The Shining star Shelley Duvall has died at age 75.
“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us,” Dan Gilroy, who has been romantically involved with Duvall since 1989, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, July 11. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”
Duvall died in her sleep at home in Blanco, Texas, following complications from diabetes.
The actress was best known for playing Wendy Torrance in 1980’s The Shining alongside Jack Nicholson. Fans will recall the iconic moment when her character escaped her ax-wielding husband, Jack Torrance. Following the film’s release, Duvall discussed how she gave it her all for director Stanley Kubrick, which included “crying 12 hours a day for weeks on end” during the shoot.
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“I will never give that much again,” Duvall told People in 1981. “If you want to get into pain and call it art, go ahead, but not with me.”
More recently, Duvall looked back on the iconic role with a rare interview in 2021, revealing to the Hollywood Reporter that listening to “sad songs” helped her prepare for the movie’s more emotional moments.
“You just think about something very sad in your life or how much you miss your family or friends,” she recalled. “But after a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.’ And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry.”
Duvall continued: “To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying. I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.’ And yet I did it. I don’t know how I did it. Jack said that to me, too. He said, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’”
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Two years later, Duvall spoke candidly about working with Nicholson, 87, once again, calling him “a classic” actor.
“He’s the greatest. I mean, the whole crew loved Jack. He was one popular guy, and with me, too,” she told Fox News in 2023. “I mean, I had already met Jack with Anjelica [Huston] at a party somewhere and was really thrilled that I was asked to work with Jack. He’s a really great guy, and it’s fun to be in that league of extraordinary men.”
Prior to her passing, Duvall also had roles in 1977’s Annie Hall, 1980’s Popeye and 1998’s Casper Meets Wendy, among others. She famously moved from Hollywood to her native Texas in the mid-1990s. Her final role was in the movie The Forest Hills, released in 2023.
