Actress Shelley Duvall appeared in December 1980.
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Shelley Duvall, the spunky, Texas-born movie star whose wide-eyed, magnetic presence was a mainstay in Robert Altman’s films and a co-star 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 from diabetes, her friend, public relations specialist Gary Springer, said.
“My sweet, wonderful, beloved life, partner, and friend left us last night,” Gilroy said in a statement. “She has endured so much lately, now she is free. Fly, beautiful Shelley.”
Duvall was attending community college in Texas when members of Altman’s film crew preparing to film “Brewster McCloud” met her at a party in Houston in 1970. They introduced her to the director, who cast her as “Brewster McCloud” and made her his protégé.
Duvall later appeared in Altman’s films including “Thieves Like Us,” “Nashville,” “Popeye,” “Three Women” and “McCabe & Ms. Miller.”
“He offered me… great roles,” Duvall said. New York Times in 1977. “None of them were the same. He trusted me so much, believed in me and respected me, and he didn’t put any restrictions on me or threaten me, and I loved him. I remember the first piece of advice he ever gave me: ‘Don’t take yourself too seriously.’”
Duvall, thin and awkward, was not your typical Hollywood star. But she had a charmingly straightforward manner and a special naturalness. Film critic Pauline Kael called her “a female Buster Keaton.”
At her peak, Duvall was a regular star in several iconic films of the 1970s and 1980s. In “The Shining,” she played Wendy Torrance, who watches in horror as her husband, Jack (Jack Nicholson), goes insane while their family is isolated in the Overlook Hotel. Duvall’s screaming face forms half of the film’s most iconic image, along with Jack’s axe crashing through the door.
But Duvall disappeared from the movies as quickly as she appeared. By the 1990s, she was taking a break from acting. Her last film role was in 2002’s “Manna From Heaven.” Duvall has since 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, in the blink of an eye” — she snaps her fingers — “they turn against you?” Duvall told the Times. “You would never believe it unless it happened to you. That’s why it hurts, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”
