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Fans of actor Robert Duvall today are mourning his death at age 95 and recalling their favorite Duvall movies.
South Louisiana residents, meanwhile, are reminiscing about the time Duvall spent filming and directing “The Apostle” in Acadiana.
Released in 1997, “The Apostle” starred Duvall as a Texas preacher who fled to Louisiana after beating his wife’s lover.
According to online and local sources, St. Martin Parish was the primary location for the movie’s production.
Other Acadiana locations reportedly included in and around the former East Bayou Baptist Church in Lafayette, Sunset and the Atchafalaya Basin.
People also recall some scenes were shot in and around Baton Rouge, Gibson and Des Allemands.
Other known actors in the film included Billy Bob Thornton, Farrah Fawcett and June Carter Cash.
Duval reportedly hired local actors, production workers and extras.
Attorney Ryan Goudelocke was around 17-18 years old and an altar boy when he was called upon by the Diocese of Lafayette to play a small, nonspeaking role in the film.
Goudelocke played an altar boy holding a book while the Rev. Glynn Provost performed a ceremony during the Blessing of the Fleet.
Duvall, he recalled, was in the background of the scene. Goudelock didn’t speak with him.
“I thought it was kind of neat being in it for about half a second,” he said.
Lafayette native Leslie Bourque-Walsh, who now lives in New Jersey, was a production assistant on the film, setting up Fawcett’s hotel room at the Hilton, getting her food and favorite flowers. She picked up Billy Bob Thornton’s assistant at the airport and they became friends, reconnecting when Bourque-Walsh moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.
Shirees Dufour wrote on the Lafayette Memories Facebook page that a hospital scene was filmed at a motel off Cajundome Boulevard and Cameron Street in Lafayette and that she met Fawcett while she was in town filming.
Fawcett visited Craig Guilbeaux’s restaurant two nights in a row, he recalled, and signed a menu for him.
Some scenes were shot near Beau Chene High School in Prairie Basse near Arnaudville. According to Willie Vincent Sr., a scene early in the film with a car upside down in a pasture was filmed across from the school, while Sarah Breaux recalled some working on the film ate lunch in the school cafeteria.
Vincent said some scenes were filmed at his grandfather’s old store in Breaux Bridge, which later became Charlie Ts.
Other locals recall seeing Duvall alone at Downtown Alive as well as at Mulate’s Restaurant in Breaux Bridge.
The Oscar-winning actor, whose classic roles also included the intrepid consigliere of the first two “Godfather” movies and the over-the-hill country music singer in “Tender Mercies,” died “peacefully” at his home Sunday 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.”
