Page "Robert Duvall" Paragraph 6

Duvall began his professional acting career with the Gateway Playhouse, an Equity summer theatre based in Bellport, Long Island, New York.

Arguably his stage debut was in its 1952 season when he played the Pilot in Laughter In The Stars at the Gateway Theatre.

After a two-year absence when he was with the U. S. Army ( 1953 – 1954 ), he returned to Gateway in its 1955 summer season, playing: Eddie Davis in Ronald Alexander's Time Out For Ginger ( July 1955 ), Hal Carter in William Inge's Picnic ( July 1955 ), Charles Wilder in John Willard's The Cat And The Canary ( August 1955 ), Paris in Arthur Miller's The Crucible ( August 1955 ), and John the Witchboy in William Berney and Howard Richardson's Dark Of The Moon ( September 1955 ).

The playbill of Dark Of The Moon indicated that he had portrayed the Witch Boy before and that he will " repeat his famous portrayal " of this character for the 1955 season's revival of this play.

For Gateway's 1956 season ( his third season with the Gateway Players ), he played the role of Max Halliday in Frederick Knott's Dial M For Murder ( July 1956 ), Virgil Blessing in Inge's Bus Stop ( August 1956 ), and Clive Mortimer in John van Druten's I Am A Camera ( August 1956 ).

The playbills for the 1956 season described him as " an audience favorite " in the last season and as having " appeared at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studied acting with Sandy Meisner this past winter.

" In its 1957 season, he appeared as Mr. Mayher in Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution ( July 1957 ), as Hector in Jane Anouilh's Thieves Carnival ( July 1957 ), and the role which he once described as the " catalyst of his career "-as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge ( from July 30 to August 3, 1957 and directed by Ulu Grosbard who was by then a regular director at the Gateway Theatre ).

Miller himself attended one of Duvall's performances as Eddie and also during this performance he met important people that allowed him to, in two months, land a " spectacular lead " in the Naked City television series.

When appearing at the Gateway Theatre in the second half of the 1950s, he was also appearing at the Augusta Civic Theatre, the McLean Theatre in Virginia and the Arena Theatre in Washington, D. C ..

The 1957 playbills also described him as " a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse " ( so he must have completed his studies there by the Summer of 1957 ), " a member of Sanford Meisner's professional Workshop " and as having worked with Alvin Epstein, a mime and a member of Marcel Marceau's Company.

By this time also ( July 1957 ) his noteworthy theatrical credits already included performances as Jimmy in The Rainmaker and as Harvey Weems in Horton Foote's The Midnight Caller.

Already receiving top-billing at the Gateway Playhouse, in the 1959 season he appeared in lead roles as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee William's Streetcar Named Desire ( July – August 1959 ), Maxwell Archer in Once More With Feeling, Igor Romanoff in Peter Ustinov's Romanoff and Juliet, and Joe Mancuso in Kyle Crichton's The Happiest Millionaire ( all in August 1959 ).