Goodbye, Mr. Duvall

It is turning out to be an interesting year.

I was in the middle of teaching a class when a pop-up appeared on the screen announcing the death of Mr. Robert Seldon Duvall (yes, that was his full name). I was in the middle of a discussion on the obsession we have with winning when it comes to sports (the Winter Olympics was a theme), and I felt as though things were coming full circle. We had already lost Gene Hackman last year, and along with that titan, it feels though one particular golden age has closed off to be replaced by...?

Well, that is the question, isn't it? I grew up with Mr. Duvall as a presence on film, even when I barely knew that he was in specific films. I first thought of the time I saw ''Apocalypse Now'' as Colonel Kilgore, the Wagner-loving military man who gave us his particular love interest in napalm and...surfing during the Vietnam War. A strange cocktail that most actors would not be able to put together without a distinct seam of laughter running through the audience. All I can say is that as a child, Mr. Duvall's performance was the first time I watched an actor on screen and got...scared. It was fear based not on a monster chasing me in a darkened room, or a killer masked and ready for another victim. It was the fear that came out of a recognition that he was full of the worst traits any figure could have. That to me, without me being able to discuss it at the time, was what acting was all about.

And it continued with ''The Great Santini,'' a film where he plays one of the most difficult characters I ever had to stomach on screen: a soldier (this seems to be a theme - both he and Hackman served in the military) who no longer has a war, but needs to fight. Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum is with his family in peacetime 1962, and is so driven to compete that he humiliates his son and refuses to accept the limitations in his life that will eventually lead to tragedy. As the son of a man who could not accept me as someone who would not live up to his standards, it was tough to sit through this performance, even as I recognized - once again - the ugly truth it revealed about human nature.

And then, there was that other film. I was not going to ignore ''The Godfather'' with this tribute, but I think that too much has already been said about his Tom Hagan, and his role as consigliere to the Corleone family. Again, he is playing a man dealing with responsibilities and concerns that most of us would not be able to face without having certain demons eating us alive. And it is almost heartbreaking to see, in the sequel, him nearly pushed aside after years of loyalty to the family. Again, a fantastic performance full of truth.

So, do yourself a favour, whether it's ''To Kill a Mockingbird,'' ''THX-1138,'' ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (yes, he is the priest on the swing at the beginning of the 1978 version), ''Tender Mercies'' (his only Oscar came with this one) or any of the fine television performances he gave, watch and learn what a great talent he was and what we have lost with his passing.

Goodbye, sir.

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