Actress Shelley Duvall, best known for her role in Stanley Kubrick’s «The Shining» based on the novel by Stephen King and for winning the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actress award for Robert Altman’s «Three Women», died at the age of 75 from complications of diabetes on Thursday, July 11, in Blanco, Texas, USA.
Shelley Duvall worked with director Robert Altman and got her first role in his film «Brewster McCloud» (1970). She went on to appear in his films «McCabe and Mrs. Miller» (1971), «Thieves Like Us» (1974) and «Nashville» (1975). In the latter, the actress attracted attention, and Altman cast her in «Buffalo Bill and the Indians» (1976), and then gave her worldwide fame in «Three Women».
In 1977, Shelley Duvall played a Rolling Stone journalist in Woody Allen’s «Annie Hall» and met Paul Simon on the set; the actress and singer dated for two years. Duvall portrayed Olive Oyl in Altman’s «Popeye» in 1980, a role she seemed born to play given her looks.
Her role in «Three Women» prompted Stanley Kubrick to cast her as Wendy Torrance, the wife of Jack Nicholson’s character in «The Shining». The film was shot for over a year, and the legendarily demanding director pushed Duvall to her limits — Some of her scenes required over 100 takes. Many years later, she spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about the difficult filming:
«After a while, your body rebels. It says: «Stop doing this to me, I don’t want to cry every day». And sometimes the very thought made me cry. Waking up on a Monday morning, so early, and realizing that you were supposed to cry all day because it was planned, — I would just start crying. I would say, «Oh no, I can’t, I can’t». And yet I did it. I don’t know how I did it. Jack said that to me too. He said: «I don’t know how you do it».
Among other roles, Shelley Duvall — «Time Bandits» Terry Gilliam (1981) and the comedy «Roxanne» with Steve Martin (1987). Throughout the 1980s, Duvall contributed to a number of anthologies based on classic stories. The films «Fairy Tale Theater», «Tall Tales and Legends», «Nightmare Classics», and «Bedtime Stories» featured well-known directors including Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ivan Passer, as well as guest stars such as Robin Williams, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elliot Gould, Laura. Dern, Molly Ringwald and Ed Asner.
After returning to Texas, Duvall starred in Steven Soderbergh’s «There, Inside» in 1995 and the following year starred in Jane Campion’s «Portrait of a Lady». In 2002, the actress retired from acting. She lived a reclusive life, and her appearance on the show «Dr. Phil» in 2016 revealed her mental health issues. In 2021, she was interviewed by the author of Hollywood Reporter Seth Abramovich, who went to Texas and saw that she was happy to remember her career and was lovingly received in her community in the Texas Hill Country, despite her eccentricities.
In 2023, Shelley Duvall returned to acting after many years, appearing in the indie horror film «The Forest Hills», which was not widely distributed.
Source: Variety