Robert (Bobby) Duvall—Loudoun County Remembers a Hollywood Legend

By Chip Beck

One day after Valentine’s Day, Bobby Duvall, aged 95, passed away at his Brynley farm on The Plains, Virginia.

To movie-goers around the world, Robert Duvall (1931-2026) was the legendary actor who got his film start with a non-speaking role in To Kill a Mockingbird. Hethen went on to utter some of the most iconic lines in cinema history in Apocalypse Now, Lonesome Dove, The Godfather, and Secondhand Lions, among many others.

To Loudoun and Fauquier County residents living around Purcellville, Philomont, The Plains, and Middleburg, the famous actor was more commonly known as Bobby Duvall, a cherished neighbor, charitable citizen, and venerable storyteller who was as comfortable spinning tales in a local coffee shop as he was directing movies such as The Apostle or Wild Horses.

Some Western Loudoun residents recall when Duvall owned a 28-acre, 1820s estate called Butchers Run in the Philomont area in the 1980s. The property included a Quaker-built stone manor, an eight-stall courtyard barn, a carriage house, and a secluded log cabin.

Rather than live like some reclusive Lord of the Manor, Duvall often opened his elegant estate for charitable events where friends and local residents were invited.

In the 1990s, Duvall shifted his Virginia residency to a 250-year-old, Georgian-style property called Byrnley Farm, eventually bringing along his fourth and final wife, Luciana Pedraza. The 360-acre farm in Fauquier County, is where Duvall and Pedraza lived together until he passed.

Duvall and Pedraza founded The Robert Duvall Children’s Fund (RDCF) in 2001, basing it from their Virginia estate where the non-profit focuses on “providing resources for education, health, and housing for underprivileged children and families,” particularly in northern Argentina where Duvall’s wife Luciana originated.

In Los Angeles, Duvall knew or worked with nearly every A-list actor of the past 75 years, including Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Julia Roberts and the rest of Hollywood’s Royalty. Yet it was the quiet pubs, restaurants, and shops in The Plains, Middleburg, Leesburg, Purcellville, or Bluemont where Bob Duvall felt comfortable and lived as close to an ordinary life that a man of his renown could have.

One hangout that Duvall often frequented was The Rail Stop Restaurant in The Plains, a place that Duvall purchased in 1996 and helped shape alongside renowned Chef Tom Kee. With Duvall’s backing and Kee’s skills, the eatery built a reputation as “one of the region’s finest dining destinations.” It didn’t hurt that Duvall dined there and was approachable.

Diana Hilton, who has worked at the Rail Stop for 30 years, knew Duvall since the beginning of the restaurant’s run. Her description of Bobby Duvall, the man, was far different from what one expects of Hollywood elites. 

“He was just a wonderful human being—humble, low-key, even-keeled, down-to-earth. A regular old guy,” she said, laughing as she added, “Just say a regular guy!”

When asked about her favorite Duvall memory, Diana said, “His Tretorn Tennis shoes. He loved them and always wore them. Absolutely no pretenses.”

That observation makes sense. Duvall was a fervent conservationist and preservationist who showed up at town councils or County Supervisors meetings to speak out against the spread of Data Centers and unchecked development. The Swedish Tretorn corporation created its Eco-Essential Initiative using recycled materials and sustainable production methods to create its shoes as an environmentally responsible choice. 

Another restaurant that Duvall liked to dine at was at the upscale Girasole Italian Restaurant in The Plains. A fellow artist who lived in the area and was a frequent diner at the restaurant, recalls seeing the actor and his family there several times. “He was always there with family or friends, so other than saying ‘hello’ as I walked by, we didn’t really speak, but I think he eventually got to recognize me as a regular. I always tried to sit close enough so I could listen to his iconic voice while I was eating my chicken parm.”

It’s not surprising that actor Robert Duvall chose to spend the latter third of his long life in western Virginia’s hunt country. He has ancestral roots in Maryland and Virginia that go back to the 1600s. Duvall grew up in Anne Arundel County, attending Severn School near Annapolis, where his father William Howard Duvall—a career Navy Admiral—was stationed. 

Ironically, Duvall’s youth was spent just a few miles from where his ancestor, Mareen Duvall first settled in 1652 as an indentured servant and later died in 1696 as a prominent landowner and community leader. The elder Duvall was a Huguenot from Brittany who fled religious persecution by the French.

Bobby Duvall also had familial ties to General Robert E. Lee, whom he once played in the movie Gods and Generals. His mother, Mildred Virginia Hart was a descendant of the Lee family.

As his favorite character, Texas Ranger Captain Augustus McRae said in the Lonesome Dove series, “It don’t matter where you die, but it matters where you live.”

To that end, Bobby Duvall chose to live in rural Virginia, not the traffic-snarled enclaves of greater Los Angeles. He appreciated what Western Loudoun and Fauquier Counties offered in tranquility and beauty.

Those are assets Loudoun’s Secondhand Lion would want residents to maintain.

Photo: Robert Duvall as “Captain McRae,” in Lonesome Dove (1989). Pastel portrait (1990) by Navy Combat Artist Chip Beck.