Shelley Duvall became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces through her roles in a slew of iconic films.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas in July 1949, Duvall began her acting career in the 1970s and scored her first major breakout role playing L.A. Joan in Robert Altman‘s classic 1975 movie Nashville. Two years later, she appeared as Pam in Woody Allen‘s Annie Hall and later turned into two of her most notable performances, Wendy Torrance in The Shining and Olive Oyl in Popeye, in 1980.
Duvall recalled working on The Shining in a rare 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, sharing that listening to “sad songs” helped her prepare for the movie’s emotionally draining scenes.
“You just think about something very sad in your life or how much you miss your family or friends,” she told the outlet. “But after a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.’ And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry.”
Duvall eventually took a break from acting after 2002’s Manna from Heaven but made a brief comeback in 2023’s The Forest Hills. She died at age 75 one year later due to complications from diabetes.
Scroll down to look back at Duvall’s biggest career and life moments:
Brewster McCloud, 1970
Legendary director Robert Altman, by chance, discovered Shelley Duvall, then a 20-year-old college student, while shooting in her home state of Texas. Taken by her striking, otherworldly look and personality (those eyes! that smile! that voice!), he offered her the role of Suzanne Davis in the film, eventually convincing her to abandon her studies. “I wanted to be a great scientist, not an actress!” she told Roger Ebert in a 1980 interview. Impressed with her innate talent, Altman went on to cast her in six additional films still celebrated today.
Nashville, 1975
She played L.A. Joan, a groupie, in Altman’s country music opus. “Bob is like family,” she told Ebert. “I trust him almost implicitly. Bob won my trust right at the beginning. He encouraged me to be myself on the screen, to never take acting lessons or to take myself too seriously. When I play a character, at that moment nothing else exists.”
3 Women, 1977
Altman had Duvall in mind when he wrote the role of Millie Lammoreaux, a deluded, chain-smoking Palm Springs physical therapist adored by wide-eyed colleague Pinky (Sissy Spacek). Duvall won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for the dreamy, only-she-could-do-it performance.
Annie Hall, 1977
Woody Allen gave her a small role in his most-celebrated, Oscar-winning film, in which their characters (Alvy and Pam) have a one-night stand.
The Shining, 1980
In her most well-known turn, she played Wendy Torrance, the terrorized wife of psychotic hotel caretaker (Jack Nicholson), in director Stanley Kubrick’s take on Stephen King’s horror novel. She told Roger Ebert the experience working under Kubrick was “almost unbearable.” Nicholson even said that Duvall showed him clumps of her hair that had fallen out after one particularly brutal day. “I was really in and out of ill health because the stress of the role was so great,” she said in the book The Complete Kubrick. “Stanley pushed me and prodded me further than I’ve ever been pushed before. It’s the most difficult role I’ve ever had to play.”
Popeye, 1980
Opposite the late Robin Williams in the title role, she played the spinach-chomping muscle man’s strong-willed girlfriend Olive Oyl. “I loved her,” she told Ebert. “Don’t laugh: I’ve never before been allowed to play a woman of any strength, of depth. And although Olive Oyl is a cartoon character, I think she does have depth. Olive Oyl is 101 percent woman! I see her as a real femme fatale.”
Faerie Tale Theatre, 1982–1987
Duvall (seen here in 1983’s “Rapunzel” episode with her prince, played by Jeff Bridges) served as narrator, host, executive producer (recruiting A-list pals to appear) and occasional star on Showtime’s children’s anthology series, which aired from 1982 to 1987 and won a Peabody Award, among other honors.
Roxanne, 1987
After a brief acting hiatus during her years working on Faerie Tale Theatre, she took an offer from her friend Steve Martin for a supporting part (as the protagonist’s pal, Dixie) in this modern take on Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Martin and Daryl Hannah.
Suburban Commando, 1991
Duvall has nearly 50 acting credits to her name, and acted continuously in film and TV in the late ’80s and ’90s, including this family comedy with Hulk Hogan and Christopher Lloyd.
Dr. Phil Interview, 2016
Duvall’s most recent acting credit was the 2002 film Manna From Heaven, after which she reportedly returned to live in seclusion in Blanco, Texas. She resurfaced, unrecognizable and revealing a battle with mental illness, in a talked-about Dr. Phil interview in November 2016. “I’m very sick,” she said. “I need help.”
Her Death, 2024
Duvall’s longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, confirmed she died at age 75 in her Blanco, Texas, home in July 2024. “My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.” Gilroy revealed that she died in her sleep following complications from diabetes.
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