ACTING LEGEND

Oscar Winning Star of ‘The Godfather’ Dead at 95

The star died on his ranch in Virginia, his wife says.

Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, who starred in The Godfather and Tender Mercies, has died at 95, his wife announced Monday.

“Yesterday, we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time,” his wife, Luciana, wrote on Facebook. “Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.”

She continued, “To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented.

“In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all. Thank you for the years of support you showed Bob and for giving us this time and privacy to celebrate the memories he leaves behind.”

A cause of death was not immediately released. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Duvall lived on a ranch in Virginia.

The self-described “Navy brat,” who grew up mostly in Annapolis, Maryland, won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as a former country music star in the 1983 classic Tender Mercies. That role came a decade after he portrayed the trusted family lawyer Tom Hagen in The Godfather.

In total, Duvall was nominated for seven Academy Awards—the most recent coming in 2015 for his role in The Judge. His first role was playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962.

By the mid-1970s, Duvall was a full-blown star.

People magazine described him in 1977 as “Hollywood’s No. 1, No. 2 lead.” In that same magazine article, the legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola praised Duvall as “one of the four or five best actors in the world.”

One of Duvall’s signature lines came in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, in which he famously said, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

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Later in his career, Duvall portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals in 2003. That role especially resonated with the star, as his mom was a relative of the real-life Confederate general from Virginia.

Duvall was married four times but does not have any children. He and the Argentina-born Luciana Pedraza, 54, were wedded in 2005. Together, they ran The Robert Duvall Children’s Fund.

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Josh FialloBreaking News Reporter

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