Of complications from diabetes, Shelley Duvall died at her home in Blanco on July 11. She had been bedridden for several months and in hospice care before passing away. A Fort Worth native, Duvall was known for her collaborations with Robert Altman and for her innovative television work directed at children and youth as head of her production company, Think Entertainment. For her work at Think Entertainment, she won a Peabody Award for “Faerie Tale Theatre” and was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for “Tall Tales & Legends.” During her acting career she won a Cannes Film Festival Award and was nominated for a British Academy Film Award.
She famously starred in the Stanley Kubrick horror film, “The Shining,” released in 1980, opposite Jack Nicholson, and Robert Altman’s, “Popeye,” as Olive Oyl, opposite the late Robin Williams. During her career she worked with directors Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, Steven Soderbergh, Jane Campion and others.
A July 11 article in The Hollywood Reporter written by Mike Barnes, traced her life and her career as a versatile actor in television and films. Senior writer Seth Abramovitch, also of The Hollywood Reporter, published a long article about meeting Duvall in Blanco in 2021.
At the time of the interview, Duvall had been largely gone from acting since the mid-1990s and had moved to the Texas Hill Country from California. Abramovitch talked with her from a Covidsafe distance while she sat in her Toyota 4Runnner.
He wrote, “Her favorite place to sit is in the driver’s seat. It’s also the only place to sit: The rest of the car is filled from floor to roof with a crush of acquisitions, including a bucket of plastic silverware, a jar of Green Giant sliced mushrooms and a bouquet of silk roses. Duvall, 71, passes entire days in her car, chatting with locals and snacking on takeout food. She shares a home in the area with Dan Gilroy, 76, a member of the early Madonna band, Breakfast Club.”
Wimberley residents spoke of seeing Duvall from time to time in San Marcos and Blanco. According to Abramovitch, the locals in Blanco were fond of her, as “more of an eccentric aunt than a faded movie star. He wrote, “They’re also protective of her — particularly since 2016, when Phil McGraw and his Dr. Phil crew descended on the town to shoot a disturbing interview with Duvall, during which she babbled free-associative nonsense and disclosed paranoid fantasies. The episode was met with near-universal condemnation of Dr. Phil.”
For the people who knew her, the Dr. Phil interview was nowhere near the person they knew. Emma Lehman, creator and host of the podcast “Texas Twiggy,” which dove deep into Duvall’s story, spoke to Michael Marks of the Texas Standard about her life and work.
“She owned a handful of production companies throughout her career and she really revolutionized the industry. She had a lot of business acumen, and she was quite the producer. And she was very accomplished on both sides of the camera.”
Lehman went on to say, “And where she ended up moving was this lovely ranch with all of her animals. She was very, very passionate about animals. And she was a brilliant, brilliant mind. Like, she had, not just with animals, but just in general, she really had this passion for the things that she loved and was interested in; she had so much knowledge about them. And she was a voracious reader and a Mensa member. And she painted, she wrote – like she was so talented and had such a creative and artistic mind.”
Upon her death, her life partner since 1989, Dan Gilroy is quoted as saying, “My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us. Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”
