Waylon Jennings was there, too.
Los Angeles*
Robert Duvall told the Academy Awards audience that he was especially honored that the giants of the music genre — including Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings — thought so highly of his performance.
When making Tender Mercies, Duvall insisted that he do his own singing, even writing a few of (his character) Sledge’s songs, just one example of the authenticity and compassion he brought to his portrayal of a has-been musician laid low by addiction and personal failings who was determined to redeem himself.
Duvall never allowed Sledge to be a simplistic good ol’ boy or, conversely, a blandly saintly figure of pure virtue. It’s a tough, tender performance — and one of those rare cases when a great actor actually takes home an Oscar for one of his best roles.
Actress Tess Harper, who co-starred, said Duvall inhabited the character so fully that she only got to know Mac Sledge and not Duvall himself. Director Bruce Beresford said that he could feel his skin crawling up the back of his neck the first day of filming. Beresford said, “Duvall has the ability to completely inhabit the person he’s acting. He totally and utterly becomes that person to a degree which is uncanny.”
Francis Ford Coppola has praised Duvall as “one of the four or five best actors in the world.”
Duvall was known as a skilled Argentine tango dancer and maintained tango studios in both Argentina and the United States.
“He made a very good living playing tough men who make tough choices and then make no apologies. They’re among Hollywood’s most original and memorable characters, and so is the man who created them.”
-Rebecca Leung, January, 2004
* Duvall’s Oscar suit was made by Manuel.
