Gervase Duan "G.D." Spradlin, a character actor best known for playing authority figures in television and films, including "The Godfather: Part II" and "Apocalypse Now," has died. He was 90.
. . .
A former oil company lawyer and millionaire independent oil producer who didn't begin acting until he was in his 40s, the tall and lean Oklahoma native played his share of doctors, ministers, judges, military officers and historical figures during his more than 30-year acting career.
He portrayed President Johnson in the 1985 TV mini-series "Robert Kennedy & His Times" and President Jackson in the 1986 TV movie "Houston: The Legend of Texas."
. . .
His breakthrough movie role as a character actor was as corrupt Nevada Sen. Pat Geary in director Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather: Part II" in 1974.
Five years later, Spradlin was the Army general who sent Martin Sheen's Capt. Willard up river to find and kill Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz in Coppola's Vietnam war movie "Apocalypse Now."
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More (w/photo):
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-g-d-spradlin-20110726,0,3973610.story
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