Actress and producer Shelley Duvall has passed at the age of 75.
Most folks from my generation first saw Duvall in Popeye, before we stumbled upon other Robert Altman movies and, of course, Kubrick's The Shining. Duvall also produced children's shows - I remember stumbling across them in high school, but she left Hollywood by 2000.
Duvall was a fellow Texan, and grew up in the Houston area. Most recently, she lived in Blanco County, which is a short drive west from Austin and due north of San Antonio up 281.
In the last decade, Duvall had been known to have issues with mental illness, and was known to the folks of Blanco. In recent years, it seemed she had received some help and appeared in a film in 2023.
We'll miss knowing Ms. Duvall is out there, either as an actress or just living in Blanco.
2 comments:
She will always be Olive Oyl to me, and as that she was perfect. "Popeye" was in heavy rotation in our house during the dawn of the cable (TMC, Showtime, HBO) era and I think I saw her do "OOoOooOoooOOOooOOoOOOoooooOOOoOOooOO" clumsy bit a thousand times before I could reliably do addition.
Any theories on why Altman had such a fascination with her?
I suspect that Duvall never felt like a polished actor but was still convincing, something few come by naturally, was a big part of it. And a lot of that was that Duvall's giant eyes helped her convey inner monologues with the smallest expression. She had her own beauty that didn't fit pin up stereotypes but you also wanted to watch her. So my guess is she fit his attempt to capture an unvarnished version of reality, like someone you just knew, not someone camera ready and like a 1000 other starlets.
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