American actor, director, and producer Robert Duvall has had an extensive career in film and television since he first appeared in an episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1959. His television work during the 1960s includes Route 66 (1961), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The F.B.I. (1965–1969), and The Mod Squad (1969). He was then cast as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Ike . In 1989, he played Augustus "Gus" McCrae alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the epic Western adventure television miniseries Lonesome Dove . The role earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. [1] Three years later, he portrayed Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin in the television film Stalin (1992), which earned him another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Film. [2]
Duvall's first film role was as Boo Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck. His other roles in the 1960s included Bullitt with Steve McQueen (1968) and True Grit with John Wayne (1969). In the 1970s, he played Major Frank Burns in M*A*S*H (1970), Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), Bull Meechum in The Great Santini (1979) and as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979).
In 1983, Duvall was cast as Mac Sledge in the drama film Tender Mercies , which earned him an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actor. [3] [4] He went on to co-star in the films The Natural with Robert Redford (1984), Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise (1990), as Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies with Christian Bale (1992), Falling Down with Michael Douglas (1993), Something to Talk About with Julia Roberts (1995), Sling Blade with Billy Bob Thornton (1996), A Family Thing with James Earl Jones (1996), Phenomenon with John Travolta (1996), and Deep Impact with Téa Leoni (1998). For his role in the 1998 film A Civil Action again with Travolta, he won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. [5]
In the 2000s, Duvall had notable roles in the films Gone in 60 Seconds opposite Nicolas Cage (2000), Secondhand Lions co-starring with Michael Caine (2003), Open Range co-starring with Kevin Costner (2003) and in the comedy film Four Christmases opposite Vince Vaughn (2008). He starred in and executive produced the 2006 Western television miniseries, Broken Trail . For that, he won two Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie and the other for Outstanding Miniseries which he shared with the other producers. [6] [7] In 2012, he reunited with Tom Cruise after 22 years in the action thriller film Jack Reacher where he played the character Cash. In 2014, he co-starred with Robert Downey Jr. in the legal drama film The Judge where he played Judge Joseph Palmer, the father of Downey's character.
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1959 | Armstrong Circle Theatre | Berks | Season 10 Episode 2: "Jailbreak" | [99] |
1960 | Tony Newman | Season 10 Episode 16: "Positive Identification" | [100] | |
1961 | The Defenders | Al Rogart | Season 1 Episode 12: "Perjury" | [101] |
Shannon | Joey Nolan | Season 1 Episode 10: "Big Fish" | [102] | |
Cain's Hundred | Tom Nugent | Season 1 Episode 6: "King of the Mountain" | [103] | |
Route 66 | Roman | Season 1 Episode 25: "The Newborn" | [104] | |
Arnie | Season 2 Episode 4: "Birdcage on My Foot" | [104] | ||
Naked City | Lewis Nunda | Season 2 Episode 13: "A Hole in the City" | [104] | |
1962 | L. Francis Childe | Season 3 Episode 23: "The One Marked Hot Gives Cold" | [104] | |
Johnny Meigs | Season 4 Episode 6: "Five Cranks for Winter... Ten Cranks for Spring" | [104] | ||
Barney Sonners | Season 4 Episode 8: "Torment Him Much and Hold Him Long" | [104] | ||
Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Bart Conway | Season 7 Episode 14: "Bad Actor" | [105] | |
1963 | The Defenders | Luke Jackson | Season 2 Episode 24: "Metamorphosis" | [106] |
Route 66 | Lee Winters | Season 3 Episode 18: "Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain" | [104] | |
The Untouchables | Eddie Moon | Season 4 Episode 17: "Blues for a Gone Goose" | [107] | |
The Twilight Zone | Charley Parkes | Season 4 Episode 8: "Miniature" | [108] | |
The Virginian | Johnny Keel | Season 1 Episode 24: "Golden Door" | [109] | |
Stoney Burke | Joby Pierce | Season 1 Episode 23: "Joby" | [110] | |
Arrest and Trial | Morton Ware | Season 1 Episode 10: "Quality of Justice" | [111] | |
The Fugitive | Eric Christian | Season 1 Episode 4: "Never Wave Goodbye: Part 1" | [104] [112] | |
Season 1 Episode 5: "Never Wave Goodbye: Part 2" | [104] [113] | |||
1964 | Kraft Suspense Theatre | Harvey Farnsworth | Season 1 Episode 22: "Portrait of an Unknown Man" | [114] |
The Outer Limits | Louis Mace | Season 1 Episode 31: "The Chameleon" | [115] [116] | |
Adam Ballard | Season 2 Episode 10: "The Inheritors: Part I" | [117] [118] | ||
Season 2 Episode 11: "The Inheritors: Part II" | [119] [120] | |||
1965 | The Defenders | Bill Andrews | Season 4 Episode 30: "Only a Child" | [121] |
The Fugitive | Leslie Sessions | Season 2 Episode 16: "Brass Ring" | [104] [122] | |
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Zar | Season 1 Episode 20: "The Invaders" | [123] | |
Combat! | Karl | Season 3 Episode 16: "The Enemy" | [104] | |
The F.B.I. | Joseph Maurice Walker | Season 1 Episode 10: "The Giant Killer" | [124] [125] | |
1966 | Johnny Albin | Season 2 Episode 5: "The Scourge" | [126] [127] | |
Combat! | Peter Halsman | Season 5 Episode 14: "Cry for Help" | [104] | |
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Frank Reeser | Season 3 Episode 15: "Guilty or Not Guilty" | [128] | |
Hawk | Dick Olmstead | Season 1 Episode 6: "Theory of the Innocent Bystander" | [129] | |
Felony Squad | Allie Froelich | Season 1 Episode 8: "Death of a Dream" | [130] | |
Shane | Tom Gary | Season 1 Episode 9: "Poor Tom's A-Cold" | [131] | |
T.H.E. Cat | Scorpio | Season 1 Episode 9: "Crossing at Destino Bay" | [132] | |
Fame Is the Name of the Game | Eddie Franchot | Television film | [133] | |
1967 | Combat! | Michel | Season 5 Episode 25: "The Partisan" | [104] |
T.H.E. Cat | Laurent | Season 1 Episode 24: "The Long Chase" | [134] | |
The F.B.I. | Ernie Milden | Season 2 Episode 25: "The Executioners: Part 1" | [135] [136] | |
The Time Tunnel | Raoul Nimon | Season 1 Episode 24: "Chase Through Time" | [137] | |
Cimarron Strip | Joe Wyman | Season 1 Episode 8: "The Roarer" | [138] | |
The Wild Wild West | Dr. Horace Humphries | Season 3 Episode 10: "The Night of the Falcon" | [139] | |
1968 | The F.B.I. | Joseph Troy | Season 4 Episode 9: "The Harvest" | [140] [141] |
CBS Playhouse | Dr. Margolin | Season 2 Episode 1: "The People Next Door" | [142] | |
Run for Your Life | Richard Fletcher | Season 3 Episode 19: "Killing Scene" | [143] | |
Judd, for the Defense | Raymond Cane | Season 1 Episode 24: "Square House" | [144] | |
Flesh and Blood | Howard | Television film | [145] | |
1969 | The F.B.I. | Gerald Wilson | Season 5 Episode 2: "Nightmare Road" | [146] [147] |
The Mod Squad | Matt Jenkins | Season 1 Episode 23: "Keep the Faith, Baby" | [148] | |
1979 | Ike | General Dwight D. Eisenhower | Television miniseries; aka Ike: The War Years | [149] |
1983 | The Terry Fox Story | Bill Vigars | Television film | [150] |
1989 | Lonesome Dove | Augustus "Gus" McCrae | Miniseries | [151] |
1992 | Stalin | Joseph Stalin | Television film | [152] |
1996 | The Man Who Captured Eichmann | Adolf Eichmann | [153] | |
1998 | Saturday Night Live | Various | Season 23 Episode 14: "Garth Brooks" | [154] |
2005 | American Experience | Narrator | Season 17 Episode 11: "Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken" | [155] |
2006 | Broken Trail | Prentice Ritter | Miniseries; also executive producer | [156] [6] |
2012 | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Russian General | Television film; uncredited cameo | [157] |
Year | Title | Role | Playwright | Venue | Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1966 | Wait Until Dark | Harry Roat Jr. | Frederick Knott | Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway | [158] |
1977 | American Buffalo | Walter Cole | David Mamet | Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway | [159] |
Miss Congeniality is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by Donald Petrie, written by Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford, and Caryn Lucas, and produced by and starring Sandra Bullock as Gracie Hart, a tomboy agent who is asked by the FBI to go undercover as a contestant when a terrorist threatens to bomb the Miss United States pageant. Michael Caine, Benjamin Bratt, Candice Bergen, William Shatner, and Ernie Hudson star in supporting roles.
Above the Law, also known as Nico: Above the Law, or simply Nico, is a 1988 American crime action thriller film co-written, co-produced and directed by Andrew Davis. It marked the film debut of Steven Seagal, who also produced the film alongside Davis, and stars Seagal alongside Pam Grier, Sharon Stone, Ron Dean and Henry Silva. Seagal plays Nico Toscani, an ex-CIA agent, an Aikido specialist and a Chicago policeman who discovers a conspiracy upon investigating the mysterious shipment of military explosives seized from a narcotics dealer.
The Great Santini is a 1979 American drama film written and directed by Lewis John Carlino. It is based on the 1976 novel by Pat Conroy. The film stars Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, and Michael O'Keefe.
The Apostle is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Robert Duvall, who stars in the title role. John Beasley, Farrah Fawcett, Walton Goggins, Billy Bob Thornton, June Carter Cash, Miranda Richardson, and Billy Joe Shaver also appear. It was filmed on location in and around Saint Martinville and Des Allemands, Louisiana with some establishing shots done in the Dallas, Texas area. The majority of the film was shot in the Louisiana areas of Sunset and Lafayette.
Eraser is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, and Robert Pastorelli. The film tells the story of a U.S. Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC.
Phenomenon is a 1996 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Gerald Di Pego, in which an amiable, small-town everyman is inexplicably transformed into a genius with telekinetic powers. It stars John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, and Jeffrey DeMunn. The original music score was composed by Thomas Newman.
Gothika is a 2003 American horror film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, written by Sebastian Gutierrez, co-produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, and starring Halle Berry with Robert Downey Jr., Penélope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, and Bernard Hill. The film follows a psychiatrist who finds herself incarcerated in the penitentiary in which she works, accused of brutally murdering her husband.
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film Léolo.
Analyze This is a 1999 American crime comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. The plot follows a crisis-stricken mafioso who solicits the assistance of a reluctant psychiatrist.
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Betrayed is a 1988 American spy thriller film directed by Costa-Gavras, written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Debra Winger and Tom Berenger. The plot is roughly based upon the terrorist activities of American neo-Nazi and white supremacist Robert Mathews and his group The Order.
The Rain People is a 1969 American road drama film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Shirley Knight, James Caan and Robert Duvall. The film centers on a middle-class housewife (Knight), who runs away from her husband after learning she is pregnant.
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway is a 1993 American romantic drama film written by Steve Conrad and directed by Randa Haines, starring Richard Harris, Robert Duvall, Sandra Bullock, Shirley MacLaine, and Piper Laurie. The film is about two elderly men in Florida who form a friendship and the romantic relationships they have with the women in their respective lives. Wrestling Ernest Hemingway garnered mixed reviews from critics, praising the performances but criticized the overly melodramatic and sentimental direction of the plot. It was also a box-office bomb, grossing $278,720 against a $20 million budget.
The Stars Fell on Henrietta is a 1995 American drama film from Warner Bros., directed by James Keach and produced by Clint Eastwood. The film is based on a short story written by Winifred Sanford titled "Luck". The script for the film was penned by Philip Railsback, who is Sanford's grandson.
American actor and producer Morgan Freeman has had a prolific career on film, television and on the stage. His film debut was as an uncredited character in the Sidney Lumet–directed drama The Pawnbroker in 1964. Freeman also made his stage debut in the same year by appearing in the musical Hello, Dolly! He followed this with further stage appearances in The Niggerlovers (1967), The Dozens (1969), Exhibition (1969), and the musical Purlie (1970–1971). He played various characters on the children's television series The Electric Company (1971–1977). Freeman subsequently appeared in the films Teachers in 1984, and Marie in 1985 before making his breakthrough with 1987's Street Smart. His role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later he appeared in war film Glory (1989), and starred as Hoke Coleburn in the comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Freeman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in the latter and also earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
American actor Robert Downey Jr. made his acting debut in 1970's Pound, directed by his father Robert Downey Sr., at the age of five. In the 1980s, Downey was considered a member of the Brat Pack after appearing in the films Weird Science with Anthony Michael Hall (1985), Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield (1986), Less than Zero with Andrew McCarthy (1987), and Johnny Be Good again with Hall (1988). Downey also starred in the films True Believer (1989) and Chances Are (1989), and was a regular cast member on the late-night variety show Saturday Night Live in 1985.
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) directed thirteen feature films and three short documentaries over the course of his career. His work as a director, spanning diverse genres, is regarded as highly influential.
Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) was an American actor who appeared in over 110 films and television series over the course of his career. He is ranked 23rd on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 greatest American screen legends of all time. His first credited named role was as Quinn in the 1943 western Border Patrol. That same year he appeared in the films Follow the Band, Beyond the Last Frontier, Cry 'Havoc' and Gung Ho! as well as several Hopalong Cassidy films including Colt Comrades, Bar 20, False Colors, and Riders of the Deadline. In 1944, he starred in the western Nevada as Jim "Nevada" Lacy, and a year later in the film West of the Pecos as Pecos Smith. During the 1940s, he was also cast in the film noirs Undercurrent (1946), Crossfire (1947), Out of the Past (1947) and The Big Steal (1949). Mitchum was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a world-weary soldier in the 1945 film The Story of G.I. Joe, which received critical acclaim and was a commercial success.