Duvall “passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” his wife, Luciana Pedraza, said on social media.

Robert Duvall, star of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, dies at 95

Duvall "passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort," his wife, Luciana Pedraza, said on social media.

February 16, 2026 1:30 p.m. ET

Robert Duvall in 1981. Credit:

Chuck Fishman/Getty

Robert Duvall, the legendary actor who starred in films like *Apocalypse Now* and TV series like *Lonesome Dove*, has died at age 95. His wife, Luciana Pedraza, announced via social media on Monday that the Oscar winner died on Sunday, Feb. 15.

"Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time," she said in the statement. "Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort."

"To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller," she continued. "To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all. Thank you for the years of support you showed Bob and for giving us this time and privacy to celebrate the memories he leaves behind."

Robert Duvall in 'Apocalypse Now'.

myCinema/Courtesy Everett

Duvall was that rare thing: a born character actor who evolved into a leading man and major Hollywood star not through his looks or his glamor but through the sheer grit, force, and intensity of his talent. Born in San Diego, Calif., on Jan. 5, 1931, he started out as a stage actor on Broadway in the ’50s, and for the next decade did numerous guest-starring roles on television (*The Fugitive*, *The Twilight Zone*, *The Virginian*). Duvall made his film debut in *To Kill a Mockingbird* (1962) as the spooky, housebound, quietly mysterious Boo Radley, and for a long time thereafter, he demonstrated the same stubborn, almost ghostly ability to disappear inside a role.

In *The Godfather* (1972), the first movie to win him significant acclaim, Duvall gave an exquisitely self-effacing performance as Tom Hagen, the Corleone family *consigliere *who maintained his power by refusing to assert his presence. The part perfectly embodied the craft of an actor who was there, above all, to serve the material rather than to make it serve him.

But Duvall broke through to a new level of audience connection when, in 1979, he played the hard-driving military father in *The Great Santini* and also did his infamous, bravura, scene-stealing turn as the surf-crazy hipster-sociopath Col. Kilgore in *Apocalypse Now*. Suddenly, Duvall’s talent seemed not just brilliant but darkly electrifying, cut from the same volatile ’70s cloth as that of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. When he returned to playing an emotionally reticent character – the small-time country singer and recovering alcoholic Mac Sledge in 1983’s *Tender Mercies* – audiences, by then, had grown attuned to the grandeur of his talent, and the role won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Robert Duvall and Diane Lane in 'Lonesome Dove'.

CBS/Courtesy Everett

Throughout his career, Duvall demonstrated an astonishing range that seemed driven by his ability to turn each role into the study of a particular man. He moved effortlessly from playing a hard-bitten L.A. cop in *Colors *(1989) to the benign patriarch of *Rambling Rose* (1991) to the infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann in *The Man Who Captured Eichmann *(1996), though he maintained a special kinship with the heroes of the fading West: His performance as the affable former Texas Ranger Gus McCrae in the TV miniseries *Lonesome Dove* (1979) was the equal of any of his movie work.

20 great quotes about the 'American Olivier,' Robert Duvall

'The Godfather' trilogy cast: Where are they now?

He had a soft spot for drawling, blustery glad-handers, and if one had to pick his crowning achievement, it may well have been the wily evangelical preacher-turned-murderous outlaw in *The Apostle* (1997), a movie he wrote and directed. The role, with its tour de force improvised sermons, seemed on some level to be Duvall’s ultimate statement on acting: a man who turned preaching into performance, but with hidden dark depths that made him impossible to look away from.

Duvall married Luciana Pedraza, his fourth wife, in 2005 after dating for several years.**

- Celebrities & Creators

- Celebrity Death News

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”