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Five decades in film and still going strong

He's been a fixture in the Hollywood constellation for decades. But in person, Robert Duvall displays none of the bravado you might expect of a big name star who appeared in such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather (parts I and II), Apocalypse Now and Lonesome Dove. Up close he's modest, almost self-effacingly so.

Ask the Academy Award winner who has acted in over 60 films what he views as his greatest achievement and he stares into space as if hard pressed to come up with anything.

"Well, I accomplished maybe having a successful career without stepping on too many people's feet..doing it my way. Maybe whatever I have to offer helped people with joy...Lonesome Dove was a good accomplishment."

Acting was not Duvall's personal career choice; he got into the business only because his parents, a Naval Admiral father and amateur actress mother, pushed him into it to give him some direction in life.

"When I got out of the army I was floundering," he recalls. So his parents, who had confidence this was something he could succeed in, encouraged him to study the artform as a way to "save" him. He himself felt "nervous" about his chances.

Duvall began in the New York theater scene and soon moved into film with the role of Arthur 'Boo' Radley in the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, which starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. In The Godfather series, he played Marlon Brando's 'adopted' son, who becomes essential to Al Pacino's reign as Don. As Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, Duvall uttered the famous line: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

On the small screen, Duvall starred in the 1986 mini-series Lonesome Dove, which won six Emmy Awards and was nominated for 13 others. Last year, he got back in the saddle for another television mini-series, the two-night movie Broken Trail, which was a hit with viewers and critics.

Duvall's Hollywood career has included stints behind the camera. His projects as a director include Assassination Tango, a thriller that allowed him to revel in his love for the South American dance. The four-times married 76-year-old actor, whose current wife is an Argentinian 40 years his junior, says his young wife keeps him young and adds that he intends to keep on acting and directing.

"Till they wipe the drool, I still will keep working."

A Monaco Revue "Up Close And Real Interview"; filmed at the Monte Carlo Television Festival.

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