Shelley Duvall, star of ‘The Shining,’ ‘Nashville,’ dies at 75
By JAKE COYLE | AP Film Writer
Shelley Duvall, the intrepid, Texas-born movie star whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” has died. She was 75.
Duvall died Thursday in her sleep at her home in Blanco, Texas, her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, announced. The cause was complications of diabetes, said her friend, the publicist Gary Springer.
“My dear, sweet, wonderful life, partner, and friend left us last night,” Gilroy said in a statement. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away beautiful Shelley.”
Duvall was attending junior college in Texas when Altman’s crew members, preparing to film “Brewster McCloud,” encountered her as at a party in Houston in 1970. They introduced her to the director, who cast her “Brewster McCloud” and made her his protege.
Actress Shelley Duvall is shown in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, 1983. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
American actress Shelley Duvall poses for photographers at the 30th Cannes Film Festival in France, May 27, 1977. Duvall won the Best Actress award for her performance in Robert Altman’s “3 Women.” Duvall shared the award with Canadian actress Monique Mercure for Jean Beaudin’s film “J.A. Martin Photographer.” (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Actress Shelley Duvall is shown in Dec. 1980. She recently starred in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” with Jack Nicholson. (AP Photo)
American film director Robert Altman, center, and actresses Shelley Duvall, left, Jean Tewkesbury stroll along the Croisette Boulevard in Cannes, France, in May 1974. They will present their film “Thieves Like Us” at the Cannes International Film Festival in the French Riviera. (AP Photo/Levy)
American actress Shelley Duvall poses for photographers at the 30th Cannes Film Festival in France, May 27, 1977. Duvall won the Best Actress award for her performance in Robert Altman’s “3 Women.” Duvall shared the award with Canadian actress Monique Mercure for Jean Beaudin’s film “J.A. Martin Photographer.” (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Actress-producer Shelley Duvall pauses in her hectic schedule as producer of Showtime Cable Network’s “Faerie Tale Theater,” to pose for a quick photo session recently in Los Angeles, Nov. 21, 1983. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Actress-producer Shelley Duvall talks about the upcoming PBS comedy “Frog” in Los Angeles on Jan 11, 1988. “Frog” features Duvall as the mother of Scott Grimes, a teenager obsessed with frogs and reptiles. The one-hour show is scheduled to air as part of “Wonderworks” on Saturday, Jan. 23. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Paul Simon poses in NBC’s Studio 8H with with his girlfriend actress Shelley Duvall, left, and comedian Gilda Radner of the “Not Ready For Prime Time Players”, on the set of “NBC’s Saturday Night,” Dec. 1, 1977. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Shelley Duvall poses in Los Angeles, June 12, 1985 beside a poster for her ” Faerie Tale Theatre, ” which runs on the Showtime pay television network. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)
American actresses Sissy Spacek, with camera, and Shelley Duvall, right, appear at the 30th Cannes Film Festival in France to present Robert Altman’s “3 Women,” May 23, 1977. Both women appear in the film. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Jubilant actress Shelley Duvall displays her best actress award standing next to the Italian director Roberto Rossellini, who is president of the 30th International Film Festival in Cannes on Friday, May 27, 1977. Miss Duvall shared the best actress award for her performance in Robert Altman’s “Three Women.” (AP Photo)
American film director Robert Altman, right, and actresses Shelley Duvall, left, and Sissy Spacek laugh during a news conference for the presentation of “3 Women” at the Cannes International Film Festival in the South of France, May 23, 1977. (AP Photo)
Duvall would go on to appear in Altman films including “Thieves Like Us,” “Nashville, “Popeye,” “Three Women” and “McCabe & Ms. Miller.”
“He offers me … good roles,” Duvall told The New York Times in 1977. “None of them have been alike. He has a great confidence in me, and a trust and respect for me, and he doesn’t put any restrictions on me or intimidate me, and I love him. I remember the first advice he ever gave me: ‘Don’t take yourself seriously.’”
Duvall, gaunt and gawky, was no conventional Hollywood starlet. But she had a beguiling frank manner and exuded a singular naturalism. The film critic Pauline Kael called her the “female Buster Keaton.”
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At her peak, Duvall was a regular star in some of the defining movies of the 1970s and 1980s. In “The Shining,” she played Wendy Torrance, who watches in horror as her husband, Jack (Jack Nicholson), goes crazy while their family is isolated in the Overlook Hotel. It was Duvall’s screaming face that made up half of the film’s most iconic image, along with Jack’s axe coming through the door.
But Duvall disappeared from movies almost as quickly as she arrived in them. By the 1990s, she began retiring from acting. Her last film role was in 2002’s “Manna From Heaven.” Duvall retreated from public life. Earlier this year she gave her first interview in years.
“How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime” — she snapped her fingers — “they turn on you?” Duvall told the Times. “You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”
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