Robert Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California, but much of his childhood was spent in Annapolis, Maryland, where his father was stationed at the United States Naval Academy as a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.

Duvall was originally expected to follow in his father’s footsteps by attending the U.S. Naval Academy, but he later admitted he struggled in school and felt that acting was the only thing he was truly good at.

Before becoming a Hollywood legend, Robert Duvall served in the United States Army from 1953 to 1954 and left the service with the rank of private first class.

Duvall once joked that some press reports exaggerated his military service, humorously saying that stories had him fighting communists in the Korean War even though he mostly struggled to qualify with an M1 rifle during training.

After leaving the Army, Duvall studied acting in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre under legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner using the G.I. Bill.

Two of Robert Duvall’s classmates at the Neighborhood Playhouse were future Hollywood stars Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, meaning three future Oscar winners were learning acting together in the same program.

While struggling as a young actor in New York, Duvall worked several ordinary jobs, including sorting mail at the Manhattan post office and clerking at Macy’s department store.

Early in their careers, Robert Duvall actually shared a New York City apartment with Dustin Hoffman while both were studying acting and trying to break into the industry.

Duvall was also roommates with Gene Hackman at one point, and the two actors supported themselves by doing odd jobs like driving trucks while pursuing acting.

Robert Duvall began his professional acting career in 1952 performing in summer theater productions at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, Long Island.

One of Duvall’s early stage roles was Stanley Kowalski in a production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, a demanding character famously played by Marlon Brando in the film version.

In 1957, playwright Arthur Miller attended a performance in which Duvall played Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, and that performance helped lead to one of Duvall’s first major television opportunities.

Robert Duvall made his first television appearance in 1959 on the anthology series Armstrong Circle Theatre in an episode titled “The Jailbreak.”

During the 1960s, Duvall became a familiar face on television, appearing in popular shows such as The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, The Untouchables, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Duvall made his feature film debut in the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, where he played the mysterious Boo Radley despite having almost no dialogue in the role. Screenwriter Horton Foote helped Duvall land his role in To Kill a Mockingbird after recognizing his talent from an earlier stage production.

One of Robert Duvall’s early movie appearances included a small but memorable role as a cab driver in the 1968 Steve McQueen crime film Bullitt.

In the 1969 western True Grit, Duvall played the outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper, who faces off against John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn in the film’s climactic shootout.

Duvall gained major attention in 1970 for playing the arrogant and unpleasant Major Frank Burns in the dark war comedy MASH.

In the science fiction film THX 1138 (1971), directed by George Lucas, Duvall played the title character trying to escape a dystopian society controlled by machines.

One of Robert Duvall’s most famous roles was Tom Hagen, the calm and intelligent consigliere to the Corleone family in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). His performance as Tom Hagen in The Godfather earned Duvall his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He declined to return for the third film.

By the mid 1970s, People magazine described Duvall as “Hollywood’s No. 1 No. 2 lead,” referring to his reputation as one of the best supporting actors in the industry.

In 2005, Robert Duvall received the National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush in recognition of his contributions to American culture.

At age 84, Duvall became the oldest actor ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 2014 courtroom drama The Judge, although the record was later surpassed.

Robert Duvall died on February 15, 2026, at the age of 95 at his farm in Middleburg, Virginia, ending a remarkable acting career that lasted roughly seven decades.