Shelley Duvall (1949 - 2024)

Hollywood always has liked its actresses skinny but few women have used it to such quirky effect as Shelley Duvall.  Even if Robert Altman hadn't already discovered and cast her in a series of films that defined one of American cinema's most idiosyncratic collaborations, she would have been perfect for Olive Oyl in his insane Popeye.  

Altman had so much faith in Duvall that he gave her carte blanche to write much of her own dialog which may explain why I couldn't tell you what the hell 3 Women was about, but so what. You simply couldn't take your eyes off her.

Odd, then, that it took perfectionist Stanley Kubrick to give her screen immortality in The Shining.  He used her rubbery physicality to give viewers the film's most macabre chuckle when Duvall is being chased by her ax-wielding husband:  not even she can wriggle through the narrow bathroom window to safety!

But Duvall punched way above her weight.  Her sweetness and innocence made an impression as big as her native Texas where she returned after the duplicity of Los Angeles literally proved to be sickening.

“How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime,” she said, snapping her fingers, “they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”

Photo by Katherine Squire