RIP Robert Duvall

Of his most well known role as Tom Hagen in The Godfather and its sequel, critic and historian David Thomson posed this thought:

Was ever a role better designed for its actor than that of Tom Hagen in both parts of The Godfather?

Of his performance as an armed robber in the action thriller, The Outfit (1973), Quentin Tarantino quotes critic Philip Lanier as saying this:

His [Duvall’s] quiet determination brings across a character who appears to be a desperate man by choice. It’s a mysterious kind of masculinity that only he seems to possess.

And while his brief appearance in Apocalypse Now is his most quoted performance, I submit that his banter with Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher (2012) is equally worth remembering.