The truly one of a kind actress/producer, Shelley Duvall, passed away on July 11th, 2024, and boy, will she be missed.
She was a unique performer of incredible versatility who appeared in seven films for her director/mentor, the great Robert Altman ("Brewster McCloud," "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Thieves Like Us," "Nashville," "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," "3 Women," and as Olive Oyl in "Popeye"), and was known for other iconic performances in such films as "Annie Hall," "Roxanne," "Time Bandits," and of course, as the tormented wife of Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining."
I love Shelley Duvall, always have, always will. I vividly remember seeing her for the first time in 1976, when she played Grover Cleveland's wife in Altman's mess of a western/comedy "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," which featured Paul Newman as Buffalo Bill and Pat McCormick as President Cleveland.
She made such a huge impression on my 11-year-old mind (her odd mannerisms, her wonderfully offbeat looks, her voice) that I never forgot her, and would always brighten up when she appeared in anything that followed.
Such as her hilarious small role in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" as a drugged out writer for Rolling Stone ("Sex with you is really a Kafkaesque experience...") and, especially, when she hosted "Saturday Night Live" in April of 1977. I remember falling in love with her during that episode of SNL. From the moment she walked on stage dressed in the infamous Killer Bee costume, I was hooked and would be a die hard fan for years to come.
Though the Altman films contain her best, most complex, and, at times, jaw-droppingly stellar work, her work in other films stands out as well. Her performance in "3 Women" - with co-stars Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule - is one of my favorite performances by an actress in film history, seriously. And, who else could possibly play a magnificent live-action version of Olive Oyl as well as Duvall did? The answer is: no one.
It was an incredible delight to see her as Steve Martin's pal in "Roxanne." Her hilariously weird scenes in Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits" made me smile from ear to ear. She popped up in Jane Campion's "The Portrait of a Woman," Tim Burton's lovely short film "Frankenweenie," and even starred with Hulk Hogan in "Suburban Commando," and she was always wonderful.
She was also groundbreaking in the world of children's television, as the creator and producer of "Faerie Tale Theatre" for Showtime, which lasted several seasons. She hosted every single episode (if you wanna have some fun, watch the endless video compilations of Duvall introducing those episodes on YouTube). Many of her Hollywood friends appeared on the show and on its follow up "Tall Tales & Legends.". She really cared about kids (even though she had none of her own) and it was a delight to watch her create entertainment for the younger crowd.
But, the role that EVERYBODY will remember her for most, would be that of Wendy Torrence in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's "The Shining."
Iconic, brilliant, odd and exhausting, her performance, for me, is the highlight of a movie that I have A LOT of issues with. Although I like the film very much, I've never, ever found it very scary, or particularly complex.
Nicholson gets too nuts too soon, Kubrick's use of his new toy, The Steadicam, was endless (how many Goddamn times do we have to follow Danny down the hallways on his Big Wheel?), not to mention that the movie is NOTHING like the book. But, hey, it's still fun....and, Duvall is awesome.
Now, the infamous behind-the-scenes stories about the making of "The Shining," and the torture that Kubrick put Duvall though on that endless 13-month shoot are, unfortunately, legendary. During the making of the film, Kubrick constantly threatened and screamed at her, made her do hundreds and hundreds of takes (she swung that Goddamn baseball bat at a crazed Nicholson for hours & hours), forced her to stay awake for days at a time, and more.
She has told stories about how she cried 12 hours a day for weeks on end, and how her hair began falling out in clumps, and that she was diagnosed with depression soon after. That film is pretty much the reason why she stopped making movies regularly. The physical and mental issues that would plague her for the rest of her troubled life likely trace back to that experience.
Though Duvall's final years (decades really) were very sad ones, filled with health problems, isolation, and depression (she left Hollywood for her native Texas in the mid-90s and never looked back), I'd rather not dwell on those things here.
I want to remember her as the vibrant, wholly original talent that I fell in love with as a young kid and wildly admired as an adult and beyond.
So, tonight I choose to watch two Altman movies: first, "Popeye" for obvious reasons, and then "3 Women," to witness Shelly Duvall's finest hour (for which she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival) and revel in her endlessly fascinating talent and her boundless beauty and imagination.
Yep, Shelley Duvall...One of a Kind.
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