Shelley Duvall (1949-2024)
Shelley Duvall, the actress best known for her role opposite Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," has died. She was 75 years old.
Duvall attended junior college in her hometown of Houston before members of director Robert Altman's crew discovered her at a party she hosted. They brought her to Altman, who cast her as Suzanne Davis, the teen temptress and Astrodome tour guide, in "Brewster McCloud." Over the years, the childlike actress has worked with Altman, portraying characters in films like a mail-order bride in "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," a woman who has a fling with Keith Carradine's Mississippi bandit in "Thieves Likes Us," the hot-pants-loving L.A. groupie in "Nashville," Mrs. Francis Cleveland, the wife of President Grover Cleveland, in "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," and "3 Women." In 1980, Duvall portrayed the iconic comic strip character Olive Oyl, the strong-willed damsel in distress, in Altman's live-action adaptation of "Popeye" opposite Robin Williams. That same year, she co-starred with Jack Nicholson as Wendy Torrance, the tormented wife and mother in Stanley Kubrick's famous movie adaptation of Stephen King's "The Shining." During production, Kubrick, a well-known perfectionist, reportedly treated her terribly, resulting in one harrowing scene shot in 127 takes.
She also starred in "Annie Hall," "Time Bandits," and "Roxanne." In the 1990s, her acting roles dwindled, except for Jane Campion's "The Portrait of a Lady," which picked up the slack. She fell from the public eye in 2002. While on a hiatus from acting, Duvall appeared in an interview on Dr Phil McGraw's talk show in 2016, where she disclosed that she struggled with mental illness. In 2022, after two decades away from acting, she returned to star in the horror film "The Forest Hills," which became her final role.
No comments:
Post a Comment