Shelley Duvall, star of ‘The Shining’ and ‘Nashville,’ dies at 75

Shelley Duvall, whose lithesome features and quirky screen personality made her one of the biggest film stars of the 1970s and early ‘80s, appearing in a string of movies by director Robert Altman and, perhaps most memorably, opposite Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” died Thursday at her home in Blanco, Texas. She was 75.

A family spokesperson said the cause was complications of diabetes.

Duvall wasn’t planning on a film career when she met Altman while he was filming “Brewster McCloud” (1970); she had thrown a party to sell her husband’s artwork, and members of his film crew were in attendance. Taken with her, they introduced her to Altman, a director with his own reputation for oddball movies and offbeat casting. He immediately asked her to join the cast, despite her lack of training.

She said yes — and went on to appear in an unbroken string of five more Altman movies: “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971), “Thieves Like Us” (1974), “Nashville” (1975), “Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson” (1976) and “3 Women” (1977). She also starred as Olive Oyl opposite Robin Williams in Altman’s movie “Popeye” (1980).

“I thought: boy, if it’s this easy, why doesn’t everybody act?” Duvall told The New York Times in April.

Her work with Altman cemented Duvall’s career; with her gossamer frame, toothy smile and soft Southern twang, she was the go-to actress for any role calling for an idiosyncratic ingénue.

Duvall dated Paul Simon and Ringo Starr. She hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1977. Photos of her, often wearing a draping, sheer dress and holding a cigarette almost as long and thin as she was, became an enduring image of 1970s celebrity life.

But it was her appearance as Wendy Torrance in “The Shining” (1980) that, for many viewers, remains her most memorable role. In that movie, she and her husband, Jack (Nicholson), along with their son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), move into a mountainside hotel as caretakers while it is shut down for the winter.

As Jack begins to exhibit signs of madness, Wendy becomes increasingly concerned for her own safety and her son’s, though she seems to remain unaware of the underlying supernatural forces at work on her husband.

Critics initially found her performance overbearing, especially her shrieks as an ax-wielding Nicholson hunts them through the hotel halls.

Duvall’s role has since been reevaluated, especially as critics have come to understand the psychological strain of working under the sometimes difficult treatment of the film’s director, Stanley Kubrick.

It was long rumored that working with Kubrick pushed Duvall over the edge and out of Hollywood. In fact, she told the Times this year, she came to admire him, and in any case she continued to act through the 1980s.

Kubrick was a famously exacting director, often forcing dozens of takes for each scene during the making of “The Shining” — including 127 for a scene in which a terrified Wendy holds a baseball bat, ready to confront Jack. Throughout that shooting, Kubrick refused to give her a break for water. That, plus off-screen footage from the making of the film, seemed to reinforce the impression that his treatment of Duvall was borderline abusive.

But whatever Duvall may have felt at the time, she later said she was thankful for Kubrick’s obsessive precision; it was, she said, the only way for her to access the complex horror at the core of Wendy’s character.

Shelley Alexis Duvall was born on July 7, 1949, in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up around Houston. Her father, Robert, was a cattle auctioneer turned lawyer, and her mother, Bobbie Ruth (Massengale) Duvall, was a real estate broker. (She is not related to actor Robert Duvall.)

She married Bernard Sampson in 1970; they divorced in 1974. She is survived by her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, and three younger brothers, Scott, Stewart and Shane.

After several years of living happily outside the limelight, her physical and mental health began to decline. Gilroy, her partner, told the Times that she became paranoid and reclusive.

© 2024 The New York Times Company