Considered by many critics as one of the greatest contemporary actors (Vincent Canby of The New York Times called him the American Laurence Olivier), Twilightl considers himself a "late bloomer." 31 when he made his acclaimed debut as Arthur 'Boo' Radley in Robert Mulligan's "To Kill A Mockingbird" (1962), he was 41 by the time his portrayal of Tom Hagen, valued "consigliari" and adopted son of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972) established him as one of Hollywood's heavy hitters. Although there is a rugged majesty to him, he falls short of matinee-idol material, a fact which has condemned him to mostly supporting character work in roles that have often defined movies (i.e., Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" 1979: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning . . . Smells like . . . victory.") However, there can be no disputing his range. What other actor could play Jesse James ("The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid" 1972), Dr. Watson ("The Seven Per-Cent Solution" 1977), Dwight Eisenhower (ABC's "Ike", 1979), Joseph Stalin (HBO's "Stalin" 1992) and Adolph Eichmann (TNT's "The Man Who Captured Eichmann" 1996).

The son of a Navy admiral, Duvall served in the US Army and would draw from this background for such performances as Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore ("Apocalypse Now") and career military man Bull Meechum ("The Great Santini" 1980). He gravitated to NYC in 1955 and appeared Off-Broadway in Horton Foote's one-act play "The Midnight Caller" (1958), the first of his many associations with Foote. He also acted in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge" (1965), and in the original Broadway production of "Wait Until Dark" (1966) before devoting his efforts full-time to the screen. Having portrayed an astronaut in director Robert Altman's "Countdown" (1968), he landed perhaps his highest profile role since his debut in Altman's "M*A*S*H" (1970), playing super-pious surgeon Major Frank Burns, although plenty saw his villainous turn opposite 'Duke' Wayne in "True Grit" (1969). His five-picture collaboration with Coppola, including "The Godfather, Part II" and "The Conversation" (both 1974), began with "The Rain People" (1969), and he also headlined Coppola protege George Lucas' feature directing debut, "THX 1138" (1971).

Born in San Diego and raised there and later in Annapolis, Maryland, Duvall has played a wide variety of Southern parts (an affinity perhaps owing to his father's Virginia roots), beginning with Boo Radley. In another Foote script, "Tomorrow" (1972), regarded by many as the best film adaptation of a William Faulkner work, he portrayed a handyman who cares for and eventually falls in love with an abandoned pregnant woman (Olga Bellin), and Foote's Oscar-winning "Tender Mercies" (Duvall's producing debut) brought him a Best Actor Oscar as faded country singer Mac Sledge, featuring him as songwriter, as well as song performer. Other pictures in his Southern oeuvre include "Rambling Rose" (1991, as the courtly gentleman who adopts a fatherly concern for the young maid in his charge), "The Stars Fell on Henrietta" (1995, portraying a wildcat oilman in 1930s Texas), "Sling Blade" (1996, a cameo as Billy Bob Thornton's irascible father) and "A Family Affair" (also 1996, playing James Earl Jones' half-brother), among others.

Duvall began acting on TV in the early 1960s, racking up guest shots on series like "The Outer Limits" (ABC), "The Twilight Zone", "Route 66" and "The Defenders" (all CBS), but as his film career blossomed, his small screen credits dwindled. Originally intended for Broadway, "Flesh and Blood" (1968), directed by Arthur Penn, debuted as an NBC movie, and he also acted in "The Terry Fox Story" (1983), an early made-for-television movie. His acclaimed performances as Eisenhower, Stalin and Eichmann not withstanding, he probably made his most memorable small screen appearance as colorful retired Texas Ranger Captain Augustus 'Gus' McCrae in the CBS miniseries adaptation of Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" (1989). As for the theater, he returned to Broadway as Walter 'Teacher' Cole in the 1977 production of David Mamet's "American Buffalo" but has not been back on the boards since and apparently does not miss the grueling regimen of the stage.

In 1975, Duvall directed the award-winning documentary "We're Not the Jet Set", about a Nebraska rodeo family. He made his feature directorial debut with the engaging "Angelo, My Love" (1983), a well-received portrait of New York Gypsy life in which he used many nonprofessional actors, but his third time behind the camera was truly charmed as he earned well-deserved accolades for "The Apostle" (1997), a Southern Gothic story of a preacher (played by Duvall) who commits a crime of passion, reinvents himself as a mysterious traveling evangelist and finds redemption. Though he originally wanted Foote to script it, his friend encouraged him to write the screenplay, one which everybody in the industry passed on for 13 years until Duvall's accountant finally gave him the green light to finance it himself. A detailed character study of a complex man, it boasted fine supporting performances from Farrah Fawcett Miranda Richardson and Thornton, not to mention novices like one-legged preacher Brother William Atlas Cole and country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. It earned him just a Best Actor Oscar nomination, prompting Duvall to wonder if the movie had written and directed itself.

The experience of "The Apostle" was one of the best of his career, and as a result, Duvall vowed to do less acting for hire in favor of helming films in which he has a real stake as an auteur. Despite the critical acclaim for "The Apostle", studios are still not falling over themselves to advance him money for his two pet projects, one the story of a Scottish soccer coach and the other involving his dual passion for the tango and his Argentine girlfriend Luciana Pedraza. Still a very much in-demand character player, Duvall appeared in three 1998 pictures, Altman's "The Gingerbread Man" (as an accused killer), Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact" (as the pilot leading the charge against an oncoming meteor) and "A Civil Action". In the latter, he garnered the film's best notices and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as the slick opposing counsel representing big business and sparring with co-star John Travolta.

Duvall took a lengthy hiatus, taking a hand in the screenplay for his next outing, "A Shot a Glory" (2000), in which he played the manager of a second-rate Scottish soccer team who clashes with American owner Michael Keaton and fights to keep the team rooted in the town that's been its home for a century. Well-acted but unfulfilling, the film-also known as "The Cup"-was little-seen in the U.S. Faring better was his next picture, the high-octane blockbuster-but-paper-thin-plotwise car-theft film "Gone In 60 Seconds" (2000), playing an old crony of star Nicolas Cage-relying on his well-established charm rather than a script or characterization, Duvall manages to deliver the film's half-baked dialogue straight-faced and nearly credibly. Again adding his considerable talents to a brief but presumably lucrative role in an otherwise lackluster thriller, the actor also played a brilliant scientist specializing in cloning in "The 6th Day" (2000) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger In 2002 Duvall again added his distinctive heft and gravitas to an underutilized role as a seasoned police negotiator in the populist, over-earnest anti-HMO thriller "John Q" opposite Denzel Washington. The actor next took on the role of trhe historic Civil War Confederate general Robert E. Lee for "Gods and Generals" (2003), writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell's adaptation of the prequel to the acclaimed novel and film "Gettysberg." Duvall appeared amidst a sprawling ensemble of actors-many reprising their roles from the first film-but was a standout as the 25-year military veteran trying to balance his allegiances to his country and his home state of Virginia. Perhaps tired of lending his talented to supporting roles in unworthy Hollywood vehicles, Duvall again took center stage as star, writer, producer and director of his next project (co-produced by his old "Godfather" collaborator Francis Ford Coppola) "Assassination Tango" (lensed 2001), crafting a gritty crime thriller that uniquely incorporated his love of Argentinian tango dancing as well as dense character study. In another finely etched performance, Duval played the aging, paranoid, short-tempered, dance-loving hit man John J., whose delayed assignment in Buenos Aires to assassinate a murderous general leaves him with down time that draws him into the sensual world of the tango. Offbeat, robust and inspired yet a bit roughly hewn, the film was screened at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival.