Shining Actor Shelley Duvall Is Dead

Shelley Duvall, best known for her role opposite Jack Nicholson in The Shining, has died at age 75, reports The Hollywood Reporter. "My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us," Dan Gilroy, her partner since 1989, told the outlet. "Too much suffering lately, now she's free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley." She died in her sleep at her home in Blanco, Texas, and Gilroy said the cause was complications from diabetes. The "big-eyed, waifish" actor also made her Hollywood mark in a series of films by director Robert Altman, per Variety.

Duvall, however, essentially vanished from Hollywood in the 1990s, only to resurface on the Dr. Phil show in 2016, where she recounted her struggles with mental illness. More recently, a journalist with THR caught up with the "engrossing" Duvall in a 2021 profile. A list of her movies beyond The Shining includes Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, Nashville, Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and 3 Women. Duvall won the Cannes actress award for the latter film of 1977. (More Shelley Duvall stories.)