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Robert Duvall was born in San Diego, California in 1931, and I don't think I know of another actor who took such a long slow road to becoming a leading actor and star, and in Duvall's case it certainly wasn't caused by lack of talent or lack of trying! He served in the Army after graduating college, and after that he went to The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City and as luck would have it, his roommate was unknown actor Dustin Hoffman, and the two of them hung out with fellow unknown actor Gene Hackman! Three of the finest American actors ever just happened to be brought together by chance. Duvall got a part in a play by Horton Foote, and when Foote wrote the screenplay for the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962, he remembered Duvall and helped get him cast in the role of Boo Radley, which was essentially Duvall's debut in movies. But like Hoffman and Hackman, Duvall could not get many film roles as none of the three fit the mold of conventional leading men (a stereotype that would not break down until the late 1960s)., and he spent most of the 1960s doing mainly television, Duvall did far more TV than Hackman or Hoffman, and he made over 50 TV appearances in the 1960s, showing up on just about every drama of that time (he was especially memorable in the episode of The Twilight Zone as the man obsessed with the doll house). By the late 1960s he was starting to get decent supporting roles in movies (John Wayne kills him at the end of True Grit), and in 1969 director Francis Ford Coppola cast him in an important role in The Rain People, opposite Jame Caan and Shirley Knight. The following year Duvall had a major role in a commercial success, as Major Frank Burns in Robert Altman's MASH, and the year after that he played the lead in George Lucas' first movie, THX 1138. His most memorable role came the following year when Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Tom Hagan in The Godfather (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film). Duvall was now 41 years old, and he was clearly one of the premier character actors. He spent the rest of the 1970s turning in great supporting performances in movies like The Godfather Part II and Network, and he had his greatest supporting role as crazy Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), surely one of the most memorable performances ever (and how he did not win the Oscar for that performance still astounds me!). But few casting directors would have then considered Duvall for leading man roles, except in the quirkiest "oddball" movies, and yet in the same year he appeared in Apocalypse Now! He also starred as Lt. Col. 'Bull' Meechum in The Great Santini (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and gave a sensational lead performance. He followed two years later as washed up alcoholic country western singer Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies, and he FINALLY won an Oscar for that role. He continued to make great movie appearances throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and was especially memorable in the Lonesome Dove TV mini-series. He still remains active in movies, and adds much to whatever he appears in. Some of his other movies include: A Civil Action (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), The Apostle (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and The Judge (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film). The greatest directors of the 1960s recognized his amazing talents long before the rest of the world did, but today just about everyone sees Robert Duvall as one of the finest movie actors ever. As of 2021, he is still alive at the age of 90!

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Robert Duvall!

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In our last two all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning 211 more items (mostly 8x10 stills and repro 8x10s, but also 58 other items like playbills and more)!
     In the 1970s, our consignor was a teacher who taught a film class, and he also part-time ran the local movie theater (and he saved all the presskits from the movies the theater showed).
     Starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s, he wrote to famous celebrities, and enclosed an 8x10 still or repro (or sometimes another item) from his collection, and he wrote a literate personalized letter, talking about his work as a film teacher, and discussing his favorite movie by that star.
     He received signed photos back from a good percentage of the people he wrote to, and if the people simply sent him a stock photo back, he did not save it, but if he felt the autograph was genuine, and if they added a personalized note, then he did save them.
     In the late 1980s, he pretty much stopped sending letters and photos, simply because he was just too busy. So this photo (and the vast majority of the other photos we are auctioning for this consignor) were obtained in the late 1970s or 1980s, through personal correspondence with this star. This is of course excellent, because back at that time celebrities were not selling their signatures nearly as much, and many of the stars were pretty forgotten and were happy to get letters from people like our consignor!
     He of course does not have any "Certificates of Authenticity", but he only kept ones he felt were surely authentic, and those are the ones we are auctioning. However, bidders can certainly compare the signatures to known examples on the internet to judge for themselves.

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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Bruce Hershenson,
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