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Death of Shelley Duvall: The “Shining” star has died at the age of 75

Death of Shelley Duvall: The “Shining” star has died at the age of 75

Shelley Duvall, the popular actress who played Jack Nicholson’s wife in The glowdied at the age of 75.

Duvall played Wendy Torrance, the wife of Nicholson’s axe-wielding madman, in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Stephen King adaptation. The actress also appeared in seven Robert Altman films over the course of her career and appeared in Jane Campion’s 1996 film in 1993. The portrait of a lady.

The news of her death was announced by Dan Giloy, her partner since 1989. Gilroy said The Hollywood Reporter that she died in her sleep as a result of diabetes.

“My dear, sweet, wonderful partner and friend has left us. She has suffered too much lately, now she is free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” Gilroy said.

Duvall, who was born in Texas, became the protégé of director Altman in the 1970s and starred in films including McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971), Thieves like us (1974) and Nashville (1975), which was considered her breakthrough.

She also played the lead role in the director’s psychodrama 3 women (1977), she won the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Shelley Duvall in Robert Altman’s “3 Women”
Shelley Duvall in Robert Altman’s “3 Women” (20th Century Fox)

Duvall also had a supporting role in The Urban Neurotic and had roles in Altman’s live-action Popeyeplays Olive Oyl and Steve Martin comedy Roxanne.

Of her collaboration with Altman, Duvall said: The New York Times 1977: “He offers me damn good roles. None of them have been the same. He has great faith in me, trust and respect for me, and he doesn’t limit me or intimidate me, and I love him.”

But it was Duvall’s role in Kubrick’s The glow which proved to be the star’s most enduring work. Over the years, rumors circulated about Duvall’s problems on the set of the film, which took a year to complete due to Kubrick’s perfectionism.

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To maximize the animosity between his leads, Kubrick is said to have wanted to provoke and isolate both Duvall and Nicholson. Kubrick allegedly had Duvall perform an infamous scene in which she hysterically backs away from her husband and swings a baseball bat to protect herself 127 times.

Duvall said it was “so difficult to be hysterical for so long,” and described filming as “almost unbearable.” However, she also praised the experience, adding, “But from other angles, it was actually very beautiful, I think.”

Shelley Duvall in
Shelley Duvall in “The Shining” (Warner Bros)

Over the years, Duvall has repeatedly refuted claims that she had problems after filming The glow.

For her role in the film, Duvall received a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress—a nomination that the awards committee officially withdrew in 2022.

The actor also worked as a producer and was a key figure behind the 1982 children’s television program Fairytale Theatre – both in front of and behind the camera. She also created Great stories and legends in 1985 and three years later she founded a new production company called Think Entertainment to develop programs and television movies for cable channels.

The actress continued to appear on screen until her retirement in 2002, but unexpectedly returned to acting 20 years later for a role in the horror thriller The Forest Hills.

In 2016, Duvall appeared in an episode of Dr. philin which she spoke about her mental health problems over the years. The interview was condemned by many as “exploitative”.

Duvall had been in a relationship with Gilroy since 1989 and the couple lived in Texas, where Duvall died.

She was married only once – to artist Bernard Sampson in 1970 – and the marriage ended four years later. In 1976, Duvall began a two-year relationship with musician Paul Simon after they met on the set of The Urban NeuroticTheir relationship is said to have ended when Duvall introduced Simon to his future wife Carrie Fisher.