Updated Feb. 16, 2026, 9:05 p.m. PT
- Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall died at the age of 95 at his home in Virginia.
- Duvall co-starred with Robert De Niro in the 1981 crime thriller “True Confessions,” which was partially filmed in the Mojave Desert.
- The film, loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder, features the two actors as brothers navigating a complex relationship.
- The desert church featured in “True Confessions” was also used in other films, including “Kill Bill” and “Crossroads.”
Actor Robert Duvall, best known for his roles in “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” died “peacefully” at his home in Virginia. He was 95.
His wife, Luciana Duvall, took to Facebook to announce the news about her “beloved husband,” who she also called “cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time.”
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller,” Luciana said. “To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court.”
She added that for each of his many roles, “Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented.”
She said that in his work, Robert left something “lasting and unforgettable to us all. “
During a seven-decade stage, TV and screen acting career, Robert Duvall portrayal of strong-willed characters led to seven Oscar nominations and a best actor win for his role as a down-and-out country singer in 1983’s “Tender Mercies.” He also won two Primetime Emmys and four Golden Globe Awards for his work.
True Confessions
A native of San Diego, Duvall returned to the Golden State to co-star in the 1981 crime thriller “True Confessions,” with actor Robert De Niro.
The film is loosely based on the real-life death of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia, whose 1947 murder in Los Angeles remains unsolved.
A portion of the “True Confessions” was filmed at an old church just west of the Victor Valley and near El Mirage dry lake in Los Angeles County, a few miles west of San Bernardino County.
In the movie, De Niro plays a high-ranking Catholic priest, while Duvall plays the role of his brother, a hard-nosed homicide detective investigating the murder of a young woman prostitute, whose body was found in a field, cut in half.
With the backdrop of 1940s Los Angeles, the brothers deal with sleazy construction tycoon and former pimp Jack Amsterdam, played by actor Charles Durning.
Many movie critics said the murder investigation in the film is only a backdrop to the main story — the relationship between the flawed and combative brothers, who eventually reconcile.
The film ends with the brothers walking near the Mojave Desert-based church as they talk about their past, life’s regrets and death while walking through an old cemetery filled with grave markers and Joshua trees.
Old church building
The old church building featured in “True Confessions” has also been featured in several commercials, music videos and movies, including the 2002 teen comedy movie “Crossroads,” featuring Britney Spears, Zoe Saldaña, and Dan Aykroyd.
Also, “Kill Bill Vol 1” (2003) and “Kill Bill Vol 2” (2004), both directed by Quentin Tarantino, and starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liyu and Daryl Hannah.
Complex characters
A New York Times movie critic, who wrote about the movie, said, “Mr. De Niro and Mr. Duvall are at the peak of their talents here. They work so beautifully together it sometimes seems like a single performance, two sides of the same complex character.”
In 1981, the former El Rancho movie theater on C Street in Old Town Victorville advertised the double-feature “True Confessions” and the film “Thief,” starring James Caan.
Meanwhile, the new and later demolished “The Movies” four-screen theater on Palmdale Road in Victorville featured the film “DB Cooper,” starring Duvall, who played the role of insurance detective Bill Gruen.
After “True Confessions,” Duvall earned an Oscar for best actor when he starred in the1983 film “Tender Mercies,” which also garnered an Academy Award for best screenplay.
Duvall’s icon line
In “Apocalypse Now,” Duvall plays Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore as he commands soldiers during the Vietnam War.
As U.S. military helicopters fly over a remote village, they rain down rockets, bullets and napalm, which kill both innocents and enemy soldiers.
In one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, Kilgore kneels among his men as the orange mist of napalm engulfs the landscape.
That is when Kilgore says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” and saying the odor smells “like victory.”
USA TODAY contributed to this story.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz