Here Are 6 Of Robert Duvall’s Greatest Performances

America lost one of its best actors when the legendary and prolific Robert Duvall died the day after Valentine’s Day at his longtime farm near Middleburg, Virginia. Duvall, descended from French Huguenots who emigrated to Maryland a century before our nation won independence, represented true excellence in American cinema. From playing Boo Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird until 2022’s The Pale Blue Eye, his career spanned a remarkable 60 years.

Duvall also happened to be a man of the right, supporting Rudy Giuliani’s campaign in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primary, working the floor at the GOP’s 2008 national convention, and endorsing Mitt Romney for president in 2012. Here are a handful of Duvall’s most memorable performances worth revisiting to honor the man whom director Francis Ford Coppola once lauded as “one of the four or five best actors in the world.”

The Godfather

In two of the most important works of American cinema, Coppola’s The Godfather parts I and II, Duvall played the integral if understated role of Tom Hagan, the German- and Irish-American adopted son of mafia boss Don Vito Corleone. As a lawyer and consigliere, or adviser, to the Corleone mafia family, he consistently presents as the voice of reason in the family, as well as being the most empathic.

Though when we think of The Godfather series, we are naturally inclined to remember the intensely captivating performances of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and James Caan, Duvall’s character serves as the steady rock that helps explain how the Corleone family could preserve its influence as the most powerful mafia family in America across multiple generations in the 20th century.

The Eagle Has Landed

A somewhat forgotten World War II-era film, The Eagle Has Landed is the story of an elite unit of soldiers sent on a suicidal mission to assassinate Winston Churchill. Unlike most films of that era, the movie is told from the perspective of the Germans, who in this case are mostly opposed to Hitler — including Michael Caine’s lead character, who is sickened by Nazi antisemitism — but soldier on because of a residual sense of a fatalistic German patriotism.

The same is the case for Duvall’s stoic German intelligence officer, Col. Max Radl, who commissions the operation without the knowledge of the “Führer.” Though Caine and Donald Sutherland’s rebellious Irish character serve as the leads, Duvall’s reticence fascinates.

Apocalypse Now

In 1979, Duvall returned to his legendary cooperation with Coppola, this time as Lt. Col. William “Bill” Kilgore, the commander of 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment in the epochal Apocalypse Now.

Duvall, who himself served in the U.S. Army, based his character on a composite of real-life officers. To prepare for the role, he queried many U.S. military personnel to effectively play the personality of an unflinching, indefatigable Vietnam War officer. Duvall memorably portrayed his character — who, curiously, is also an avid surfer — as personally complex. He also had the most oft-quoted line of the entire movie: “You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Lonesome Dove

Few actors have convincingly played the role of a cowboy as did Duvall in the popular television series Lonesome Dove. The four-part miniseries, watched in an impressively high 26 million homes, tells the story of a group of Texans who drive a herd of cattle to Montana.

Alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Duvall offered one of the best performances of his career as the ever-jovial womanizing former Texas Ranger Capt. Augustus “Gus” McCrae. Once again, he took his role seriously, training to use a revolver with Texas marksman Joe Bowman. The role earned Duvall a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award nomination. 

The Apostle

My personal favorite Duvall character is Euliss F. “Sonny” Dewey, the charismatic Pentecostal Texas preacher in The Apostle. Everything about Dewey is complicated: He’s a womanizer who drives his wife to retaliate by cheating with a youth minister. He’s guilty of accidentally killing a man in a fit of rage. And he’s in need of redemption, reinventing himself as the pastor of a small Louisiana bayou church that brings healing and hope to the local community. Yet the justice of God — which operates on His time, rather than ours — eventually catches up with Sonny.

I’ll refuse to play spoiler. If you haven’t seen it, watch Duvall in one of his most complex and convincing performances.

Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals, an ambitious sequel to Gettysburg, was a commercial flop. Yet even cinematic failures can feature excellent acting, as is the case with Duvall’s portrayal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Pilloried by the press as sympathetic to “Lost Cause” historical revisionism, conservative writer Bill Kauffman described the film as “not only the finest movie ever made about the Civil War, it is also the best American historical film. Period.” Much of that praise is due to Duvall’s ability to play arguably the most interesting and morally complex character in the entire Civil War. 

RIP, Robert Duvall

Across six decades, Duvall could do it all. He was the antagonist, such as the contemptuous criminal “Lucky” Ned Pepper in the original True Grit or the malicious Maj. Frank Burns in the film M*A*S*H. Or he could be a washed-up alcoholic country western singer looking for his shot at redemption, as he was in Tender Mercies, for which he did his own singing and won an Oscar for best actor. In 2015, he became the oldest actor ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in The Judge.

The “American Olivier,” as New York Times film critic Vincent Canby once called him, the career of the simultaneously steadfast and versatile Duvall spanned a period of incredible transition in the United States from the 1950s to his last roles in 2022. His is a legacy few can ever hope to match.

Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He is a regular contributor at many publications and the author of three books, including the upcoming “Wisdom From the Cross: How Jesus’ Seven Last Words Teach Us How to Live (and Die)” (Sophia Institute Press, 2026).