Duvall, Shelley

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    Stream Shelley Duvall’s Greatest Performances: ‘The Shining,’ ‘Popeye’ and More

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    In “The Shining,” “Popeye” and more, her unusual presence jumps off the screen. That’s true even in small roles in “Annie Hall” and “Time Bandits.”Shelley Duvall, who died on Thursday at 75, had one of the most thrilling and complicated careers in modern cinema history. Discovered by the director Robert Altman, who became her greatest collaborator, Duvall fell into acting almost by accident. But her screen presence was so beguiling and irresistible that she became one of the defining stars of the 1970s and ’80s.Her layered and detailed performances in the likes of “3 Women” and “The Shining” made her a celebrated star. And yet she never fit easily into Hollywood, remaining always decidedly herself. In later life, Duvall retreated from acting and the public eye, but left behind a remarkable and diverse body of work. Here’s where you can stream some of her best.1970‘Brewster McCloud’Buy or rent on most major platforms.Duvall in her first onscreen role, as an optimistic tour guide in “Brewster McCloud.”MGMWhen Duvall was discovered by Robert Altman and the actor and casting director Bert Remsen, in Houston, she had no intention of becoming a performer. “I wanted to be a great scientist, not an actress. Madame Curie was my heroine,” she once told Roger Ebert. But Altman and Remsen had other plans, putting her in their strange delight of a movie about a boy, played by Bud Cort, who lives in the Houston Astrodome and wants to build wings to fly. Once she appears onscreen as the tour guide Suzanne, it’s clear she is one of the most unusual presences ever to grace the screen. With her oversize eyelashes, a staple of her personal style that highlighted her features, she’s intriguingly cheerful as she chirps away about diarrhea. Her optimism seduces Cort’s Brewster, and with him the audience, even if she turns out to be fickle.1971‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’Stream on Tubi; buy or rent on most major platforms.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Shelley Duvall, Star of ‘The Shining’ and ‘Nashville,’ Dies at 75

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      Her lithesome features and quirky screen presence made her a popular figure in 1970s movies, particularly Robert Altman’s.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 the director Robert Altman and, perhaps most memorably, opposite Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” died on Thursday at her home in Blanco, Texas. She was 75.A family spokesman said the cause was complications of diabetes.Ms. Duvall wasn’t planning on a film career when she met Mr. 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 Mr. 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.Ms. Duvall with Bud Cort in Mr. Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” (1970), her first film. She wasn’t planning on a film career when she met Mr. Altman, but he cast her despite her lack of training.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, via Everett CollectionShe 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 Mr. Altman’s “Popeye” (1980).“I thought: boy, if it’s this easy, why doesn’t everybody act?” Ms. Duval told The New York Times in April.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Shelley Duvall: A Life in Pictures

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      Shelley Duvall, who died on Thursday at the age of 75, captivated Hollywood with her raw honesty, intuitive acting and winsome Texas drawl. She was nicknamed “Texas Twiggy” for her sharp fashion sense and became a regular presence in 1970s celebrity photos.Though she retired from show business in 2002, a new generation has remade her as a cult figure for the quirky and misunderstood. Here are some snapshots from her life and career.Duvall signing autographs. She wasn’t planning on a film career but she became the go-to actress for roles that called for an out-of-the-ordinary performance.Art Zelin/Getty ImagesDuvall with Robert Altman, the director who helped launch her career, beginning with “Brewster McCloud” (1970). She went on to appear in many more Altman films, including “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971), “Nashville” (1975) and “3 Women” (1977).Gilbert Tourte/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty ImagesDuvall dancing at Studio 54. She lived the life of a celebrity in the 1970s and 1980s, dating Paul Simon and Ringo Starr.Guy Marineau/WWD and Penske Media, via Getty ImagesAltman directed Duvall and Sissy Spacek in “3 Women.” Here they attend a screening of the film at Cannes.Jean-Jacques Levy/Associated PressBeside jury president and Italian director Roberto Rossellini, Duvall displays her award for best actress at Cannes in 1977 for her performance in “3 Women.”Jean-Jacques Levy/Associated PressThree actresses who worked with Robert Altman: Geraldine Chaplin (“Nashville”), Lauren Hutton (“A Wedding”) and Duvall at a party honoring the director in New York.Getty ImagesThe film critic Pauline Kael called her the “female Buster Keaton.” On casting Duvall in “The Shining,” Stanley Kubrick told her, “I like the way you cry.”Reg Innell/Toronto Star, via Getty ImagesDuvall with Ringo Starr en route to his home in Monte Carlo.PA Images, via Getty ImagesSitting between Paul Simon and James Taylor, Duvall greets Arnold Schwarzenegger at a screening in 1977.Sal Traina/WWD and Penske Media, via Getty ImagesWith Simon and Gilda Radner. Duvall hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1977.Getty ImagesDuvall with Jack Nicholson, her co-star in “The Shining.” Critics at the time picked her performance apart, and she was nominated for a Razzie award for worst actress. But something in the authenticity of her reactions, her otherworldliness, resonated with audiences.Robin Platzer/Getty ImagesTerry Gilliam (far left) directed Duvall in “Time Bandits” (1981).Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection, via Getty ImagesDuvall at a Hollywood party in 1982.Judy Graeme/WWD and Penske Media, via Getty ImagesRobin Williams with Duvall, who played Olive Oyl to his Popeye in the comedy from 1980.Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media, via Getty ImagesAndy Warhol with Duvall in New York City. He put her on the cover of Interview magazine.Sonia Moskowitz/Getty ImagesDuvall at a cast party for “Faerie Tale Theatre,” one of the many children’s television shows she produced starting in the mid-’80s. Episodes featured Robin Williams, Christopher Reeve, Carol Kane and Mick Jagger, among other stars.Bob Riha, Jr./Getty ImagesDuvall produced the 1990 Disney television musical “Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme,” where she met Dan Gilroy, who composed and performed some of the soundtrack and became her longtime partner. Vinnie Zuffante/Getty ImagesDuvall in 2024. She spent many decades away from Hollywood, living in small-town Texas, but had recently started acting again.Katherine Squier for The New York Times More

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      In ‘The Shining,’ Shelley Duvall Was a Perfect Gothic Heroine

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      Her performance was perhaps misunderstood at the time, just as the narrative surrounding her life would be later.If Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” was a twist on the centuries-old Gothic horror genre, there was no one better suited to play a modern Gothic heroine than Shelley Duvall. Duvall, who died Thursday at 75, was in her late 20s when she shot the role of Wendy Torrance, put-upon wife of blocked writer Jack (Jack Nicholson). The pair have holed up with their young son in the Overlook Hotel, working as winter caretakers.But something evil is afoot. The Overlook is less hotel than haunted house, saddled with the weight of inexplicable and violent history. Wendy is virtually trapped there, a small woman often alone in a rambling, dangerous building full of secrets. It might be more accurate to call the Overlook a monster, one that pushes its monstrousness onto its inhabitants. And it is Wendy, not Jack, who successfully resists in the end.The Gothic heroine, the woman trapped in the menacing haunted home, must exhibit courage in the face of danger, remaining resolute while also being susceptible to the evil that lurks around every corner. Without that tension, we wouldn’t be kept in suspense. In the film, Duvall is waifish, eyes wide, hair flat and scraggly, and it’s hard not to believe she’s going to die. Her only objective is to save her son, Danny, from his father, who — we learn early on — previously broke Danny’s arm in an alcoholic rage. This evil she is fighting is malevolent and abusive and real, a threat she has seen in action before, only now it carries an ax.The Wendy of Kubrick’s 1980 movie is a different kind of woman than the Wendy of Stephen King’s earlier novel — she’s more vulnerable, more frightened. King complained that the movie’s version was “basically just there to scream and be stupid and that’s not the woman that I wrote about.” Duvall was cited as a weak point in many of the film’s mixed reviews and nominated for a Razzie for worst actress.Yet her work in “The Shining” has grown in critical esteem in recent years; today it can feel as if detractors simply weren’t expecting how unsettling it would be to witness her performance of abject terror. There’s a strangeness to it: Her eyes are both huge and heavy-lidded, her mouth equally able to draw into a rosebud or spread wide for a shriek. Throughout the film, her affect is almost that of a china doll, terrified of being shattered. She appears afraid to breathe, barely able to speak.Duvall’s work in the film has grown in critical esteem in recent years. Warner Bros. Inc, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More