Robert Duvall (1931-2026)

Robert Duvall is one of those actors whose career was longer than you think at first blush.  Watching The Twilight Zone marathon this past New Year's Eve, as I do every year, I was struck by this as I got to the episode "Miniature."  The episode is not famous in the way "To Serve Man" or "Eye of the Beholder" are, and likely only known to the most devoted of Twilight Zone aficionados because for parts of its syndication it wasn't even available (if you ever want to get into a strange Wikipedia wormhole, look up the history of The Twilight Zone in syndication), but it is notable because it starred future Oscar winner Robert Duvall, who passed away yesterday.

I bring this up because it's oftentimes forgotten just how long Robert Duvall's career has been.  Duvall, like many actors of his generation, got his start in stage (and before that, the military), but his screen work begins earlier.  Watch old reruns of not just The Twilight Zone, but Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, or even The Mod Squad, and Duvall will pop up in an episode or two.  That was the thing about Duvall-he's the kind of actor who switched seamlessly from lead roles, including Oscar-nominated turns in stuff like Tender Mercies, The Great Santini, & The Apostle, to being in supporting parts where he added depth like Apocalypse Now, A Civil Action, & Network.  And given he made his screen debut as the memorable Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, his costars numbered Gregory Peck, Steve McQueen, John Wayne, & Burt Lancaster...but also Colin Farrell, Reese Witherspoon, Christian Bale, & Adam Sandler.  He served, like many actors of his New Hollywood ilk (he was once roommates with Gene Hackman & James Caan, who preceded him in death), as a bridge between Classical Hollywood and a generation of movie stars dwarfed by special effects, his sturdy, lasting presence a continual reminder that generational talent will always find a way of pushing itself forward.

For me, and for many, though, he will perpetually be Tom Hagen.  It seems glib to reduce a filmography as diverse as Duvall's down to one role, but if you do...it's gotta be the sturdy, steady-handed Tom at the center of the storm of The Godfather series.  Watch it again (because it's always a good time to watch The Godfather again), and notice it from Tom's perspective.  The quiet resolve in Tom's character, a man without a family, trying to prove to his surrogate brothers that he belongs (even if he knows on some level he never truly will).  Duvall got his first Oscar nomination for this performance, and man is it deserved-it's a testament to how much he adds to the series that even Francis Ford Coppola admitted that The Godfather, Part III was a lesser movie without Duvall present.  In recent years we've lost Duvall, Caan, and Diane Keaton from the storied cast of the defining film of New Hollywood, adding yet another melancholy air to a film upon which these actors already had richly bestowed so much gravitas already.