, are
they going to say, he was a kind man, he was a wise man, he had
plans, he had wisdom? Bullsh-t, man!
I can’t remember how many times I’ve quoted these, both from great actors. I’d forgotten about The Great Santini, another great role for Duvall.
> if you aren’t dumb enough to agree to a marriage
My in-laws say my wife was the dumb one in agreeing to marry me. (Most of the girls I dated used me to piss off their parents.) I would have been dumb if I hadn’t married my wife of 25 years, she was “The One” for me. (As in, she was the one with the money, so I had nothing to lose.)
RIP Mr. Duvall
And Lonesome Dove was another great one I had forgotten.
I think the hardest part of growing old has been seeing people like Duvall die (and more so personal friends, of course). And they just aren’t making them like that anymore. Modern actors/actresses might as well be AI generated, with a few exceptions. Ghosting is the most absurd development ever, even older people have been adopting it, prematurely offing people because they are too busy curating their social media or something. Even the most absurd, awful characters like Lt. Colonel Kilgore seem more human than whatever species we have turned into today.
Since this is Black History Month, let us not forget Rev. Jackson. RIP sir. You only had one memorable utterance. It was offensive, possibly even to Queers for Palestine, so I won’t repeat it. You practically ensured the emergence of Rush Limbaugh, “Reverend” Jackson. Thank you for that.
> Even the most absurd, awful characters like Lt. Colonel Kilgore seem more human than whatever species we have turned into today.
Ahem, as I was saying (trans-thong trigger warning):
https://nypost.com/2026/02/16/us-news/robert-dorgan-idd-as-rhode-island-hockey-shooter/
Isn’t Rhode Island positively charming?
I was going to wait until Knuth died to read TAoCP in it’s entirety, but I think I’m going to start today after witnessing that article. I was watching a lecture on compilers yesterday and none of the modern students even knew who Knuth was.
> I was watching a lecture on compilers yesterday and none of the modern students even knew who Knuth was.
That is terrible.
So many wonderful roles, I especially loves his role against Clint Eastwood in “Joe Kidd”
> worth remembering before considering marriage; no lawyer can sue you for divorce if you aren’t dumb enough to agree to a marriage!)
LOL! Juxtapose with:
> Northern Virginia ranch with his fourth wife, the former Luciana Pedraza, an **Argentine** woman 41 years his junior.
I wonder if there’s a connection between:
> Somebody once said that the best life in the world is the life of a second leading man,”
And:
Second price auction
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-mathematics-of-honesty-underlies-these-auctions/