Shelley Duvall, the star of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and multiple films by her mentor, Robert Altman, has died at the age of 75. The news was confirmed by her life partner, Dan Gilroy, who shared that she died in her sleep in her Blanco, Texas home due to complications from diabetes. “My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us. Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” Gilroy shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
Known for her eccentric characters and unique, wide-eyed expressions, Duvall began her career in the films of Robert Altman, who discovered her at a party in her native Texas during her junior college days. Her on-screen debut was in the 1970 film Brewster McCloud, where she played an Astrodome tour guide named Suzanne Davis. “I got tired of arguing and thought maybe I am an actress. They told me to come. I simply got on a plane and did it. I was swept away,” she reflected on her decision to pursue acting in 1977.
Duvall starred in six more Altman films, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976), 3 Women (1977)—which earned her a Best Actress award at Cannes—and Popeye (1980). Altman praised her versatility, noting that she “was able to swing all sides of the pendulum: charming, silly, sophisticated, pathetic, even beautiful.”
In 1980, Duvall took on her most iconic role as Wendy Torrance in The Shining. While her performance is celebrated, the 13-month shoot was notoriously grueling. In a 1981 interview with People Magazine, Duvall revealed that Kubrick had her “crying 12 hours a day for weeks on end,” and one report claimed she was forced to shoot her final scene with a baseball bat 127 times. “I will never give that much again,” she remarked. “If you want to get into pain and call it art, go ahead, but not with me.”
Despite The Shining‘s cultural impact, Duvall’s career was expansive. She appeared in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977), Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), and Jane Campion’s Portrait Of A Lady (1996), among others. After a two-decade hiatus, she returned to the screen in 2023 with The Forest Hills, a horror film written and directed by Scott Goldberg.
Duvall also had a rich television career, featuring in The Twilight Zone, The Ray Bradbury Theater, L.A. Law, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and Frasier. In 1982, she created, starred in, and executive produced the Peabody Award-winning children’s series Faerie Tale Theatre, which featured 27 episodes with well-known actors retelling classic Brothers Grimm stories. She later created Tall Tales & Legends for Showtime, earning an Emmy nomination.
In 1988, she launched Think Entertainment, a production company focusing on family entertainment, producing projects like Nightmare Classics, Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. In 1991, she recorded two albums: Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall…Sweet Dreams and Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall…Merry Christmas.
Robert Evert wrote in 1980 that Duvall “looks and sounds like almost nobody else… and has possibly played more really different kinds of characters than almost any other young actress of the 1970s.” He added, “In all of her roles, there is an openness about her, as if somehow nothing has come between her open face and our eyes—no camera, dialogue, makeup, method of acting—and she is just spontaneously being the character.”
Shelley Duvall is survived by her partner, Dan Gilroy, and her brothers, Scott, Stewart, and Shane.
