Before The Godfather, Robert Duvall Starred In One Of The Twilight Zone's Best Episodes

"The Twilight Zone" featured multiple celebrity guests, ranging from William Shatner and Robert Redford to a young Robert Duvall. Indeed, before becoming a movie star, Duvall starred in the 1963 "Twilight Zone" episode "Miniature," in which he played a man obsessed with a museum dollhouse figure. It was one of the series' best installments, but it went unaired for decades after its original broadcast due to a lawsuit.

Duvall passed away on February 15, 2026, at the age of 95, having become one of the greatest actors of his generation. The "Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" star leaves behind seven decades-worth of standout performances, stretching all the way back to the 1950s. But while he'd appeared in several stage productions during that decade, the '60s was when he started to make his name in Hollywood. Duvall appeared in everything from "The Defenders" to "The Outer Limits" and though he made his film debut in 1962's "To Kill a Mockingbird" it would be a full 10 years before he had a major cinematic hit on his hands with "The Godfather."

Before that, he continued to rack up an impressive list of TV credits, one of which was in season 4, episode 8 of "The Twilight Zone." "Miniature" saw Duvall portray Charley Parkes, a man who, as Rod Serling puts it in his opening narration, "comes to the museum to get away from the world." There, he becomes convinced that one of the wooden figures in a dollhouse is alive, earning him a one-way ticket to a very different kind of house.

"Miniature" was written by maestro of the macabre Charles Beaumont, who penned multiple standout episodes of "The Twilight Zone" (including "A Nice Place to Visit," which has the same twist as "The Good Place"). He was also the man responsible for forcing "The Twilight Zone" to freeze an entire town of real actors in time with the 1960 episode "Elegy." With "Miniature," however, he pulled off a whole new trick when he shrunk Robert Duvall into a wooden figurine.

The episode — which first aired on February 21, 1963 — sees Duvall's Charley Parkes become obsessed with a wooden doll figure inside a dollhouse museum exhibit. Though he has a full time job, Parkes is, to put it simply, a mama's boy and a loner (which, as Stephen Holden of the New York Times put it two decades later, "demand[ed] only that he be half-witted and sweet"). But this is Robert Duvall, so he managed to turn Parkes into one of the most memorable characters in "Twilight Zone" history.

During a lunch break, you see, Parkes visits the Burton County Museum and encounters a miniature model of a 19th century town house. He's enchanted by the exhibit, even more so when he notices that the female doll (Claire Griswold) inside is alive. Of course, nobody believes him, and things go from bad to worse as Parkes becomes infatuated with the doll. It all culminates with him witnessing his miniature love being menaced by her abusive husband, leading him to break the exhibit glass and prompting the authorities to send him to an asylum. But Parkes tricks everyone into thinking he's rehabilitated and later makes his way back to the museum, only to become a part of the same display himself.

"Miniature" was an early example of how seriously Robert Duvall took his craft. Though it was a single-episode appearance, the actor clearly took time to develop a fully-realized individual in Charley Parkes. The character is full of quirky idiosyncrasies and an awkward energy that fans of Duvall's later movie work should find utterly charming in a man who otherwise couldn't help but project a certain strength and fortitude. He was also sufficiently creepy when he needed to be, making this a strange and compelling early performance from a man who became known for his naturalistic, grounding presence and who would go on to become one of the best male actors of all time.

Meanwhile, with its focus on unhealthy obsession, "Miniature" remains one of the most enduringly relevant episodes of the "Twilight Zone." It's also a sort of perverse love story that's both tragic and charming in its own way. All of that makes the fact that it only aired once before it was pulled from syndication deals a real shame.

A lawsuit was brought against "The Twilight Zone" by a writer claiming "Miniature" was a little too similar to a script they had written titled "The Thirteenth Mannequin." This caused Duvall's one and only "Twilight Zone" episode to go unaired following its initial broadcast until the 25th Anniversary Special in 1984. "The Twilight Zone Silver Anniversary Special" was a two-hour show that comprised three episodes that had been kept in the vault since their original airings, and "Miniature" was one. This time, the episode was broadcast with the dollhouse scenes colorized though it didn't add much to the story. Otherwise, "Miniature" remains one of Duvall's best early performances that's well worth seeking out.