Happy birthday Robert Duvall, 90 years in the service of cinema - Lifestyle

There are actors who embody a generation: Robert Duvall has written in his face the 70s of American cinema, the era of New Hollywood. But his story is much more varied and deserves to be re-read on his 90th birthday because if there is a voice out of the chorus in America yesterday and today, this is his. Seductive even if not beautiful, prone to baldness from a young age, imposing for its quiet physicality, today it carries the years as one of the statues carved in Mount Rushmore. Not by chance: in his family he boasts French blood (one of his ancestors fled after the persecutions against the Huguenots), German and British; is of the lineage of George Washington who adopted one of his ancestors; on his father's side he is a direct descendant of the Confederate general Robert Edward Lee who Duvall himself brought to the screen in "Gods and Generals" (Robert Maxwell, 2003). Robert Selden Duvall was born in San Diego on January 5, 1931, the son of an admiral and an amateur actress. He was trained in harsh military school at home, as well as in strict religious observance, but his passion for the stage did not leave him calm: he made his theater debut in 1952 at the Gateway Playhouse on Long Island where he will find his friend and mentor Ulu Grosbard as a director. He attends Sanford Meisner's acting classes in New York sharing a house with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman: "What is a friend? - he will say later - He's the one who lends you his last $ 300 if you have to go to the hospital. friend is called Gene Hackman ". In 1953, however, he enlisted in the army and in the two years of "stop" he was sent to the front in Korea. Back home, Meisner entrusts him with the first important role in the theater and shortly afterwards he will impose himself in productions such as "Bus stop", "The perfect crime", "A tram called desire", in which he competes from a distance with the his myth, Marlon Brando. Directed by Grosbard in '57 it is his greatest success which earned him an award and consideration of the Off Broadway scene. Meanwhile, for the first time he experienced the thrill of the camera in "Someone Loves Me Up There" (1956) with Paul Newman, but he will have to wait six years for Hollywood to notice him playing the part of the mentally ill in "The darkness beyond the hedge. "alongside Gregory Peck. Meanwhile, he has almost always cut his teeth as a "guest star" on TV: he will say that that was his school, citing the series "Lonely Dove" of the late 80s as his favorite interpretation. Instead it is the cinema that made him a memorable character actor at the end of the 1960s when his destiny met the young masters of that formidable generation: after "The Hunt" by Arthur Penn (1966) and "Countdown" (1968) by Robert Altman will be the turn of Coppola in his debut with "Non torno home tonera" (1969), George Lucas ("The man who fled from the future", 1971) up to the unexpected triumph of "The Godfather" (1972) which the first of six Oscar nominations is worth. Instead he will win in 1984 with Bruce Beresford's "Tender Mercies". Its director-pygmalion is Francis Coppola who entrusts him with the role of Tom Hagen, the "advisors" of the Corleone family in "The Godfather" alongside Don Vito (Marlon Brando) and his son Michael (Al Pacino) in the successful sequel of 1974. Director and actor will come back together in "The Conversation" and especially in "Apocalypse Now" (1979) when Duvall wears the uniform of Colonel Kilgore, uttering one of the most famous lines in the history of cinema: "I like the smell some napalm in the morning ". But there are many directors of the '70s who find the ideal co-protagonist in that "stone head". Among the many: Bob Altman with the triumphant success of "MASH"; then Sam Peckinpah in "Killer Elite", Sidney Lumet ("Fifth Estate"), Monte Hellman ("I'm the Greatest"). In 1979 he achieved popularity with "Il Grande Santini" which brought him back to the five Oscar finalists and in 1981 he won the Coppa Volpi in Venice with "The Absolution" of his friend / teacher Ulu Grosbard. Paradoxically, after these awards and the 1984 Oscar, Robert Duvall moves away from the cone of light of success, chooses more and more often the TV, becomes passionate about a new career as a producer, tries his hand at directing 5 times obtaining great success (and the umpteenth Oscar nomination) with "The Apostle" (1997). But he likes to say about himself: "They don't see me as a protagonist, but I never really liked this game: I've never stretched my front teeth or that kind of thing. I don't want to change my face to achieve this. Even when I made a 'big' movie, the only thing that mattered to me was to make the character a real man. " He considers himself a naturalist actor, in the mold of a Spencer Tracy and, while admiring the lesson of the Actor's Studio, he never made it an obsession, preferring the libertarian solitude of an old cowboy. His political choices confirm this: he has always been a Republican (especially rare in Hollywood), rewarded by a certain familiarity in the White House at the time of the Bushes, father and son, and he even campaigned for John McCain and Sarah Palin despite having family ties with Barack Obama. In 2016, after supporting Donald Trump, he left the Republicans calling today's party "a real mess". Faithful to his moral independence, together with his last wife, Luciana Pedraza, much younger than him and married in 2004, he is engaged in social works for the poor of Argentina (his country of choice where he takes refuge as soon as he can) by building schools, dispensaries, public houses. "In Buenos Aires - he likes to remember - there is a small cafe, La Biela in the Recoleta neighborhood where you can sit at sunset, see swarms of people until late at night and enjoy your coffee at eight in the morning. most beautiful place in the world ". In 2021 we will see him on screen in Ty Roberts' "12 Mighty Orphans" with friend Martin Sheen and Jeremiah Zagar's "Hustle". Will there be another Oscar or at least the 60th award of his career?