'To Kill a Mockingbird' Features a Cameo From a Future Hollywood Legend

The 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. It's easy to understand how that could happen given the classic novel that serves as the source material for the film. Lee's story centers around the morally squared-away, well-spoken lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) who represents a Black man and accused rapist Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) in the racially divided Maycomb, Alabama. His earnest and quietly dignified performance won him the Best Actor Oscar in 1963. The role was just the latest in a litany of award-winning films Peck would star in. But another actor in the movie was making his big screen debut in a cameo role that you may have not been aware of. It's understandable if you missed this future icon of Hollywood as he would only appear on-screen for just a few minutes, but it was the beginning of one of the most illustrious and acclaimed careers in the history of film. So which stalwart of the silver screen are we talking about? We're referring to the one and only Robert Duvall.

How Did Robert Duvall Get His Start in Hollywood?

Before making his debut in To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall had appeared in a number of popular television shows in the early 60s including small roles in Route 66 and Naked City. He also appeared in other noteworthy small-screen dramas like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, and The Virginian. After making his big screen debut in 1962, Duvall would land a role in three episodes of the enormously popular The Fugitive in 1963. From the very beginning of his career, Duvall was appearing in widely seen productions and quickly started to make a name for himself. It wouldn't be long until he was consistently appearing in films like the 1968 Steve McQueen hit Bullitt, alongside John Wayne in True Grit in 1969, and then in M*A*S*H* as Major Frank Burns a year later.

Who Is Boo Radley?

The character of Boo Radley is one shrouded in mystery and exists more as an allusion spoken of in hushed tones by the children of the local neighborhood. Finch's kids Jem (Phillip Alford) and Scout (Mary Badham) tell tall tales to the other kids about how a monster named Boo Radley is chained in a dark outhouse and only comes out at night. He's six and a half feet tall and has yellow, rotten teeth. Harper Lee writes of the character as more of a mythical, monstrous boogeyman or Sasquatch than an actual human being. The kids spend the hot summer days in the deep South proving their courage and bravery by venturing as close as they can get to the mysterious Boo Radley without being detected. The legend grows with every daring mission onto the Radley property and each close call they have with the character. Lee's expertly crafted development of an ominous unseen character is one of the finest aspects of the novel - and perhaps any novel - and is beautifully translated onto the screen.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' Is Robert Duvall's Glorious Film Debut

Living up to the mercurial and misunderstood legend that Lee had so eloquently created was going to be a daunting task for any performer. The fact that he ended up being a future Hollywood legend may be little more than serendipity, but it also proved that the actor was capable of conjuring indelible images from his very first appearance on screen. We don't get a glimpse of Boo until after the trial and racially motivated murder of Tom Robinson. In a movie with a runtime of over two hours and nine minutes, our first look at the face of the young Robert Duvall is exactly at the two-hour mark. Robert Ewell (James Anderson), the racist man who had his daughter frame Tom Robinson and spat in Atticus Finch's face for representing a Black man attacks the two children while out for a walk in the nearby woods. Boo kills Ewell and rescues the two. He then delivers the injured Jem back home safely to Atticus. But we have still yet to see Duvall's face as he is captured from behind carrying Jem away from the scene of the attack and down the street.

Boo Radley Is Not a Monster at All

Scout is recounting what had just happened to her and Jem in the woods and directs Atticus' and Sheriff Heck Tate's (Frank Overton) attention to a shadowy figure standing behind the half-open door as the one who saved her and Jem. You can't make out his face until he suddenly darts out of the shadows and shuffles into the nearby corner of the room becoming fully visible. Duvall's Boo is nothing like the monster they had imagined from all the tall tales they had heard and repeated. Boo's name is actually Arthur, and he is meek, shy, and has an overtly genteel nature about him. His blond hair is mussed, and he doesn't speak, but he radiates a childlike innocence. Scout grabs his hand and tells him it's okay to softly touch the sleeping Jem's head, and he does. He grabs her hand again and the two peacefully walk out of the room. Boo and Scout sit together on the porch swing until Scout gets up and makes the argument to Atticus that holding Boo accountable for Ewell's death is, "like killing a mockingbird," referencing an anecdote that Atticus had shared with her early in the film as one of the worst things you could ever do because all mockingbirds do is sing and bring us joy. An epic climax to one of the best stories ever told and then adapted to film as Atticus thanks Boo for saving his children's lives and Scout walks him home hand in hand.

Robert Duvall Went on to Have One of the Most Impressive Careers in Hollywood

The great Robert Selden Duvall is 92 years old and has accumulated more than 90 film credits and another 41 television credits. He has played characters ranging from a Mafioso lawyer in the first two Godfather films - which are inarguably the finest pair of movies ever made - to a cattle rancher in the western epic, Open Range, to one of the most memorable military officers ever captured on film, Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, in Apocalypse Now where he uttered one of the most famous lines in cinema history, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" He has been nominated for an Academy Award seven times taking home a statue for his performance in the 1983 drama Tender Mercies and probably should have won several more for his roles in The Great Santini, The Apostle, and the aforementioned Apocalypse Now. He has won four Golden Globes, a BAFTA, a Primetime Emmy, and a SAG award as well. Other notable films that he made better by appearing in include Network, The Conversation, The Outfit, and The Natural just to name a few. It has been 70 years of enduring master acting craftsmanship that Duvall can claim, and to argue otherwise is a fool's errand.