Robert Duvall and his wife Luciana Pedraza have been married since 2005.
Like Duvall, Pedraza is also part of the entertainment industry. She has worked in films alongside Duvall several times since they met. The two regularly attend red carpet events together and Duvall has never been shy about talking about how much she means to him in interviews.
In 2021, he spoke to PEOPLE about what he loved most about turning 90 years old, saying Pedraza was one of the best things in his life. “I don’t know if I love any of it, but day to day with my wonderful wife,” Duvall said.
“She takes care of me, and I have good friends, and try to work out and keep in some kind of shape,” he added.
So who is Robert Duvall’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Luciana Pedraza and her relationship with the actor.
She’s from Argentina
Pedraza grew up in Argentina. In a 2012 interview with The Argentina Independent, Duvall said Pedraza was born in Salta, but grew up in Jujuy.
“She used to be enamored and intoxicated with trips to the big city of Buenos Aires with her sisters to stay with her grandmother,” he said.
Duvall shared that the two had a hotel called The House of Jasmine there for a few years and that they go back every once in a while to visit her family.
They met in Argentina when she approached him
Duvall and Pedraza first crossed paths in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In a 2011 interview with Esquire, Duvall said, “I met my wife in Argentina. The flower shop was closed, so I went to the bakery. If the flower shop had been open, I never would’ve met her.”
In a 2003 interview with The Austin Chronicle, Duvall said that Pedraza approached him.
“I didn’t want to, but my friends said, ‘Go invite him to our party. He loves the tango,’ ” she said. “So we walked around the block and talked. I said, ‘Mr. Duvall, here’s my card. If you wanna come to this party, my friends would love to have you,’ with no expectations. And he came.”
Pedraza says that she didn’t know who Duvall was when she met him. “He thinks I’m lying, but I swear to god,” she explained.
Still, she says she likes that she didn’t realize he was a famous actor because it allowed them to really connect. “He was Bobby,” she said. “And still, to me, he is just Bobby. And then I saw him working on The Apostle, and saw some of his other films, and I was able to admire his work.”
She’s an actress and director
Like Duvall, Pedraza works in the entertainment industry. She is known for her role in movies, like Assassination Tango, Wild Horses and This Is Your Life. She directed and acted in the film Portrait of Billy Joe.
Pedraza often works alongside Duvall in her movies. When talking to The Argentina Independent, Duvall explained that he put Pedraza in a movie not long after they met.
“[Francis Ford] Coppola wanted to know why she hadn’t acted before,” he said. “Acting students stop her on the street and say, ‘My acting teachers said I should go see you to study acting, see what you did in that movie.’ ”
They have the same birthday
One of the things that Duvall and Pedraza bonded over was their shared birthday: both were born on January 5, over 40 years apart.
“She’s much younger than I am,” he said in a 2010 interview with The Washington Post. He joked about having the same birthday, saying, “When I met her father he said, ‘I don’t know whether to call you father or son!’ ”
Duvall also admitted that he was a little nervous about their age gap when they first met though that quickly passed. “I was a little concerned about being with a much younger woman at first,” he told Esquire.
She dances the tango
Duvall and Pedraza share a love of the tango. In a 2003 interview with The Austin Chronicle, Pedraza shared that she had been dancing tango for seven years.
“If she wanted to, she could dance professionally,” he added. “She’s very elegant when she dances, which is a word that’s used in Argentina a lot.”
Duvall shared he had been introduced to the tango 15 years earlier in New York. He told The Argentina Independent that it was a “hobby” for him.
She is invested in charity work
Aside from acting and directing, Pedraza is also passionate about charity work. In 2011, the couple founded The Robert Duvall Children’s Fund, meant to help impoverished children and families in northern Argentina.
When Duvall spoke to The Argentina Independent, he was asked about his charity work and said, “Well, that’s really my wife’s doing."
He went on to explain that the two help children in northern Argentina and local women start up their businesses.
“We do it on our own level,” he said. “When you see the reward of things being done it’s really nice you know, and her father Luciano helps with building homes in Argentina with the money that comes in.”
She’s a supportive wife
There have been a few interviews where Duvall has noted that Pedraza has supported or motivated him. In a 2018 interview with The Daily Beast, Duvall was asked what his secret to continuing to work so hard was, and he responded, “My wife. She keeps me in shape.”
He has also said that he gets career advice from Pedraza. In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, Duvall was asked what attracted him to his role in The Judge, and he said that after he initially turned it down, he discussed it with his wife and decided to do it.
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