Robert Duvall: unlikely Scottish football cult hero

In A Shot at Glory, McCoist – who is Rangers’ leading all-time goal scorer – plays an ageing and temperamental former Celtic striker, McQuillan, who is brought in by Duvall’s character McLeod to improve Kilnockie’s fortunes despite fears about his temperament on and off the field.

Against the backdrop of the club’s American owners threatening to relocate the team to Dublin, McLeod and McQuillan lead the minnows to a Scottish Cup final against Rangers.

Former Celtic midfielder Didier Agathe was cast as a Rangers player and Owen Coyle, who played for several Scottish clubs as a striker, appears in the Kilnockie FC squad.

And in 1999, while filming for the movie took place, Duvall appeared as a studio pundit alongside McCoist on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene for the Old Firm Scottish Cup Final. Giving his prediction, the Hollywood actor sat on the fence.

“I’m kind of neutral,” he told presenter, Dougie Donnelly.

“It would be wonderful if Rangers won the treble. I just have a feeling that Rangers better be ready because the Celtics are out for revenge.”

Rangers won the game 1-0 to deny their city neighbours a single title in what was a painful season for the Bhoys.

During the same appearance, he revealed that he had also been at Celtic Park the previous year to watch Hearts beat Rangers 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final.

In 2012, Duvall again showed split loyalties. Appearing at the Etihad Stadium for the Manchester derby alongside Jack Reacher co-star Tom Cruise, the Hollywood great revealed that he had named a dog after former Celtic forward, Jimmy Johnstone.

Johnstone, nicknamed ‘Jinky’ for his dribbling, was one of Celtic’s ‘Lisbon Lions’ team who famously won the European Cup in 1967.

“I can safely say the greatest character I ever met in my life, and I’ve met a lot, was ‘wee’ Jimmy Johnstone,” he told Sky Sports.

“I named a dog after him.”

Duvall made his first screen appearance as Boo Radley in the 1963 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird and won the Oscar for best actor in 1983 for playing a washed-up country singer in Tender Mercies.