Five years after his brief run on American Idol, previously unseen footage of Benson Boone performing on the show has finally aired.
During the Feb. 16 episode of the ABC competition series, producers broadcast an unaired duet between Boone and returning contestant Mary Jo Young from season 19.
The two had performed “You Say” by Lauren Daigle during Hollywood Week in 2021, though the pairing did not make it to air at the time.
Young, now 24, previously reached the Top 24 during season 19 of the ABC competition series, while Boone advanced to Hollywood Week that season but later withdrew from the competition.
In the years since, he has emerged as one of the show’s most commercially successful alumni who did not complete a full season run. His 2024 single “Beautiful Things” became a breakout global hit, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping charts internationally.
Reflecting on that moment, Young joked to the judges, “Me forgetting all the lyrics to ‘You Say.’” She added, “When it came to an end, it was a good, kick the baby bird out of its nest because I needed to go and grow.”
Since her initial appearance on Idol, Young has toured as an opening act for Alex Warren and Jesse Murph. She told the judges that her confidence has grown in the years since her first audition.
For her return performance, Young sang her original song “Don’t Call Me.” Underwood praised both the material and the delivery, telling her, “I liked it a lot. I liked the song a lot. Your voice has a different tone to it. It’s got some power under it when you start going for the higher stuff. [There is] a lot of personality in you and your voice as well.”
Richie offered broader career advice, saying, “I tell people who try to get in the business, it ain’t about singing, it’s about surviving. If you can get through that, that’s the key. You’re doing quite well at surviving. It sounds great.”
Bryan noted a shift in her stage presence: “There is a different air of confidence to you that’s totally new. We’re glad you came back around.”
Young received three yes votes, sending her to Hollywood Week. Despite the name, this season’s Hollywood phase is taking place in Nashville, with episodes scheduled to air Feb. 23 and March 2 on ABC.
Following her Golden Ticket moment, Young reflected on her return to the show: “I wanted to come back to American Idol because I learned the most from the show than I have on any tour. I’m going to Hollywood Week much more prepared. This ticket shows me it’s always good to get up and try again, and I’m proud of myself for it.”
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Lainey Wilson may be in the middle of a major international run, but when it comes to career milestones, few moments top being able to call Dolly Parton a friend.
Appearing live in studio on Nova 96.9’sRicki-Lee & Tim in Sydney, Australia, on Monday morning (Feb. 16), the Grammy-winning country star reflected on her growing bond with the country icon, describing the relationship as both surreal and deeply meaningful.
“It’s insane. She has become a dear friend, which is also weird for me to say,” Wilson said when asked about working with Parton.
Wilson went on to praise Parton not just as a performer, but as a business force and industry trailblazer. “The way that she has, like, continued to pave a path and I mean, she’s an incredible human businesswoman, like, she’s just got it going on,” Wilson added.
That tour stop brought Wilson to Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday night (Feb. 15), where she said the crowd delivered one of the most intense reactions she’s experienced.
“Honestly, it was probably one of the loudest shows that I’ve ever seen,” she said. “They were singing songs that I normally see, like 75% of the crowd singing.”
Wilson admitted it took her until 2 a.m. to wind down following the performance. “To tell you the truth it does take me a long time to come down,” she said, describing the post-show quiet as a “weird feeling” after performing in front of thousands.
“I pick up people’s energy so much, I kind of feel like the whole show is an energy exchange,” Wilson explained. “It’s like, I’m putting it out there and they’re giving it back.”
While in the studio, Wilson also joked about one aspect of the recent Grammy Awards ceremony she’d like to see improved.
“Tiny little tables! I was like come on Grammys… give us a bigger table,” she said with a laugh, referring to the cramped seating arrangements at the awards show.
Wilson continues her Australian dates this week before returning to the U.S. for additional tour commitments.
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A new commercial released Monday featured the singer’s “Opalite” soundtracking an NBC Olympics preview of the women’s figure skating event, which kicks off Feb. 17. In the clip, Swift introduces Team USA figure skaters Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — who have dubbed themselves “The Blade Angels.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Amber, Alysa and Isabeau, three American showgirls on ice who will capture your heart with their stories,” Swift says in a voiceover for the clip. The singer goes on to share a few words about each of the skaters, setting up their competition debut this week.
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Watch Women’s Figure Skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
The women’s figure skating event is the last event for this Olympics’ figure skating competition. Team USA won the gold medal in the team event, with Liu competing in the short program while Glenn took the ice for the long program. The women’s individual event will be Levito’s debut in Milan.
Want to watch women’s figure skating at the Olympics? The short program airs on USA Network while the long program airs on NBC. You can watch women’s figure skating with a cable package that includes both networks.
There are also watch to Olympic figure skating online without cable.
Streaming Options for Figure Skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics
NBC is the official broadcaster for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. Skating segments will be airing during NBC’s primetime broadcasts, typically 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM (EST/PST), but you can watch the figure skating event live online through Peacock.
Watch Olympic Figure Skating on Peacock
Peacock is the official streaming home of the 2026 Winter Olympics. While there is no free trial for new users, the platform offers affordable plans starting at just $10.99 per month, or an annual plan for $109.99 per year (which gets you 12 months of streaming for the price of 10).
You can also watch figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics through DIRECTV, a live TV streamer that lets you watch hundreds of channels online without cable. All of DIRECTV‘s packages include access to NBC as part of their base lineup, though we’d suggest the ENTERTAINMENT package for the most options.
This package is currently available for $89.99 a month and is ideal for those looking to tap into a slew of entertainment-based channels. If you’re unsure about committing to a new subscription, you can try the service out for free for five days, which will let you livestream women’s figure skating at the Olympics for free.
Watch Olympic Figure Skating on Hulu + Live TV
Another option to watch figure skating online is a Hulu + Live TV subscription, given that NBC is included in the live TV channel lineup. The service also offers a three-day free trial to new users. A subscription to the service (with ads) will cost $89.99 per month, while the plan without ads goes for $99.99 per month. Both plans give you access to watch the 2026 Olympics live online without cable.
Women’s Figure Skating at the Olympics: Skaters, Favorites
Team USA won the gold medal in the team event, and both Liu and Glenn will be looking to take the top spot in the individual women’s event as well. They’ll face a stiff challenge from three-time World Champion and 2022 Olympic bronze medalist, Kaori Sakamoto, from Japan. Other challengers include Japan’s Mone Chiba and Russian star Adeliia Petrosian, who is competing under the “Neutral Athletes” banner (for Russian and Belarusian athletes granted an exemption to compete at the Olympics; Russia and Belarus are currently banned from competing as a country due to their invasion of Ukraine).
More on Music, Figure Skating & Team USA
When it comes down to choosing music for programs, athletes will often choose dynamic and rhythmic pieces. Generally, free-flowing music that you can get lost in is an obvious pick, however, unique tracks have also become pretty common too. During the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Katarina Witt chose “Carmen” by Georges Bizet, a dramatic opera score that helped Witt win her second Olympic gold medal. “Seimei” by Shigeru Umebayashi was chosen by beloved Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu during the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
The track is classical Japanese orchestral music at its best, featuring quiet moments, punctuated by powerful crescendos. It marked Hanyu’s return to the ice after injury and earned him a gold medal. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Team USA figure skater Nathan Chen chose “Rocket Man” by Elton John, an iconic contemporary pick that showed off Chen’s flair on the ice. Chen won gold that year. We’re excited to see what Team USA has in store for their music choices.
Alysa Liu had planned on her short program being set to “This Is How It Feels,” by Icelandic singer Laufey featuring D4vd. Liu scrapped that idea ahead of the Olympics, according to ESPN due to controversy with D4vd revolving around the body of a missing teenage girl that was found in an impounded Tesla that was reportedly registered to the singer.
Overall, the United States has snagged the most medals in Figure Skating, a whopping 54, specifically in men’s and women’s singles events. If we’re talking gold, Team USA has a total of 17 Olympic gold medals as of 2026.
See the 2026 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Schedule Below
Monday, February 16 2 a.m. ET: Pairs: Short Program re-air (USA Network) 11:30 a.m. ET: Pairs: Free Skate: Warm-Up (Peacock) 2 p.m. ET: Pair: Free Skate (Peacock, USA Network) 3:55 p.m. ET: Pairs: Free Skate Part 2 (NBC) 8 p.m. ET: NBC Primetime in Milan, featuring Pairs Free Skate
Tuesday, February 17 2 a.m. ET: Pairs: Free Skate re-air (USA Network) 10:20 a.m. ET: Women’s Short Program: Warm-Up (Peacock, USA Network) 12:45 p.m. ET: Women’s Short Program (Peacock, USA Network) 2:40 p.m. ET: Women’s Short Program Part 2 (NBC) 8 p.m. ET: NBC Primetime in Milan, featuring Women’s Short Program
Saturday, February 21 2 p.m. ET: Exhibition Gala (Peacock) 2:55 p.m. ET: Exhibition Gala (NBC) 3:50 p.m. ET: Exhibition Gala (NBC) 8 p.m. ET: Primetime in Milan, featuring Exhibition Gala
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Songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly met through producer Keith Olsen in 1981, and it quickly became clear that the two had very complementary songwriting strengths.
“Billy was way stronger lyrically and I’m much stronger musically. So rather than me struggling to finish a lyric and rather than him writing a simplistic rock and roll song, we started working together,” Kelly recalled Monday (Feb. 16) afternoon, shortly after Steinberg died of cancer at the age of 75.
They delighted in how well they worked together. “In the early days, we would just kind of laugh and look at each other, like, ‘Did you hear that? What did we just do?” Kelly recalls. “It was just like a chemical reaction. You put something in a test tube, and it bubbles over. He and I really made magic together.”
Kelly recalls that Steinberg “would sit with a legal pad and his little fountain pen and just stare at that page and I’d watch his brain grinding. He just was great with words and catch phrases. He just was born to do it. He just had a gift.”
They had a legion of other hits, among them, Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You,” the Bangles’ “In Your Room,” Lauper’s “I Drove All Night” and the Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself.” Taylor Dayne, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Bette Midler, Cheap Trick, Belinda Carlisle and many other artists also recorded their songs.
Steinberg and Kelly, who signed to Epic Records as a duo under the name I-10, began getting their songs recorded in the early ‘80. “We had had some luck writing good songs and placing some songs, but we hadn’t had any big hit records,” Kelly recalls.
That all changed when Madonna cut “Like a Virgin,” a song inspired by Steinberg falling in love again after a bad breakup. The pair, who were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011, scored their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the Madonna song in 1984 and quickly followed with four more No. 1 songs over five years. More than 40 years later, “Like a Virgin” remains Madonna’s biggest hit, spending six weeks at No. 1.
Steinberg usually wrote the lyrics first but then stayed with Kelly as he wrote the music. “Billy couldn’t stand to be in another room. He always wanted to be right there, which was fine. He was a good sounding board,” Kelly says. “I wrote almost all the music, but he threw in his two cents on what he liked and what he didn’t. Billy was obsessed with making music and making songs more than I am. He was the workaholic, and probably good for my work ethic.”
Kelly last saw Steinberg only a few days before his death. “I had a great visit with him,” he says. “It was perfect.”
On Monday afternoon, Kelly revisited the pair’s five No. 1s for Billboard and recalled the story of how he and his friend created each one.
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Joel Madden says there’s one Australian rock anthem he wishes he’d written — and it belongs to Silverchair.
Speaking on Triple M’s Homegrown with Matty O, the Good Charlotte frontman was asked to name an Australian song he would have liked to claim as his own. After listing several tracks he admires, Madden ultimately chose “Israel’s Son,” the breakout 1995 single from Silverchair’s debut album, Frogstomp.
“Tomorrow would be on the list,” Madden said, referencing another Silverchair hit. He went on to name several songs written by frontman Daniel Johns, including “Straight Lines,” “Slave” and “Suicidal Dreams,” adding that he would “have to make a full list of Aussie songs.”
He also cited Gotye’s global hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” and the catalog of Crowded House before narrowing his pick down. “If I had to pick one, I’m gonna go with ‘Israel’s Son,’” he said. “I’d love to talk to Daniel. He’s got great perspective, and he’s always been himself.”
Silverchair’s “Israel’s Son” was released in 1995 and became an early signature track for the band, helping propel Frogstomp to international success.
The album reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200, marking a rare breakthrough for an Australian rock act in the U.S. market during the post-grunge era.
Madden’s comments came ahead of Good Charlotte’s upcoming Australian tour, where he also discussed the band’s eighth studio album and how touring has evolved over the years. Throughout the conversation, he noted his long-standing appreciation for Australian music, calling the country “always on the forefront of music.”
Good Charlotte have had their own history of Billboard success, earning multiple top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, including 2004’s The Chronicles of Life and Death, which peaked at No. 3. Their breakout 2002 set The Young and the Hopeless reached No. 7 on the chart.
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Taylor Swift‘s “Opalite” is the soundtrack in a new NBC Olympics preview that has the pop star introducing Team USA figure skaters Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — a trio of athletes also known as “The Blade Angels.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Amber, Alysa and Isabeau, three American showgirls on ice who will capture your heart with their stories,” Swift says in a voiceover for the clip, which was released on Monday (Feb. 16) and which goes on to give a brief backstory for three figure skaters competing on the U.S. team. (See NBC’s broadcast schedule for figure skating coverage here.)
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“Amber will be the first to tell you about how many battles she’s fought, and about how the ones she’s lost have meant as much as the wins. Her superpower now is embracing the fight and daring the world to test her self-belief,” Swift says of Amber Glenn.
“As for Alyssa, she walked away from skating when she was 16, but then came back on her own terms. Joy fuels her now. Every jump, a celebration. Every performance, a testament to the beauty of knowing yourself,” adds Swift.
“And then, Isabeau,” says Swift. “I mean, she’s destiny personified. Her mom grew up in Milan, and her nona, her grandma, lived exactly 13 minutes from the Olympic rink. When you skate like you’re meant to be out there, history has a funny way of showing up.”
Swift’s — who just released a music video (and a couple extended versions, with behind-the-scenes footage) for her latest The Life of a Showgirl single, “Opalite,” — has been showing her support for the Team USA in the 2026 Winter Games. Earlier in February, a video she filmed of herself wishing the Olympic athletes luck aired during NBC’s opening ceremony.
Watch the new NBC Olympics promo spot narrated by Swift below, and find out how to watch all the 2026 Winter Olympics coverage here.
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“The idea for that song came from personal experience,” Billy Steinberg said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, as chronicled in Fred Bronson’s The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, about Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”
“I wasn’t just trying to somehow get that racy word virgin in a lyric,” mused Steinberg, who co-authored the song with longtime writing partner Tom Kelly. “I was saying that I may not really be a virgin — I’ve been battered romantically and emotionally like many people — but I’m starting a new relationship and it just feels so good it’s healing all the wounds and making me feel like I’ve never done this before, because it’s so much deeper and more profound than anything I’ve ever felt.”
Songwriter Billy Steinberg, Co-Writer of ‘Like a Virgin’ and ‘True Colors,’ Dies at 74
Steinberg’s compositions became mainstays in the Hot 100’s top 40 from the 1980s to the 2010s, recorded by acts also including the Bangles, Heart, JoJo, Cyndi Lauper and Demi Lovato, whose “Give Your Heart a Break,” which Steinberg co-wrote with Josh Alexander, also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart in 2012.
In honor of Steinberg, who, as announced Feb. 16, died in Los Angeles at age 74, here is a recap of his 15 biggest Hot 100 hits — including five No. 1s — as a songwriter, all enduring top 40 titles and, notably, all sung by women artists.
As for “Like a Virgin,” after it was written, Bronson noted that Michael Ostin, then of Warner Brothers Records’ A&R department, played it for Madonna, after hearing Kelly and Steinberg’s demo, and she “went crazy, and immediately knew it was a song for her and that she could make a great record out of it.”
Songwriter Billy Steinberg’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, through the Feb. 14, 2026 ranking. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
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Austrian public prosecutors filed terrorism-related charges Monday (Feb. 16) against a 21-year-old defendant who they say planned to carry out an attack on one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna in August 2024.
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Vienna public prosecutors said in a statement that the unnamed defendant had declared allegiance to the Islamic State group by sharing propaganda material and videos via various messaging services.
Vienna prosecutors also accuse the defendant of having “obtained instructions on the internet for the construction of a shrapnel bomb based on the explosive triacetone triperoxide” typically used by IS, and of having produced a small amount of the explosive.
Prosecutors also say that the defendant had made “several attempts” to buy weapons illegally outside the country and to bring them to Austria.
Vienna public prosecutors plan to proceed with a criminal case against the unnamed suspect in Wiener Neustadt, a town near the Austrian capital.
The spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutors office confirmed to The Associated Press that the defendant is in custody. Austrian media identified the suspect as Beran A. and said he was arrested in August 2024.
Austrian authorities canceled three planned Taylor Swift shows in Vienna in August 2024 after they said they foiled an apparent plot to target the performances.
The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.
“The United States has an enduring focus on our counterterrorism mission. We work closely with partners all over the world to monitor and disrupt threats. And so as part of that work, the United States did share information with Austrian partners to enable the disruption of a threat to Taylor Swift’s concerts there in Vienna,” then-White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in August 2024.
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Songwriter Billy Steinberg, who died Monday (Feb. 16) from cancer, was responsible for some of the most indelible pop songs of the ‘80s and ‘90s, including “True Colors,” which became one of Cyndi Lauper’s signature hits and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.
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But the Grammy-nominated song wasn’t the only tune that Steinberg and his then songwriting partner Tom Kelly had cut by Lauper. She recorded a number of their songs, including “I Drove All Night” and “Unconditional Love.”
In a statement to Billboard, Lauper said, “I’m so sorry to hear of Billy Steinberg’s passing. He was a great lyricist and a wonderful collaborator. He and Tom had such a way of capturing the range within an emotion, from the subtlety to urgency. When I think back across ‘True Colors,’ ‘Unconditional Love,’ ‘I Drove All Night,’ ‘My First Night Without You,’ and ‘Heading West,’ I’m wowed. I mean, come on, ‘I’m like a letter with no address.’ Pure genius. For ‘True Colors,’ there was a lot of back and forth which I know was hard for him. In the end, he said that I had really invented my own ‘very exquisitely beautiful version’ of the song. That really meant a lot to me. It is a special song.”
Steinberg initially wrote “True Colors” about his mom, but Lauper then amended it to be about a friend who died of AIDS during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. “”He died of AIDS, and [‘True Colors’] was for us to feel better,” she told People in 2023 on the red carpet of the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her new documentary Let the Canary Sing. “He had wanted me to write a song for him, and I tried.”
The song subsequently became and remains a powerful LGBTQIA anthem of love and acceptance.
At the Grammy Museum’s 2023 “The Power of Song: A Songwriters Hall of Fame Exhibit,” Steinberg was represented by a demo for “True Colors” recorded on a TDK SA 60 cassette and a note from Lauper that read, “Billy — Thanks for sending me and writing such a beautiful song. [Heart] Cyndi.”
Steinberg also co-wrote such pop classics as Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame,” Heart’s “Alone” and Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional.”
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Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor of matchless versatility and dedication whose classic roles included the intrepid consigliere of the first two Godfather movies and the over-the-hill country music singer in Tender Mercies, has died at age 95.
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Duvall died “peacefully” at his home Sunday (Feb. 15) in Middleburg, Virginia, according to an announcement from his publicist and from a statement posted on his Facebook page by his wife, Luciana Duvall.
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall wrote. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented.”
The bald, wiry Duvall didn’t have leading man looks, but few “character actors” enjoyed such a long, rewarding and unpredictable career, in leading and supporting roles, from an itinerant preacher to Josef Stalin. Beginning with his 1962 film debut as Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbor in To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall created a gallery of unforgettable portrayals. They earned him seven Academy Award nominations and the best actor prize for Tender Mercies, which came out in 1983. He also won four Golden Globes, including one for playing the philosophical cattle-drive boss in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, a role he often cited as his favorite.
In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts.
He had been acting for some 20 years when The Godfather, released in 1972, established him as one of the most in-demand performers of Hollywood. He had made a previous film, The Rain People, with Francis Coppola, and the director chose him to play Tom Hagen in the mafia epic that featured Al Pacino and Marlon Brando among others. Duvall was a master of subtlety as an Irishman among Italians, rarely at the center of a scene, but often listening and advising in the background, an irreplaceable thread through the saga of the Corleone crime family.
“Stars and Italians alike depend on his efficiency, his tidying up around their grand gestures, his being the perfect shortstop on a team of personality sluggers,” wrote the critic David Thomson. “Was there ever a role better designed for its actor than that of Tom Hagen in both parts of ‘The Godfather?’”
In another Coppola film, Apocalypse Now, Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigor enjoyed surfing and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous passages in movie history, barked out on the battlefield by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body.
“The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like — victory.”
Coppola once commented about Duvall: “Actors click into character at different times — the first week, third week. Bobby’s hot after one or two takes.”
He was Oscar-nominated as supporting actor for The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, but a dispute over money led him to turn down the third Godfather epic, a loss deeply felt by critics, fans and Godfather colleagues. Duvall would complain publicly about being offered less than his co-stars.
Fellow actors marveled at Duvall’s studious research and planning, and his coiled energy. Michael Caine, who co-starred with him in the 2003 Secondhand Lions, once told The Associated Press: “Before a big scene, Bobby just sits there, absolutely quiet; you know when not to talk to him.” Anyone who disturbed him would suffer the well-known Duvall temper, famously on display during the filming of the John Wayne Western True Grit, when Duvall seethed at director Henry Hathaway’s advice to “tense up” before a scene.
Duvall was awarded an Oscar in 1984 for his leading role as the troubled singer and songwriter Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies, a prize he accepted while clad in a cowboy tuxedo with Western tie. In 1998, he was nominated for best actor in The Apostle, a drama about a wayward Southern evangelist which he wrote, directed, starred in, produced and largely financed. With customary thoroughness, he visited dozens of country churches and spent 12 years writing the script and trying to get it made.
Among other notable roles: the outlaw gang leader who gets ambushed by John Wayne in True Grit; Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid; the pious and beleaguered Frank Burns in M-A-S-H; the TV hatchet man in Network; Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; and the sadistic father in The Great Santini.
“When I was doing ‘Colors’ in 1988 with Sean Penn, someone asked me how I do it all these years, keep it fresh. Well, if you don’t overwork, have some hobbies, you can do it and stay hungry even if you’re not really hungry,” Duvall told The Associated Press in 1990.
In his mid-80s, he received a supporting Oscar nomination as the title character of the 2014 release The Judge, in which he is accused of causing a death in a hit-and-run accident. More recent films included Widows and 12 Mighty Orphans.
Robert Selden Duvall grew up in the Navy towns of Annapolis and the San Diego area, where he was born in 1931. He spent time in other cities as his father, who rose to be an admiral, was assigned to various duties.
The boy’s experience helped in his adult profession as he learned the nuances of regional speech and observed the psyche of military men, which he would portray in several films.
Duvall reportedly used his Navy officer father as the basis for his portrayal of the explosive militarist in The Great Santini, based on the Pat Conroy novel. He commented in 2003: “My dad was a gentleman but a seether, a stern, blustery guy, and away a lot of the time.” Bobby took after his mother, an amateur actress, in playing a guitar and performing. He was a wrestler like his father and enjoyed besting kids older than himself.
He lacked the concentration for schoolwork and nearly flunked out of Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. His despairing parents decided he needed something to keep him in college so he wouldn’t be drafted for the Korean War. “They recommended acting as an expedient thing to get through,” he recalled. “I’m glad they did.” He flourished in drama classes.
“Way back when I was in college,” Duvall told the AP in 1990, “there was a wonderful man named Frank Parker, who had been a dancer in World War I. We did a full-length mime play and I played a Harlequin clown. I really liked that.
“Then, I played an older guy in ‘All My Sons,’ and at one point I had this emotional moment, where this emotion was pouring out. Parker said at that moment he didn’t think acting can be carried any further than that. And this guy was a very critical guy. So I thought, at that moment at least, this is what I wanted to do.”
After two years in the Army, he used the G.I. Bill to finance his studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, hanging out with such other young hopefuls as Robert Morse, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. After a one-night performance in A View From the Bridge, Duvall began getting offers for work in TV series, among them The Naked City and The Defenders.
Between his high-paying jobs in major productions, Duvall devoted himself to directing personal projects: a documentary about a prairie family, We’re Not the Jet Set; a film about gypsies, Angelo, My Love; and Assassination Tango, in which he also starred.
Duvall had been a tango dancer since seeing the musical Tango Argentina in the 1980s and visited in Argentina dozens of times to study the dance and the culture. The result was the 2003 release about a hit man with a passion for tango.
His co-star was Luciana Pedraza, 42 years his junior, whom he married in 2005. Duvall’s three previous marriages — to Barbara Benjamin, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy — ended in divorce.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-02-16 20:46:162026-02-16 20:46:16Robert Duvall, Oscar-Winning Actor and ‘Godfather’ Mainstay, Dies at 95
