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 on 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.
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“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.”
Known for her thin physique, large expressive eyes and powerful performances, Duvall was a standout playing opposite Jack Nicholson in the horror film The Shining and Robin Williams in the comedy Popeye.
Duvall was attending junior college in Texas when Altman’s staff members, preparing to film Brewster McCloud, encountered her as at a party in Houston in 1970. She would go on to become Altman’s protégé.
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Duvall played memorable roles in some of his other films, including the ensemble 1975 film Nashville and 3 Women in 1977, which won her the Cannes Best Actress Award.
“He offers me damn 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”.
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.
Kubrick, a famous perfectionist, was notoriously hard on Duvall in making The Shining.
His methods of pushing her through countless takes in the most anguished scenes took a toll on the actor. Some saw Kubrick’s treatment as bordering on torture; one scene was reportedly performed in 127 takes.
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Duvall, in an interview in 1981 with People magazine said she was crying “12 hours a day for weeks on end” during the film’s production.
“I will never give that much again,” said Duvall. “If you want to get into pain and call it art, go ahead, but not with me.”
Duvall disappeared from movies almost as quickly as she arrived in them. By the 1990s, she began retiring from acting and retreated from public life.
“How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime, they turn on you?” Duvall told the Times earlier this year.
“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.”
Duvall’s other notable work includes her performances in Annie Hall and McCabe & Mrs Miller. She worked for decades before she fell on hard times.
Duvall attempted to restart her career, dipping her toe in with the indie horror The Forest Hills that filmed in 2022 and premiered quietly in early 2023.
– Reported with Associated Press and CNN.
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