Hollywood screen legend Robert Duvall has passed away at 95 years old. His publicist and his wife, Luciana Duvall, both revealed that he died “peacefully” at his home on Sunday in Middleburg, Virginia. 

The iconic, Oscar-winning actor and director was known for his versatility, playing numerous tough characters and classic roles, often exploring themes of faith and redemption through film.

“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."

Robert Selden Duvall grew up in a churchgoing family in Navy towns like Annapolis and San Diego as his father rose to become a U.S. admiral. He has mentioned how his mother prayed intensely for his father's protection throughout World War II.

"Occasionally Mom woke up in the middle of the night with the overwhelming urge to pray for him," Duvall once recalled. "One morning at the breakfast table, she told us of the trouble she had sensed Dad was in. Later, we learned he had narrowly escaped being blown sky-high by a German torpedo during the night."

He said his father and the military world he grew up in informed some of his most iconic roles, explaining in 2003: "My dad was a gentleman but a seether, a stern, blustery guy, and away a lot of the time." 

Duvall first gained notice for a small part as the reclusive Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1962. Throughout his wide-ranging career, he played strong characters like Tom Hagen in "The Godfather," deranged figures like Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," and won a best actor Academy Award for portraying an over-the-hill country music singer in “Tender Mercies” in 1983. 

Playing the part of Mac Sledge in "Tender Mercies," he spoke about God and experienced a spiritual transformation, as revealed through scenes like his baptism and a deep discussion about faith, providence, and grace with his wife in the movie.

Duvall won four Golden Globes, as well, including one for playing what would become his favorite role as a philosophical cattle-drive boss in the 1989 miniseries “Lonesome Dove.” In 2005, Duvall was also awarded a National Medal of Arts.

He played alongside other screen legends such as Michael Caine in the 2003 "Secondhand Lions," and John Wayne in the Western classic “True Grit.”

In 1998, he was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor in "The Apostle," a drama about a wayward Southern evangelist, which he wrote, directed, starred in, produced, and largely financed. He did extremely thorough research and spent 12 years writing the script and trying to get the film made.

After making "The Apostle" in 1997, he told Guideposts, "My work on the movie filled my soul. One Sunday in New York, I visited six churches, ending up at Harlem's vast Abyssinian Baptist Church. There in a packed congregation before a huge choir, when we all began to sing 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus,' I found myself connected to the Lord in a way I had never felt before, deep within me."

"Yes, I thought, we're all kin through Jesus. Not just what we read about him in the Bible, but who he is. That was the secret to powerful faith, the power I wanted to convey in my movie."

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Some of his other redemptive roles were in "Get Low" in 2009 and a Christian sports drama called "Seven Days in Utopia" in 2011. 

While making "Seven Days in Utopia", Duvall spoke to CBN News about his role, saying that although his character Johnny was a wise man, he's far from perfect. 

"We changed things because I said Johnny is a little too white bread... there's only one Jesus Christ," Duvall said. He encouraged film-makers to give Johnny "some demons" to make him more human.

But he didn't always take credit for his work or ideas, especially when it came to his passion project, "The Apostle," which he felt was guided by the hand of God. 

"Some of my Pentecostal friends tell me my urgings were the Holy Spirit's doing. I'm inclined to agree with them," he said. "I think some viewers might be shocked—pleasantly so, I hope—to hear Jesus' name mentioned so often."