1949-2024
Who Was Shelley Duvall?
Actor Shelley Duvall was known for her roles in The Shining and Popeye. She broke onto the Hollywood scene in the 1970s after being discovered at a party by location scouts for director Robert Altman. She went on to star in several of Altman’s movies, including Thieves Like Us and Popeye, opposite Robin Williams. In 1980, she teamed up with Jack Nicholson and played Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Duvall founded two successful TV production companies and garnered two Emmy nominations before largely retiring from Hollywood in the 1990s. She died in July 2024 at age 75.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Shelley Alexis Duvall
BORN: July 7, 1949
DIED: July 10, 2024
BIRTHPLACE: Fort Worth, Texas
SPOUSE: Bernard Sampson (1970-1974)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
Early Years
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 7, 1949, Shelley Alexis Duvall was the oldest of Bobbie and Robert Duvall’s four children. They later had three boys named Scott, Stewart, and Shane. Her mother, Bobbie, was a real estate agent, and her father, Robert, worked as a cattle auctioneer before becoming a laywer.
By her own account, Shelley was an artistic girl with lots of energy, whom her mother eventually nicknamed “Manic Mouse.” “I was a little terror sometimes!” Shelley said in a 2012 interview. “I used to run around a lot, tipping things over.”
She graduated from Waltrip High School in 1967 then enrolled at South Texas Junior College, where she studied nutrition and diet therapy. To help pay for school, Duvall worked as a cosmetics salesperson at a local department store.
Movies and TV Shows
Duvall’s acting career began by accident. In 1969, while at a party for her then-fiancé Bernard Sampson, 20-year-old Duvall was spotted by a pair of location scouts who were working on director Robert Altman’s upcoming film Brewster McCloud. Although Duvall’s acting background was limited—she’d performed in a handful of high school plays—Altman was intrigued by her unique looks, most notably her large eyes, lanky build, and engaging, toothy smile. He offered her the part of Suzanne, a Houston Astrodome usher and the love interest of the film’s main character, Brewster McCloud.
Despite its poor reception, Brewster McCloud (1970) launched Duvall’s career and set in motion a working relationship with Altman that benefited them both in the coming years. The pair collaborated on Altman’s next movie, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), followed by Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975), and 3 Women (1977). Her performance in 3 Women, opposite Sissy Spacek, won Duvall the best actress award at 1977’s Cannes Film Festival.
With each movie, Duvall’s acting blossomed. Director Woody Allen soon became a fan and cast her to play his one night stand in the Oscar-winning Annie Hall (1977), which also starred Diane Keaton.
By the late 1970s, Duvall was a respected and well-known Hollywood actor. In 1979, she reconnected with Altman again for the live-action version of Popeye. The film, which starred Robin Williams as the title character and Duvall as his beloved Olive Oyl, was one that Duvall was, at first, hesitant to embrace, because she has been teased as an Olive Oyl look-alike while growing up. Eventually, though, Duvall changed her mind and her performance helped solidify the movie’s success.
The Shining
In 1980, Duvall took on the role of the bumbling and innocent Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson. Working under Kubrick, Duvall later recalled, was the most challenging and rewarding experience of her acting life:
“The first few weeks shooting were so much fun, and we all got along great. So, when it came to shooting a serious scene, whether it be looking shocked or terrified, I couldn’t do it. I would start giggling. After a while Stanley became impatient with me, and just let loose. And that terrified me! But you have to understand, some scenes take hours to make, sometimes, a whole 12-hour shooting day would only translate to being three minutes onscreen. So you go into a scene acting terrified or crying, and by the end of the day, you just don’t have anything more to give, [but] there is the genius of Stanley Kubrick. He gets it out of you. But it was very tough and grueling.”
Her performance in The Shining arguably remains the most memorable of her career.
TV Shows
Duvall also brought her talents to the small screen. Perhaps most notably was Bernice Bobs Her Hair, part of PBS’s Great American Short Story Series based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story. In the 1990s, Duvall took on a number of guest roles in programs such as Frasier and Aliens for Breakfast.
In addition to her onscreen work, Duvall also became a respected children’s show producer. In 1982, she formed her own production company, Platypus Productions, and went on to create Faerie Tale Theatre, a lauded anthology program that featured guests Carrie Fisher, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Redgrave, Liza Minnelli, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Reeve, James Earl Jones, Mick Jagger, and many more. Next came the Emmy-nominated Shelley Duvall’s Tall Tales and Legends.
In 1988, Duvall formed a second production company, Think Entertainment, which created several other new shows, including Nightmare Classics, Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories, and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Duvall earned her second Emmy nomination for Bedtime Stories.
Later Years: Semi-Retirement and Dr. Phil Interview
Duvall’s acting career dwindled in the 1990s before largely going quiet. Tired of the rush and mayhem of city life in Los Angeles, Duvall returned to Texas, where she effectively retired and settled into a life raising animals and enjoying the quiet. “I write a lot of poetry,” she said. “Would love to publish a book of my work one day.”
Still, Duvall didn’t rule out a return to her acting career. After a 21-year break from the screen, her final role was in the 2023 horror movie The Forest Hills.
Much more memorable was a rare TV appearance she did in 2016. In a widely condemned Dr. Phil interview, the actor told Phil McGraw, “I’m very sick. I need help.” Her bizarre behavior and statements also include her belief that Robin Williams, who died two years earlier, was still alive and “a shapeshifter.” Many people felt the interview was sensational and exploitative.
In later interviews with The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, and People, journalists commented on her mental clarity though acknowledged she had her eccentricities. Duvall never shared a mental health diagnosis, though she did contend with diabetes and an injured foot in her later life.
Partner and Ex-Husband
Duvall enjoyed a decades-long relationship with musician Dan Gilroy. They met and began dating in 1989 while working on the Disney Channel movie Mother Goose Rock ’n’ Rhyme (1990). The couple remained together, though never married, until her death in July 2024 after spending 35 years together.
Prior to her partnership with Gilroy, Duvall was married to artist Bernard Sampson. The pair met in 1967 and were married by 1970. Four years later, they moved from Texas to Los Angeles for her acting career and ended up divorcing that same year. Following their divorce, Duvall dated musician Paul Simon in the late 1970s for a couple years.
Quotes
- You’re never grown up. We’re all still dealing with the same hopes, same fears, same dreams that we had as children.
- If I had listened to everyone who told me no, I’d never have gotten anything accomplished. When I really believe in something and someone says, “You can’t do it,” it just spurs me on.
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