Oscar-winning American actor and director Robert Duvall has died at the age of 95, his wife announced on Monday. Among his many roles, he shone in two legendary films by Francis Ford Coppola: “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now”.

Published on: 02/16/2026 - 7:15 p.m. Modified on: 02/17/2026 - 08:33

Hollywood is in mourning. Lawyer for the Corleone family in the first two parts of “The Godfather” and lieutenant colonel loving “the smell of napalm in the early morning” in “Apocalypse Now”, American actor Robert Duvall died on Sunday February 15 at the age of 95.

"Yesterday we said goodbye to my dear husband, treasured friend and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home," his wife, Luciana Duvall, wrote in a statement shared on social media Monday.

“He was a born actor, as they say (...) his phenomenal gift will forever be remembered. I will miss him,” reacted Al Pacino, his partner in “The Godfather”, in a press release sent to AFP.

Robert Duvall had his first major film role at age 31 in "Of Silence and Shadows" (1962), adaptation of Harper Lee's novel "Don't Shoot the Mockingbird". In this film, "he upsets you" without a word of dialogue, noted American actor Alec Baldwin in a short tribute video posted on Instagram after the announcement of his death.

It was then Francis Ford Coppola who gave him his most notable roles: Tom Hagen, lawyer in "The Godfather" in its first two parts (1972 and 1974), and Bill Kilgore, lieutenant-colonel and surf enthusiast in "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

An Oscar nomination

This film about the Vietnam War, which earned Robert Duvall an Oscar nomination and truly brought him into the spotlight, sees him utter one of the most famous lines in cinema history. “I like the smell of napalm in the early morning,” says his character, shirtless and wearing a cowboy hat, mid-bombardment.

Francis Ford Coppola thus praised on Instagram "such a great actor and such an essential element of American Zoetrope (production company co-founded by Francis Ford Coppola, Editor's note) since its beginnings".

A tyrannical business executive in "Network: Hands on Television" (1976), a soldier treating his family like soldiers in "The Great Santini" (1979), Robert Duvall won the Academy Award for best actor for his 1983 portrayal of a former alcoholic country singer in "Tender Happiness."

His favorite role, however, was that of Texas Ranger turned cowboy Augustus McCrae in the television miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989). “It’s my ‘Hamlet,’” he told the New York Times in 2014. “The English have Shakespeare; the French, Molière. In Argentina, they have Borges, but the western is ours.”

To display this content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

One of the rare regrets of his career was not having been selected for the casting of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" (1975).

Republican political views

Also a screenwriter, director and producer, Robert Duvall has directed five films, including "The Preacher" (1997), which he wrote and in which he plays an evangelical pastor in search of redemption.

Born in 1931 to a military father and an amateur actress mother, he studied drama, then spent two years in the army, before settling in New York to indulge his passion for theater. He shared a crowded Manhattan apartment with, among others, Dustin Hoffman. Another future great, Gene Hackman, who died in February 2025, was “hanging out” with them, he told GQ in 2014.

Robert Duvall, with Republican political views, lived far from the glitterati, in the Virginia countryside, where his family had its roots. He said he only went to New York and Los Angeles when necessary.

He and his fourth wife, the Argentine actress and director (also known by her birth name) Luciana Pedraza, 41 years his junior, had settled on a farm almost 300 years old. The actor did not have children. He also loved Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, “more than any other place.”

On Instagram, British actress Jane Seymour remembered “her love of barbecue” and her taste for tango. The American actor and humorist Adam Sandler described on X a man who was “funny to death”.

With AFP

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.