Duvall Goes To Ground

Robert Duvall has one Oscar, four Golden Globes and now — a slab of sidewalk.

The star of "The Godfather" and "Tender Mercies" received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday. The ceremony took place in front of the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.

"It's a privilege for me to work as a professional actor. I am very proud of that, and I still got a lot in me before they start wiping away the drool," the 72-year-old Duvall, who won a best-actor Oscar for 1983's "Tender Mercies," told the crowd.

Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton called Duvall "one of my heroes and my mentor."

He is "the greatest actor that I have been around and has inspired me in everything I have done," Thornton said.

Thornton and Duvall appeared together in 1996's "Sling Blade."

Duvall co-stars with Michael Caine in the movie "Secondhand Lions," about two curmudgeonly Texas brothers who agree to raise a nephew, played by Haley Joel Osment.

He also recently appeared as a trail boss in "Open Range," as Gen. Robert E. Lee in "Gods and Generals" and as a dancing hit-man in "Assassination Tango," which he also wrote and directed.

Duvall starred in George Lucas' early film "THX 1138," originated the role of Frank Burns in "M.A.S.H.," played the surf-crazed colonel in "Apocalypse Now" and was an autocratic military pilot in "The Great Santini."