The third week of February was hard for many of us, having lost a high profile actor, McSteamy, & a Civil Rights leader.
Robert Duvall was born January 5th, 1931 in San Diego, California. His mother was an amateur actress, while his father was a Rear Admiral in the US Navy. There were expectations that he would follow his father to the US Naval Academy but Duvall said that "I was terrible at everything but acting - I could barely get through school." This eventually led Duvall to the theatre; over the years he acted at the Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, the McLean Theatre in Virginia, & the Area Stage in Washington, DC. This eventually led him to Hollywood & to a film career that was highly varied. While Duvall's career was varied, it was also a career of so many movies that have had big name actors and/or have remained in the cultural zeitgeist for decades: Bullitt, True Grit, M*A*S*H (the movie), The Godfather & The Godfather Part II, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Apocalypse Now, The Great Santini, Tender Mercies, The Natural, Days of Thunder, Newsies, Sling Blade, Deep Impact, Gone in 60 Seconds, John Q, Gods & Generals, Secondhand Lions, Open Range, Four Christmases, Crazy Heart, Jack Reacher, Kicking & Screaming, The Judge, Hemingway & Gelhorn, Broken Trail, & Lonesome Dove. Robert Duvall passed away on February 15, 2026, leaving quite the legacy of film.
Eric Dane was born November 9th, 1972. An athlete in high school, Dane decided to pursue acting after appearing in a school production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He went onto appear in a few movies: X-Men: The Last Stand, Marley & Me, Dangerous Waters, Valentine's Day, Burlesque, & Wedding Wars. Dane did have a bigger splash in the tv world, having appearances in Charmed, as well as longer runs in The Last Ship, Euphoria, & Grey's Anatomy. He passed away February 19, 2026.
Jesse Jackson was born on October 8th,1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. He was a civil rights activist, who started down that path during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He was a protege of Martin Luther King, Jr & participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches. Jackson participated in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & was eventually placed with the Chicago branch of the SCLC's economic arm, Operation Breadbasket. In later years, he continued his activism by participating in the Poor People's Campaign & People United to Save Humanity, otherwise known as Operation Push. Jackson did go on to also become a Baptist minister & he wrote books - A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights & Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, & the Death Penalty. Jackson passed away February 17, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
A couple of books to check out, if you are interesting learning more about Jesse Jackson, would be: A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson & the Fight for Black Political Power by Abby Phillip & Jesse: The Life & Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson by Marshall Frady. If Jackson is serving more in the capacity of inspiration, QPL has access to a book on the Poor People's Campaign (To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King & the Fight for Economic Justice), information relating to Selma (My Selma: True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement; the Selma Campaign), & movies about the marches (the Ava DuVernay movie; Selma, Lord, Selma; Selma to Montgomery, Marching with Martin Luther King Jr).