Editor's note: On July 11, local time, American actress Shelley Duvall died at home due to complications from diabetes at the age of 75.
Shirley became well-known to movie fans around the world for her classic role as the writer's wife Wendy in Stanley Kubrick's horror film "The Shining".
During the filming of The Shining, she cried for 12 hours a day for weeks. "I can't give so much anymore. If you want to call suffering art, go ahead, just don't let me participate in it anymore."
She just celebrated her 75th birthday on July 7. Her partner Dan Gilroy wrote in a media statement: "She has suffered a lot recently, and now she is finally free. Fly, beautiful Shirley."
The following article was originally published in 2021. In her later years, Shirley Duvall suffered from illness and faded from the public eye for a long time. Therefore, some media published an article "Searching for Shirley Duvall" in the hope that the public can get to know this outstanding female artist again.
Shirley Duvall
Moviegoers who have seen the classic horror film The Shining will surely remember the open-mouthed look of horror in Wendy, the heroine played by Shelley Duvall, a fixture in the so-called New Hollywood films of the 1970s and 1980s.
In addition to starring in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, she is also the heroine of many famous film works in history, such as Three Women, Time Bandits, and Popeye. In addition, the TV drama European Fairy Tale Live-Action Drama, which was translated and introduced by CCTV in the early 1990s, was also produced and starred by Shirley Duvall. I believe many people born in the 1970s and 1980s should have an impression of it.
Stills from The Shining
However, if you search for information about Sydney Duvall on the Internet, you will find that her last film was Manna from Heaven in 2002. After that, she seemed to have completely disappeared, and even her old Hollywood friends did not know her whereabouts.
Journalist Seth Abramovitch published an article titled "Searching for Shelly Duvall" in The Hollywood Reporter. In a conversation with Abramovitch, Shelly Duvall recalled the pain that the filming of The Shining brought her and explained why she stayed away from Hollywood and lived a secluded life away from the world.
Sydney Duvall in her youth
Get away from it all
Born on July 7, 1949, Sydney Duvall is 71 years old and now lives in the hilly area of south-central Texas. Her hair has long been gray, and her figure is no longer as thin as in "The Shining". Her originally shrill voice has become completely hoarse due to years of smoking. At first glance, even the most experienced fans of "The Shining" cannot associate this old woman with the thin wife who was tortured by Jack Nicholson in the film.
During the day, Duvall often drives a white Toyota 4WD alone, wandering around, with all kinds of convenience foods piled in the car, and she eats a few bites when she is hungry. At night, she returns home and has dinner with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is Dan Gilroy, who is five years older than Duvall. He used to be Madonna's accompaniment musician and had a brief affair with the topic queen.
Gilroy and Duvall fell in love while starring in the Disney Channel TV movie Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme in 1989, and have lived together ever since, experiencing many ups and downs together. At that time, they lived on a three-acre farm on the hillside of Los Angeles, and the two raised eight dogs, two cats and 36 birds. However, in 1994, Duvall and Gilroy suddenly left Los Angeles without saying goodbye and went to live in Texas, gradually moving away from the fame and fortune of Hollywood.
There were many different opinions about the reasons behind this decision. The most common one was that the magnitude 7 earthquake that occurred in Los Angeles on January 17, 1994 caused great damage to their farm, forcing the two to abandon their home and move to Texas. Another theory was that Duvall had difficulty finding work opportunities in Hollywood productions at the time, and his personal financial situation was very poor, so returning to his hometown was a helpless move.
Twenty-seven years later, when asked by a reporter why she fled Los Angeles, Shirley Duvall still seemed a little hesitant. "We were completely exhausted at the time," she replied. "What exhausted you? The earthquake?" "No, it was those people. After the earthquake, first the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, the U.S. disaster relief agency specializing in earthquakes and other natural disasters) people came, and then other people came one after another. Engineers, insurance company people, sometimes they came together..." As for whether she encountered a financial crisis, Duvall's answer was even more vague. "Just owning something doesn't make you rich," she told reporters, "you have to actually control it, and you have to make sure it's a good deal."
Anyway, at the end of 1994, Steven Soderbergh's new film Underneath invited Duvall to play a small role. So she went to the crew in Austin, Texas. Her plan at the time was to return to her hometown in Houston after the filming of the film. "Because my mother said that she might be able to help me. My mother suggested that I could do something else, such as painting. So I thought, yes, Joni Mitchell (Canadian folk singer) can sell a painting for $40,000, why don't I give it a try?"
In the end, selling paintings was not successful, but Duvall stayed in Texas and has stayed there ever since.
Amateur debut
Speaking of selling paintings, in fact, the reason why Duvall chose to become an actor was closely related to selling paintings.
Shirley Duval was born on July 7, 1949 in the city of Waltham, Texas. When she was a teenager, she moved with her family to Houston, the largest city in Texas. There, her father became a lawyer and her mother independently ran a real estate agency. Duval's father died in 1995, and her mother, who had a close relationship with her, unfortunately died of the new coronavirus in March 2020, shortly after her 92nd birthday. As for other relatives, Duval has three younger brothers, but they are not in contact much now, and she doesn't even know much about their current situation.
In high school, Shirley Duvall was a top student and dreamed of becoming a scientist in the future. But in her second year of high school, she fell in love early and her grades dropped. She finally dropped out of school and worked as a salesperson in a department store in Houston, and sometimes worked as a model part-time.
On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 had an accident during testing, and three astronauts died at the Kennedy Space Center. A non-governmental organization in Houston also held a fundraising gala for this purpose. Among the models hired to walk the runway was Duvall, who was only 17 years old at the time. At the party, she was introduced to the painter Bernard Sampson. Three years later, the two got married and started a family, but due to financial constraints, they could only live in the man's parents' home.
In order to move out and live independently as soon as possible, Duvall mobilized her connections and held a party for her husband, hoping that potential buyers would appear. Among the people attending the party, there happened to be crew members of the movie Brewster McCloud. This was a new movie by the famous director Robert Altman, which had already been prepared for filming at the time, and Altman's black comedy M*A*S*H was being released all over the United States at the time, and the box office was quite hot. The other party took a fancy to Duvall's appearance at first sight and thought she was very suitable for playing the second female role in this new film, so he introduced her to Altman and producer Lou Adler. At that time, they only told her that they were introducing her to sell paintings, and did not tell her that it was actually a secret audition. Duvall, who was unaware of the situation, heard that the other party wanted to find her to make a movie, and was quite terrified at first, fearing that they were looking for her to make a pornographic film.
At the end of 1970, "Odds in the Sky" was officially released, and Shirley Duvall, who had never received any acting training, stepped onto the screen and entered the film industry. In the following years, she starred in six more Robert Altman works, from supporting roles to leading roles, and almost all of them were successful.
In 1974, Duvall and her husband moved to Los Angeles, hoping to take their lives and careers to the next level, but soon suffered the painful end of the marriage. In 1976, Duvall was invited to play a small role as a female reporter in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall", and soon fell in love with the famous singer Paul Simon, who played a flamboyant record producer in the film.
Stills from Annie Hall
Also in that year, Robert Altman's film "Three Women", starring Duvall, received rave reviews. Duvall's acting skills were unanimously recognized by critics and she won the Best Actress Award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.
Stills from Three Women
Surviving The Shining
In addition to the Cannes jury, Duvall's performance also won the heart of the famous director Kubrick. He decided to use her to partner with Jack Nicholson in his new film "The Shining". "He called me personally." Duvall recalled, "and praised my crying scenes, which were particularly good." At that time, the script of "The Shining" had not been written yet, and Kubrick sent her a copy of Stephen King's original novel for her to read first.
Duvall and Paul Simon had been living together in Manhattan for two years, but their relationship had become somewhat distant. "That day, I was reading The Shining and was reading a very tense passage. I didn't hear him come in at all... He quietly walked behind me and suddenly spoke, which scared me. I was so angry." A month later, on New Year's Day in 1979, Simon broke up with Duvall at the New York airport. Duvall then boarded a flight to London to report to the crew of The Shining.
With Paul Simon
The sudden breakup caused Duvall to completely break down emotionally, and she cried all the way from New York to London on the plane. But she never expected at the time that this breakup might not be anything compared to the all-round emotional blow she would experience in the "The Shining" crew.
Kubrick, a great director who always pays attention to details, is a perfectionist. The Shining took a total of fourteen months to shoot from beginning to end - and it was shot six days a week, sixteen hours a day! Even more demanding is the emotional requirements of the two leading actors for the story of The Shining.
At the time, Jack Nicholson was dating actress Anjelica Huston, and the two rented a house in London, two hours away from the crew. At least Nicholson had a companion when he was not filming.
In contrast, Duvall chose to rent a small room near the studio, with only a dog and two birds to keep her company. Her daily routine was to report to the studio as soon as she opened her eyes, film one scene after another according to Kubrick's requirements, and go back to the room to sleep after work. This monotonous life lasted for a year and a half.
With Jack Nicholson on the set of The Shining
"He would shoot each shot at least 35 times before he would approve it. 35 times for one shot! Running up and down, crying, and with a little boy. It was really difficult. Moreover, from the first rehearsal, I had to rehearse formally with makeup. It was really difficult." Duvall recalled, "To cultivate emotions, sometimes I would put on my Walkman and listen to some sad songs before shooting. Or simply recall the tragic events in my life and miss my family and friends far away. But after a while, your body will protest. You will tell yourself I told myself, please stop doing this, you don’t want to cry every day. Ironically, sometimes the more you think about it, the sadder you get and the harder you cry. We rested on Sundays, but I woke up early on Monday morning. Tears started flowing when I thought I would cry all day again. I told myself that I had reached my limit and couldn’t go on, but when I got to the set, I held on. I don’t know how I did it. Jack Nicholson also told me that he couldn’t imagine how I held on. "
Over the years, The Shining has long been a classic in film history, and director Stanley Kubrick has been revered as one of the greatest directors in history, but he is also famous for his extremely high demands on actors. More than 20 years have passed since Kubrick passed away, and some film critics who no longer shy away from the honor of the venerable have gradually begun to raise the view that Kubrick was too cruel to the actors. One example is the famous scene in The Shining where he asked Shirley Duvall to perform the baseball bat on the stairs 127 times in a row. Duvall's own view on this view is quite fair: "Kubrick was always very friendly and warm to me. He liked to spend time talking to me and Jack Nicholson, even if the entire crew of more than 60 people were waiting."
Breaking the Calm
After The Shining, Duvall starred in Popeye, directed by Robert Altman, and Time Bandits, directed by British director Terry Gilliam. In 1982, she began to produce the European Fairy Tale Live Show. The whole program was filmed for six seasons with a total of 27 episodes. All the stories were taken from the works of famous fairy tale writers such as the Brothers Grimm and Andersen. She also starred in the seven episodes of The Girl Who Spinned Gold, Rapunzel, The Nightingale, Snow White, Puss in Boots and Aladdin. After that, she created Tall Tales & Legends, which specializes in American fairy tales, and Nightmare Classics, which specializes in classic horror stories. Both are very popular with young audiences.
Duvall and Robin Williams in "Popeye," who committed suicide in 2014 after suffering from depression.
Stills from Rapunzel
But in 1994, Duvall left Los Angeles and settled in Houston. She also sold her television production company and gradually moved away from Hollywood. Before 2002, she had appeared in films such as "The True Colors of a Lady", "A Brighter Summer Day", "The Naughty Boys on Mars", and "Gremlins 3". But after "Godsend" in 2002, the audience no longer had the opportunity to know her current situation.
Until one day in November 2016, Duvall's seemingly peaceful life was suddenly disrupted. Phil McGraw, the host of the popular psychotherapy talk show "Dr. Phil" produced by the famous talk show Oprah, managed to find Duvall, who had long retired from the society, and offered to provide her with psychological assistance.
The conversation between the two was officially broadcast on the Dr. Phil show on November 18, 2016. American audiences were surprised to find that the heroine of The Shining not only looked very different, but also spoke incoherently and was in a trance. She suspected that someone was trying to murder her, and even insisted that Robin Williams, her old partner in Popeye who had died two years ago, was still alive and had become a person with special abilities who could transform and disappear at any time. Dr. Phil offered to pay for Duvall to receive psychological treatment from a professional institution on the show, but this "good intention" was ultimately rejected by Duvall.
In 2016, Duvall appeared on the talk show Dr. Phil.
After the show was aired, it immediately attracted a lot of criticism. Actress Mia Farrow and director Kubrick's daughter posted articles criticizing the quack doctor for using Duvall's mental illness to gain attention and profit from his illness. "It took me a lot of effort to understand what kind of person he was." Time has passed, and Shirley Duvall still can't hide her regret when she recalls this nightmare more than four years ago. "My mother hated him, and Dan, too. He said I shouldn't have agreed to let them film in the first place."
Fortunately, there are many people who really care about Duvall, such as the reporter Abramovich who traveled thousands of miles to find her for an interview. He said that the main reason he did this was that he did not want such an excellent film actor to leave the last impression on the world as the crazy old lady in "Dr. Phil".
There is also Lee Unkrich, a well-known animation director who produced works such as "Toy Story 3" and "Coco". He is an avid fan of the movie "The Shining" and has been looking for Duvall's whereabouts for many years. In 2016, he watched the show "Dr. Phil" and was outraged. In 2019, he finally contacted Duvall and found that her mental condition was actually not as bad as shown on the TV show. Although her emotions are still ups and downs, her memory is quite good and she can talk about what happened in the past.
Living in the Texas Hill Country these years, Duvall has made friends with many locals. A painter named Ryan Obermeyer, who was born in the 1970s, also grew up watching the European Fairy Tale Live-Action Drama and has always been concerned about Duvall's situation. "I found Dan and left a postcard with my work printed on it and my phone number on it. Ten minutes later, she called me and said she would like to meet me," Obermeyer said. Soon, the two became close friends regardless of age, and Obermeyer tried to help her a lot.
Duvall has collected a lot of souvenirs from her work for many years, including the black-and-white photo that appeared at the end of the movie "The Shining", which was a gift from Kubrick. However, as time passed, many of these souvenirs had already been lost. Obermeyer bought some of them from the Internet and returned them to Duvall, which brought a lot of joy to the old man. The summer before last, when Duvall celebrated his 70th birthday, he also found Paul Reubens, the actor who played Pinocchio in "European Fairy Tale Live Play", and asked him to have a video call with Duvall. The two old friends were reunited after a long separation and couldn't help crying with joy.
