Bobby Duvall by the numbers

Robert Duvall was in 9,047 movies. ALL of them good. To top it off, he was the best part of each one of them. Yes, ESPECIALLY The Godfather.

But I don’t think we’ve stopped and appreciated how good Bobby Duvall was. Was he the greatest screen actor of all time? The question is not as absurd as it may seem. But I’m gonna go out on a limb and say yes—yes he was the most competent film actor there ever was. And more importantly, there ever will be.

Let’s break it down. Duvall was in To Kill a Mockingbird, MASH, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Network, and Apocalypse Now. Notice anything about these movies? They’re all in the AFI Top 100 movies of all time. That’s six of them, which, to my reckoning, is the record for most appearances in the AFI Top 100 list. By comparison, he beats out contemporaries Robert De Niro (5), Harrison Ford (5), Jack Nicholson (3), and Dustin Hoffman (4). Duvall was on a generational run during the 1970s, hitting home run after home run, getting only narrowly beat out by John Cazale who went 5 for 5 during that glorious era. And that’s to say nothing of his roles in THX 1138, Tender Mercies (where he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), Lonesome Dove, Falling Down, and Sling Blade (which I think eventually makes the AFI Top 100, which will bring Duvall’s total up to 7).

It’s a run we may never see again.

RIP to the legend