Living Legends: ROBERT DUVALL
ACTOR AND DIRECTOR, THE PLAINS
Published
Perhaps most famous as Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen in the first two “Godfather” films, Duvall, 91, is still making movies, 60 years after he first hit the silver screen as Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Since the 1990s, Duvall has lived on a 360-acre farm in Fauquier County, and he formerly co-owned the Rail Stop Restaurant in The Plains.
An Oscar winner for his portrayal of country singer Mac Sledge in 1983’s “Tender Mercies,” Duvall started his acting career in 1952 in summer stock plays. In the 1970s, he hit his stride in movies, originating the role of Maj. Frank Burns in Robert Altman’s 1970 film “M*A*S*H” and earning an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 1972’s “The Godfather,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In 1989, Duvall played Texas Ranger Gus McCrae in the “Lonesome Dove” miniseries, and in 1997, he wrote, directed and starred in “The Apostle,” receiving another Oscar nod.
In Virginia, Duvall hosted a 2012 fundraising event for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and in 2009, he spoke in favor of preserving land in Orange County near the Wilderness Battlefield, opposing a planned Walmart.
