'Landman' Star Reflects on Robert Duvall's 'Cutting' Wit 'Right Up Until the End'

Curmudgeonly is perhaps an applicable term to the late, great Robert Duvall, who passed away aged 95 less than a week ago. That’s thanks to new insight provided by the Oscar-winning actor’s close friend and frequent collaborator, Billy Bob Thornton.

The pair go way back, beginning with the 1995 movie The Stars Fell on Henrietta, in which they played oil men Mr. Cox and Roy. From there on, the Apocalypse Now and To Kill a Mockingbird icon transformed into something of a mentor to Thornton, and cameoed in his career-launching indie drama, Sling Blade. Other reunions occurred on The Family Thing, Jayne Mansfield’s Car, The Apostle, and The Judge.

While venturing down memory lane via Deadline, Landman favorite Thornton paid tribute to the lovable irascibility of the star, who once belittled him in front of his The Boxmasters bandmates after they made a special trip to his home while on tour. It was all par for the course within their dynamic, though, no hard feelings whatsoever.

“He had such a wit about him, right up to the end,” noted the 70-year-old. “My band was on tour last year, and we opened for The Who in Miami and then had a date in Newark. We had a couple days’ drive, and he had always asked me to come to his farm in Virginia. Me and the guys went to this unbelievable place. Bobby was always hilarious in his very dry and sometimes cutting way. His wife Luciana took a video of me standing there by Bobby. He’s in a chair and she says, ‘Bobby, aren’t you happy that Billy came by to see you?’ Bobby goes, ‘Why would I be happy about that?’ And this is my mentor, here.”

Such was Thornton’s total adoration for Duvall, he even hand-wrote a letter to him expressing his gratitude for everything he’d done for him over the years. Typically, this was never discussed between the pair afterwards.

“I loved Bobby so much that years and years ago, I wrote a letter to him, telling him how much he meant to me and how he had changed my life,” Thornton recalled.

“He never mentioned he got it, never told me he’d gotten it. And in the movie Jayne Mansfield’s Car, I used that. There’s a scene in there where I talk to him about, ‘Once I wrote you this letter, and you never even looked at it.’ When we did the scene, he still didn’t say anything about it. Like, ‘Hey, is this about that letter you wrote me that time?’ Nothing.”