Shelley Duvall, the doe-eyed actress and Robert Altman muse whose famed credits include the tormented wife in “The Shining,” has died. She was 75.
Her death was confirmed by her partner, musician Daniel Gilroy, who told The Hollywood Reporter that the actress had died in her sleep Thursday of complications related to diabetes. She had been in hospice care for the past several months, Gilroy told the Los Angeles Times.
“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us,” Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”
Known for her collaborations with Altman, Duvall starred in a number of his films, starting with “Brewster McCloud” in 1970. She went on to depict a range of characters in subsequent Altman films, including “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” “Thieves Like Us” and “Nashville.” Her portrayal in “3 Women” netted her a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA nomination.
It also led to her casting by director Stanley Kubrick as Wendy Torrance, the tormented wife of Jack Nicholson’s writer gone murderously mad in “The Shining.” The shoot lasted more than a year and included more than 100 takes of just one scene, a Guinness world record. She would later detail to The Hollywood Reporter how grueling it was to have to cry all day for days on end during filming of the acclaimed adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
Her more than 20 movie credits included a brief, noteworthy turn in “Annie Hall” as a Rolling Stone journalist. She played the romantic partner to Keith Carradine’s bank robber in “Thieves Like Us” and a mail-order bride in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” among many others.
She also founded her own production company, Think Entertainment, which produced Emmy-nominated cable-TV children’s programming riddled with star power.
Duvall returned permanently to her native Texas in the mid-1990s, which is where she died, at home in Blanco, Gilroy said. She had retired from acting in 2002, though she made a few public appearances since.
One of them was a cringe-inducing 2016 interview with “Dr. Phil” host Phil McGraw that sparked concern about her mental health, and widespread condemnation for his apparent exploitation of her vulnerability. Years later, Duvall herself blasted McGraw’s tactics.
Last year, Duvall teased an acting comeback with a role in the 2023 horror flick “The Forest Hills,” her first film in more than 20 years.
“Acting again — it’s so much fun. It enriches your life,” she told People at the time.
