Actress Shelley Duvall died this week at the age of 75 from diabetes-related complications. Perhaps her most iconic role was opposite Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Director Stanley Kubrick’s abusive behaviour toward her on set would provoke comment in later years.
Other credits included the role of Olive Oyl in Robert Altman’s widely panned Popeye (1980), opposite Robin Williams in the title role, and in the cast of Jane Campion’ controversial adaptation of Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady. In 1977 she tied with Canadian Monique Mercure for Best Actress at Cannes, and she won a Peabody Award in 1984.
At the turn of the 21st century, Duvall withdrew from public life. In 2016, she appeared on the Dr. Phil program to discuss her experience of mental illness. The episode was widely denounced as exploitative and prompted a sympathetic profile in the Hollywood Reporter.