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  "path": "/celebrity/the-godfather-star-dead-robert-duvall",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-16T18:14:30.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Nancy Guthrie detective refuses to rule out 'revenge' motive in kidnapping investigation update",
    "Britain's Got Talent star, 38, died at home just three days after being arrested for sexual offence",
    "Snoop Dogg repays family who gave him free food with amazing gesture at Winter Olympics",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nRobert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor celebrated for his unforgettable performances in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, has died aged 95.\n\nHis wife Luciana Pedraza was at his side when he died on Sunday evening at his residence in Middleburg, Virginia.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nShe shared the news through social media, writing: \"Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.\"\n\nIn her statement, Ms Pedraza described him as \"simply everything\" to her, praising his dedication to his craft and his deep commitment to portraying the truth of the human spirit in every character he inhabited.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nMr Duvall first collaborated with director Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People in 1969, before being cast as the shrewd consigliere Tom Hagen in the 1972 masterpiece The Godfather, a role that earned him his first Academy Award nomination.\n\nHe reprised the character in The Godfather: Part II two years later.\n\nHis portrayal of the surf-obsessed Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now produced one of cinema's most quoted lines: \"I love the smell of napalm in the morning.\"\n\nRemarkably, the scene was captured in a single take whilst jets flew overhead and explosions erupted nearby.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"There wasn't any time to think,\" Mr Duvall told Roger Ebert in 1983. \"I just got completely into the character, and if he wouldn't flinch, I wouldn't flinch.\"\n\nHis understated turn as an alcoholic country singer in Tender Mercies brought him the Best Actor Oscar in 1984.\n\nThroughout his career, the beloved actor accumulated seven Academy Award nominations, securing wins for both his acting and, as a producer, for the outstanding miniseries Broken Trail.\n\nHis personal favourite among all his roles was Augustus McCrae, the ex-Texas Ranger he portrayed in the 1989 CBS miniseries Lonesome Dove, adapted from Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:\n\n\n\n\n  * Nancy Guthrie detective refuses to rule out 'revenge' motive in kidnapping investigation update\n  * Britain's Got Talent star, 38, died at home just three days after being arrested for sexual offence\n  * Snoop Dogg repays family who gave him free food with amazing gesture at Winter Olympics\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"I walked into the wardrobe room one day on Lonesome Dove and said, 'Boys, we're making the Godfather of Westerns,'\" he told Stephen Colbert in 2021.\n\nHis screen debut came in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, where he played the reclusive Boo Radley without uttering a single line of dialogue, yet still marked himself as an actor of exceptional promise.\n\nScreenwriter Horton Foote personally recommended him for the part after seeing Duvall perform on the New York stage.\n\nMr Duvall was born in San Diego on January 5, 1931, the son of US Navy Rear Admiral William Duvall and Mildred Hart.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe family relocated to the East Coast when he was ten, settling primarily in Annapolis, Maryland.\n\nAfter completing his studies at Principia College in Illinois, where he majored in drama, and serving two years in the Army, he moved to New York in 1955 to train under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.\n\nDuring those early struggling years, he shared a flat with Dustin Hoffman, whilst Gene Hackman became another close friend whose wife regularly cooked for the trio.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"The feeling was that Bobby was the new Brando,\" Mr Hoffman later recalled.\n\nMr Duvall is survived by his fourth wife, Luciana, an Argentine native whom he married in 2005.\n\nThe pair first crossed paths in Buenos Aires, Argentina.\n\nIn a 2011 interview with Esquire, Mr Duvall said: “I met my wife in Argentina. The flower shop was closed, so I went to the bakery. If the flower shop had been open, I never would've met her.”\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards:The GB News Editorial Charter **",
  "title": "The Godfather star dies aged 95 as tributes pour in: 'One of the greatest actors of our time'"
}