Robert Duvall's death sets off astonishing ‘The Godfather' theory

Robert Duvall is the latest of the Hollywood legends to pass away, with his death at the age of 95 initially announced by his wife, Luciana Pedraza.

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” her statement revealed. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court.”

The cinematic thespian’s passing has further deepened the void in the chamber of the New Hollywood, a movement which redefined the industry and a standard which the current industry greats are still working to preserve.

Among the most notable deaths from the New Hollywood pantheon, Duvall’s Godfather co-star Diane Keaton is a particularly memorable departure for cinephiles and the casual public alike.

While the death being currently mourned has shifted focus towards the cast members of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, all of which have considerably aged, as audiences have started reflecting on those who still remain.

Though Al Pacino and Talia Shire, also Coppola’s sister, are the living members of the principal Godfather cast, a particular scene from the second film of the celebrated mafia trilogy has cast its shadow over recent news.

Giving rise to a peculiar yet intriguing theory, The Godfather Part II scene depicts a dinner table discussion between the three Corleone brothers and Tom Hagen, treated like a son by the family’s patriarch and played by Duvall.

Also featuring John Cazale as Fredo Corleone and James Caan as Sonny Corleone, the sequence served as a symbolic foreshadowing of Pacino’s character, Michael Corleone, being an isolated personality among his family.

Michael’s ruthless nature directly results in the murder of his only remaining brother, Fredo, towards the end of the second film — a hit ordered by the Godfather himself. With his eldest brother, Sonny, already killed in the first installment and as others fade away into the peripheries of the story as Michael becomes increasingly cruel, the scene served as a poignant reminder of the kind of individuality which was always lurking underneath his family exterior, with Michael Corleone shown to revel in the comfort of loneliness.

However, the foreshadowing proved to extend far beyond the confines of the plot, as it has seemingly spilled into real life.

The order in which the characters exit the scene is the one in which the actors playing them left the world — John Cazale was the first to go, dying of cancer at the age of 42 in 1978. James Caan left the table second, subsequently becoming the second actor to die at 82 years of age in 2022.

With Duvall’s character trailing just a little behind Caan’s, he became the third to die among the quartet as well, and Al Pacino is the last one standing — much like his character at the table.

A somber reflection, the ‘theory’ has evidently proven to be more than what the definition of the word suggests.