EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Real-Life Vietnam Veteran Who Inspired Robert Duvall's Swaggering, Stetson-Sporting Napalm Nut Lt Col Kilgore
Robert Duvall's 'Apocalypse Now' character is one of his most memorable.
Feb. 28 2026, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
The late Robert Duvall's most famous role was Stetson-wearing Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, but RadarOnline.com can reveal the swaggering soldier was based in reality. Duvall drew on a real-life Vietnam officer when he created the napalm and Wagner-loving air cavalry officer.
When Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic was released in 1979, critics and fans quickly decided Duvall, who died February 15, aged 95, had delivered one of cinema's most memorable characters.
Who Was Lt Col John B Stockton?
Duvall's 'Apocalypse Now' character Lt. Col. Kilgore was inspired by a real person.
But it has now emerged the commander was based on Lt Col John B Stockton, a decorated helicopter squadron leader whose flair for theatrics was as striking as anything on screen.
As Kilgore, Duvall was famously seen on screen leading a helicopter "charge" with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries blaring from loudspeakers – and delivering the immortal lines: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like... victory."
The performance won Duvall a Bafta and a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor and an Oscar nomination. Yet the character's roots lay not in fiction but in the exploits of Stockton, who commanded the 1st Squadron, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment during the early years of the Vietnam conflict. Duvall confirmed in interviews discussing his role he studied accounts of Stockton and similar officers while preparing for the part.
Stockton's appearance and habits were distinctive. Like Kilgore, he wore a black Stetson and cavalry spurs on his boots, carried documents in leather saddlebags, and had his unit's mule, Maggie, smuggled into Vietnam despite a strict "no pets" policy.
Lt Col John B Stockton was the inspiration behind Duvall's character.
He also played Wagner from speakers mounted on the sides of his helicopter when flying into action. In his book Pleiku: The Dawn of Helicopter Warfare in Vietnam, military historian JD Coleman described Stockton as: "Balding, rawhide-lean, just under six feet tall."
He added: "(Stockton) had the handlebar mustache of the old-time cavalryman. When viewed without his headgear, he looked a lot like a Yul Brynner with facial hair."
Coleman also wrote Stockton was fixated on the word "cavalry" – seeing helicopter troops as a modern embodiment of 19th-century US horse soldiers.
The air cavalry doctrine that shaped Stockton's command had emerged in the late 1950s, championed by Lt Gen James 'Jumpin' Jim' Gavin, who advocated using troop-carrying helicopters to deliver soldiers with speed and precision.
Robert Duvall's War Characters Exposed
'Apocalypse Now' received critical acclaim when it was released in 1979.
When the 1st Cavalry Division deployed to Vietnam in 1965, many officers embraced Stetsons, cavalry mustaches, and other frontier-era symbols. Stockton, who died in 1997 aged 74, later became known for defying orders during the battle of Ia Drang in November 1965 by sending reinforcements to a besieged infantry company – an action credited with saving 100 US and allied lives but which led to his removal from command.
He never publicly commented on Kilgore, though army colleagues said the Apocalypse Now portrayal amused him. Among Duvall's other roles in uniform were the disturbed soldier in Captain Newman, M.D., and the Nazi officer plotting to kidnap Churchill in The Eagle Has Landed.
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The film received several Oscars.
He also portrayed a peacetime officer in 1979's The Great Santini, who could not think outside the military code, even when it came to his relationship with his family.
He was a toned-down version of Kilgore and won the actor his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. Duvall, born in San Diego, California, grew up among the military.
His father, William, was a U.S. Navy admiral, and his mother, Mildred, was related to the American Civil War general Robert E Lee, whom Duvall played in Gods and Generals, released in 2023.
