Before They Were Stars: Robert Duvall as Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Of course, this is one of the most famous “Before They Were Stars” moments of all time, but it’s never been featured on The Back Row before and it only felt appropriate to post this to pay tribute to the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, who passed away yesterday at age 89. In 1962, Robert Duvall already had a few television credits to his name, but his official film debut came when he was cast as Boo Radley in the screen adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. While Boo Radley is a very important character who is frequently mentioned throughout the story, he doesn’t actually appear onscreen until the very end, meaning that Duvall only got a few minutes of screen time and zero lines of dialogue. Even though Duvall was a complete unknown at the time, his subsequent rise to stardom has only made the big reveal of Boo Radley all the more special in the film.