By Mike McCombs
BEAUFORT
One of the best is no longer with us.
Actor Robert Duval died at his farm in Middleburg, Va., on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, according to a statement released Monday, Feb. 16, by his wife of more than 21 years, Luciana Pedraza. She did not disclose a cause of death.
Duvall was 95 years old. By all accounts, his career in film and television, which spanned more than 60 years, is one of the best of all-time.
From his lineless debut as a 31-year-old in 1962’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” to the Netflix films “Hustle” and “The Pale Blue Eye” in 2022, few have the film resume of Duvall.
After Mockingbird, his films include, just to name a few, “Bullitt,” “True Grit,” “M*A*S*H,” “THX 1138,” “Joe Kidd,” “The Godfather,” “The Godfather, Part II”, “The Conversation,” “Network,” “Apocalypse Now,” “True Confessions,” “Tender Mercies,” – for which he won the Best Actor Oscar — “The Natural,” “Colors,” “Days of Thunder,” “Falling Down,” “Rambling Rose,” “The Paper,” Sling Blade,” “Deep Impact,” “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Open Range,” “Crazy Heart,” … you get the picture.
Despite all those iconic movie roles, his favorite role was in a TV miniseries.
In 1989, Duvall portrayed Captain Augustus “Gus” McRae in the miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Larry McMurtry. He won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy nomination for the role.
But it’s two movies in particular that endeared Duval to many in the Lowcountry – “The Great Santini,” which put Beaufort on the map as a filmmaking town, and “Something To Talk About.”
In 1979’s “The Great Santini,” Duvall played USMC Lt. Col. “Bull” Meechum.” The film was adapted from Pat Conroy’s novel, said to describe Conroy’s difficult relationship with his own father, Col. Donald Conroy.
Ironically, according to Barbara Conroy, Pat Conroy’s first wife, who had already split from the author at the time, Donald Conroy asked Duvall to accompany him to Savannah for a Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Duvall, a U.S. Army veteran, was honored and accepted.
“The Great Santini” struggled at the box office, but it was a critical success, earning Duvall an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Filming at Tidalholm and around Beaufort, Duvall is said to have come to love Beaufort.
And at least one resident at the time still has some affection for Duvall.
Hamlin O’Kelley, now a Charleston attorney, was a young boy of 7 growing up on the Point in Beaufort when Santini was being filmed. Along with his brothers and several other friends, O’Kelley got to know the man playing the title character, referring to him as Uncle Bobby.
In the movie, there’s a tense basketball game in the Meechum driveway between an aging Bull and his son Ben, played by Michael O’Keefe. Unknown to the people who saw that scene on the big screen, between takes and during set up and breaks, Duvall was often engaged in a much more enjoyable basketball game with O’Kelley and his friends.
“He would go out on The Green and throw the football with us,” O’Keefe said. “We would play hide-and-seek in Tidalholm and in that yard with him and the assistants and the people playing the Meechum children. He was just this guy, Uncle Bobby.”
And then Duvall made those kids’ year.
“He went trick-or-treating with us on the Point,” O’Kelley said. “It was great. We were going from house to house, and people were like, ‘Oh my God, you look just like Boo Radley’ or ‘Is that Tom Hagan on our porch?’”
One man greeted him with one of his most famous lines from “Apocalypse Now,” an occurrence Duvall would eventually have to endure thousands of times.
“Charlie don’t surf,” the man told him.
“He just burst out laughing,” O’Kelley said.
Duvall would come back to Beaufort to film 1995’s “Something To Talk About” with Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid and Gena Rowland.
Jay Neese, who now lives in Mount Pleasant, and ironically, worked on the remodel of Tidalholm, worked on the set as Duvall’s set double.
Neese said Duvall had slowed down a bit by then and kept to himself when he wasn’t filming.
“He didn’t hang with us off the set,” Neese said. “He didn’t go out to the bars with Julia and the rest of us.”
Neese remembers Duvall’s sense of humor – “He thought he was funny.”
“His personality was pretty funny,” Neese said. “He’d crack these really wry jokes and just giggle to himself. He was just really cool. I got along with him. Most of the people working on the film got along with him, … except for the director.”
Apparently, from what I’ve read, directors often got the worst of Duvall.
But all-in-all, Neese enjoyed his time around the actor.
“[He shared] some wild stories,” Neese said. “But he was a cool guy.”
O’Kelley said he’s never forgotten Duvall’s kindness to a bunch of kids he didn’t know.
“He was just great, and we didn’t know anything,” O’Kelley said. “He was just Uncle Bobby. And then, as you age, you’re like, ‘wait a minute …’”
Farewell, Uncle Bobby.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews.com.