Find every positive word in every known language, and you’ll still fall short of being able to describe Robert Duvall in a way that’s truly deserving. His long and acclaimed Hollywood career is just a portion of the man that this world was blessed to have known, and he will not be forgotten in death.

Duvall passed on Feb. 15 at the age of 95, having lived a sensationally full life that impacted everyone the Academy Award-winner and avid philanthropist came across, and those he had the pleasure of working with. That includes fellow Academy Award-winner Tommy Lee Jones, the two having co-starred in one of the most unforgettable television [mini]series of all-time, Lonesome Dove.

The news of Duvall’s death has audiences revisiting his greatness in television, film and theater, and the groundswell of love has pushed Lonesome Dove toward the top of Apple TV streams, currently sitting at No. 2 overall in both the United States and Canada.

Lonesome Dove Is a Must-Watch, And a Must-Watch-Again

The four-part miniseries, birthed in 1989 and based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the same name, is an old-school western that follows Lee in his portrayal of Woodrow F. Call, a Texas Ranger whose partner is Duvall’s character, Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrae. The two Rangers and longtime friends venture out for one final adventure together before retiring for good.

They find themselves on a 2,500-mile journey from the familiar confines of their small town along the Rio Grande to herd a thousand head of cattle northward to Montana, and the trek isn’t simply long, it’s downright dangerous; but that, in and of itself, brings the already close friends that much closer, as the show delves deeply into the mind of what it took to be a Texas Ranger on the American frontier.

It’s a master class in writing, cinema and acting, and that’s also evidenced by the fact it won seven Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes.

Robert Duvall Loved Lonesome Dove Above All

So legendary was the role of Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Lonesome Dove that Duvall, who also earned acclaim from the iconic Godfather franchise, once named his work in his western alongside Tommy Lee Jones as his favorite role of all-time, speaking with Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb.

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“When is there gonna be another Lonesome Dove? Not for another hundred years. This character is like Shakespeare, I think,” Duvall said several years after the conclusion of the role and series. “Let the English play Hamlet and King Lear, I’ll play Augustas McCrae. He’s like a modern day knight. Well, an 1860s knight by horseback — saving women, loving women, loving life. He’s a very indigenous guy to our culture and to Texas culture.”

The show was so impactful that the real-life Texas Rangers (law enforcement, not the MLB team, to be clear) made Duvall and honorary board member for the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum in 2021, largely for his portrayal of McCrae more than 30 years prior; and five years after that, fans are making Lonesome Dove, yet again, one of the most-watched series on TV.