How Robert Duvall became an unlikely Scottish football cult hero

The Godfather, Apocalypse Now…A Shot at Glory.

Legendary Hollywood actor Robert Duvall will probably be remembered by most for his roles as mafia consigliere Tom Hagen in the first two editions of Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster trilogy or as Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore in the same director’s 1979 Vietnam war epic.

However, among Scottish football circles, the veteran actor, who died on Monday aged 95, will also be remembered fondly for playing Gordon McLeod – a beleaguered Scottish football manager attempting to take lowly Kilnockie FC to Scottish Cup glory with the help of mercurial striker Jackie McQuillan, played by Rangers legend Ally McCoist.

While recording football drama A Shot at Glory in 1999 and 2000, which also starred Hollywood A-listers Michael Keaton and Brian Cox alongside Scottish football household names such as Owen Coyle, Didier Agathe and Derek Ferguson, Duvall immersed himself in the country’s football culture.

Indeed, the actor popped up at grounds across the country as he prepared for his role, as well as filming at a number of stadiums including former Dumbarton ground, Boghead Park, Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park, Queen of the South’s Palmerston Park and Hampden Park.

Duvall’s passing was announced on Monday and was met with tributes from the likes of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro – who both starred alongside him in The Godfather – Adam Sandler and Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis.

Alongside getting his flowers from the great and the good of Hollywood, A Shot at Glory co-star McCoist also spoke to TalkSport about his close relationship with Duvall.

“I was gutted,” said the former Rangers striker.

“The first thing you have got to say is what an innings. 95. But what a guy. What a man he was. When we did that film, A Shot at Glory, we filmed it all over Scotland and it was just so much fun.

“The lads that we did it with, a lot of them were pros, Airdrie and Raith Rovers a lot of the boys played with and he just became one of the boys.

“Whenever there was a break, he’d set up a heady tennis court and he’d just pull up a chair and he’d watch the boys playing heady tennis.

“He’d love the craic, he’d love all the patter. He used to take all the boys to dinner.”

In A Shot at Glory, McCoist – who is Rangers’ leading all-time goal scorer – plays an ageing and temperamental former Celtic striker, McQuillan, who is brought in by Duvall’s character McLeod to improve Kilnockie’s fortunes despite fears about his temperament on and off the field.

Against the backdrop of the club’s American owners threatening to relocate the team to Dublin, McLeod and McQuillan lead the minnows to a Scottish Cup final against Rangers.

Former Celtic midfielder Didier Agathe was cast as a Rangers player and Owen Coyle, who played for several Scottish clubs as a striker, appears in the Kilnockie FC squad.

And in 1999, while filming for the movie took place, Duvall appeared as a studio pundit alongside McCoist on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene for the Old Firm Scottish Cup Final. Giving his prediction, the Hollywood actor sat on the fence.

“I’m kind of neutral,” he told presenter, Dougie Donnelly.

“It would be wonderful if Rangers won the treble. I just have a feeling that Rangers better be ready because the Celtics are out for revenge.”

Rangers won the game 1-0 to deny their city neighbours a single title in what was a painful season for the Bhoys.

During the same appearance, he revealed that he had also been at Hampden Park the previous year to watch Hearts beat Rangers 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final.

In 2012, Duvall again showed split loyalties. Appearing at the Etihad Stadium for the Manchester derby alongside Jack Reacher co-star Tom Cruise, the Hollywood great revealed that he had named a dog after former Celtic forward, Jimmy Johnstone.

Johnstone, nicknamed ‘Jinky’ for his dribbling, was one of Celtic’s ‘Lisbon Lions’ team who famously won the European Cup in 1967.

“I can safely say the greatest character I ever met in my life, and I’ve met a lot, was ‘wee’ Jimmy Johnstone,” he told Sky Sports.

“I named a dog after him.”