Shelley Duvall, Wendy from The Shining, Dies at 75. Her Partner: “Too Much Pain. Now She’s Free”

AND Shelley Duvall, the unforgettable Wendy of Dead at 75 ShiningThe announcement of his disappearance was given by Dan Gilroyher companion since 1989: «My dear, sweet, wonderful life companion and friend has left us. Too much suffering lately, she’s free now. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” Gilroy said. The actress died at her home in Blanco, Texas, on Diabetes related complications which she had been suffering from for years. Last April, the American press revealed that, due to the illness and a circulation problem in one foot that had greatly reduced her mobility, Shelley was now spending all day at home or on board her huge Toyota.

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Born in Houston on July 7, 1949, Duvall’s film career began in the 1970s, when she met Robert Altman who, struck by her particular physicality and her large expressive eyes, wanted her for many of his films, including Three Womenwhich earned her the title of Best Actress at Cannes in 1977. Then came a small but significant role in Me and Annie by Woody Allen but above all the character that made her an icon of horror cinema and beyond: that of Wendy, Jack Torrance’s wife in Shining by Stanley Kubrick. The experience on the set of Shiningas she herself recounted years later, marked her deeply. Kubrick put her to the test to interpret the part in which she is the wife of a writer who goes mad and terrorizes her and their child. In 1981 the actress revealed to People that the The shooting, which lasted 13 months, was grueling and the director made her “cry 12 hours a day for weeks on end.”

In 2002, at just 53 years old, Shelley retired from cinema. Then, in the 2016, revealed he suffered from mental problemsalso as a consequence of the traumatic experience lived on the set of Shining: “I’m very sick, I need help,” she said in an appearance on the talk show Dr. Phil. Not only that: Duvall had stated on TV that receive messages from Robin Williams, who had died two years earlier. Dan Gilroy later revealed that from that point on, everyone had written off his partner as “the weird one.”

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After twenty years of absence from the scene, in 2022 the actress returned to act in the independent horror film The Forest Hills. At the time, she explained that she had abandoned cinema in 2002 also because her brother had been diagnosed with spinal cancer: “It was the longest sabbatical I have ever taken,” she told People«but I did it for really important reasons, which was to be close to my family again». In the same interview Shelley said she was thrilled to be back on stage: «Acting again is really fun, it enriches your life». And then, she added laughing, «if Jessica Tandy won an Oscar at 80, I can still win one too!». Fate did not give her time to try: death took her away at 75 years old.


Source: Vanity Fair

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