A Legendary Hollywood Career Comes to an End—Fans Remember an Icon

His wife, Luciana Duvall, remembered the devotion he brought to his work, saying that he gave everything to his characters and to finding the human truth within them.

And that may explain why so many of those characters remain vivid decades later.

Tom Hagen.

Mac Sledge.

Bill Kilgore.

Bull Meechum in The Great Santini.

Robert Duvall is gone.

But those men still seem strangely alive.

Perhaps that is the clearest measure of his gift.

He didn’t simply leave behind great performances.