Shelley Duvall, the actress best known for her roles in The Shining, Popeye, and Annie Hall, died on Thursday. Duvall’s partner, Dan Gilroy, told The Hollywood Reporter that she died from diabetes-related complications at her home in Blanco, Texas. Duvall turned 75 on Sunday.
“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us,” Gilroy said. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”
Duvall didn’t always plan on being an actress, but she was discovered by some of director Robert Altman’s crew members during a party she was hosting. They introduced her to Altman, who cast her in Brewster McCloud in 1970. Duvall became Altman’s muse, starring in six additional films of his, including Nashville and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, which cemented her as a Hollywood star. Her unique features, especially her large eyes, expressive smile, and lithe figure, along with her love of fashion, earned her the nickname “Texas Twiggy.”
In 1988, she became the head of her own production company, Think Entertainment, which earned Duvall two Emmy nominations for children’s programming. In the mid-’90s, Duvall returned home to Texas. After starring in Manna From Heaven in 2002, Duvall seemed to disappear from Hollywood. When people did see her, she appeared to be struggling with her health. In 2016, she was featured on Dr. Phil, revealing that she was dealing with some mental-health issues. “I am very sick. I need help,” she said. Dr. Phil faced criticism for the footage, with various people alleging that Duvall had been exploited. The episode never aired in full, but Gilroy told the New York Times this year that it “put her on the map as an oddity.”
Meanwhile, Duvall — who appeared in last year’s The Forest Hills, her first film in 21 years — told the paper that erasure from Hollywood felt like “violence.” She said, “How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime, they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”
Although she struggled with her health in recent years, an April Times article described the home she shared with Gilroy — where it seems she had her final moments — as being serene and surrounded by fields. Gilroy said it was “a little oasis for us.”
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