Robert Duvall actually. But his Kilgore has to be the most memorable, most quoted character in American cinema. That is what I remembered best about Duvall. I respected him even more when I read as a kid that he eschewed a life in Hollywood to his farm in my home state of Virginia.
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Was saddened quite a bit earlier toady when I saw that Robert had passed away. He had a long and varied film career but the two movies for which I remember him the most were The Great Santini (1979) and Secondhand Lions (2003).
I still will watch Secondhand Lions whenever I come across it.
Wheels
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The Great Santini was a good one for sure. As the son of an F-4 pilot who served in Vietnam I wonder how @chipwich feels about the film. (Not at all comparing Duvall’s tyrant to Dan’s awesome dad but rather the portrayal of living under a roof with someone who had the tiger by the tail so to speak.)
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Ah man… 95 is a good age though.
If he’s cremated, they have to say “Do you smell that???” Or is that poor taste?
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I’ll argue that the movie treatment of The Great Santini was in a lot of ways better than the novel it was based on.
And a lot of that had to do with Robert Duvall’s portrayal of Meachum.
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The Great Santini, like most of Conroy’s novels, is near and dear, since he writes about my neck of the woods, with its natural beauty and hidden dysfunction.
Dad had much in common with Bull Meecham, but fortunately that was mostly limited to his love of flying and ultimate high opinion of his ability to fight in a Phantom. We didn’t have morning inspections, nor did he bounce a basketball off of our heads. Not to say that our family was less chaotic than any other, especially having to move every 2 or 3 years. Between 1960 and 1975, dad was away more than he was home. I’m not sure how my mother survived raising 4 boys.
I’ve read that Santini was in large part autobiographically reflective of Conroy’s relationship with his father, a Marine pilot. That may it be, I read with great interest Pat Conroy’s authoring of his father’s eulogy. Sitting in a dental waiting room what seems like decades ago, I picked up a copy of the Naval Institute’s magazine, Proceedings, which had published Conroy senior’s eulogy. It’s a good read. If interested, you can find it here, Eulogy for a Fighter Pilot.
But back to the great actor, Robert “Bobby” Duvall, undoubtedly one of the best actors of my lifetime. So many memorable characters portrayed. From Mocking Bird to Billy Bob Thornton’s dad in Sling Blade. My favorite is Gus McCrae, Texas Ranger in Lonesome Dove. I think that my brothers and I repeated lines from that book and series for a decade. Still do.
IMHO, one of Duvall’s most intriguing films is one that doesn’t receive much notoriety, Assassination Tango. I really enjoyed the unexpected turns it takes throughout, which left me unsure if I detested or was enthralled by Duvall’s character.
We lost a great one, but 95 ain’t a bad run, especially leaving the body of work that he did.
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What a post @chipwich! Thanks. I began reading the eulogy you linked. At the beginning I almost stopped. The jingoism threw me off. But that was the intent. He knew his audience couldn’t walk away. It turned out to be a wildly entertaining tribute to a wildly bigger-than-life dude. That he would sometimes go to Six Flags by himself is such a telling detail. Good stuff!
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