Robert Duvall drew on a real-life Vietnam officer when he created Stetson-wearing Lt Col Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.
When Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic was released in 1979, Robert – who died on Sunday, February 15 aged 95 – delivered one of cinema’s most memorable cameos, and it has now emerged he modelled the swaggering air cavalry commander on Lt Col John B Stockton, a decorated helicopter squadron leader whose flair for theatrics was as striking as anything on screen.
