The Shining star Shelley Duvall dead at 75 at Texas home following complications from diabetes
11 July 2024, 16:28 | Updated: 11 July 2024, 17:17
The Shining star Shelley Duvall has died aged 75 at her Texas home following complications from diabetes.
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The movie star who made her name in films including Annie Hall and Popeye died on her 75th birthday.
Ms Duvall died in her sleep of complications from diabetes at her home in Blanco, Texas, her partner Dan Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter.
He told the outlet: “My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us.
"Too much suffering lately, now she’s free.
"Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”
Ms Duvall has been with Mr Gilry for over four-decades, since 1989.
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Ms Duvall, known predominantly as a character actor, made her name in Hollywood during the 1970s.
She worked with legendary director Robert Altman for seven films, after he discovered her in college in her hometown of Houston, Texas.
The Shining star - known for the iconic 'Here's Johnny' scene opposite Jack Nicholson - first made her debut in Brewster McCloud.
She once described creating the film as an "ordeal".
"I had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week," she once told an interview.
Other roles for Duvall included Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and Roxanne alongside actor Steve Martin.
She also set up her own production companies, and made and hosted the 1980s children's TV show Faerie Tale Theatre.
Her acting roles diminished in the 1990s, with Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady the pick of the crop, and
In 2002, Duvall seemingly dropped off the radar. Some outlets attributed this to the impact of a 1994 earthquake that damaged her home in Los Angeles, and the stress of her brother being diagnosed with cancer.
When discussing her lengthy absence from the big screen, she said she had been the victim of a fickle film industry.
"I was a star. I had leading roles. People think it's just ageing, but it's not. It's violence," she said.
Asked to explain, 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."
