Shelley Duvall (1949-2024)
Read this section for a comprehensive biography of Shelley’s childhood, rise to stardom, career achievements, retirement years, and legacy based on my conversations with Shelley, research, and direct quotes from interviews using various photos.
Click on section heading to easily navigate: Manic Mouse | Would you like to be in a movie? | Duvall and Altman | All work and no play | He Needs Me | Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall | Hollywood to Texas | Retirement & Legacy
Manic Mouse
Once upon a time, Shelley Alexis Duvall was born on July 7, 1949, in Fort Worth, Texas, the first child of Bobbie Ruth Crawford, a commercial real estate broker, and Robert R. Duvall, a cattle auctioneer-turned-criminal lawyer. The first five years of Shelley’s life were spent moving around Texas for her father’s short-lived job in insurance, residing mostly in hotels before the Duvall family settled down in Houston.
Shelley spent her youth in Houston biking down the tree-covered boulevards, flying her kite in the humid coastal wind, and jamming to the quintessential music of the 1960s like Nico and Pearls Before Swine. When Shelley was 24 in 1973, Bobbie divorced her husband, remarried, and was later widowed. Bobbie spent a lot of time with Shelley in her early years, reading to her and listening to her made-up stories, possibly cultivating what would come later in Shelley’s career as a producer for children’s television. As an avid reader of fairy tales, Brothers Grimm and the Wizard of Oz books took up a large portion of her bookshelf.
Shelley has three younger brothers, Scott, Shane, and Stewart. Stewart would later work as an administrative assistant for Shelley’s production company during the latter half of her career. Shelley’s father died in 1995 at age 74, her mother died in March 2020 from COVID-19, and Scott died in November 2024 from a prolonged illness a few months after Shelley’s passing from diabetes in July 2024.
During childhood, Shelley’s nickname quickly became “Manic Mouse” because of her creative and energetic nature. However, despite her artistic early years, Shelley didn’t possess acting or theater experience. Her single time on stage as a child was during the sixth-grade PTO-sponsored talent show, which resulted in tears. In an Easter dress, Shelley forgot the lines to Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees” and stormed off the stage.
“I heard my parents outside my bedroom door that night saying ‘well I guess she’s not just talented,’” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991.
Shelley holding a pet rabbit alongside her mother, Bobbie (1972). Photo courtesy of Bernard Sampson.
Shelley ‘s father, Robert R. Duvall (1972). Photo courtesy of Bernard Sampson.
Shelley with one of her brothers and her grandmother (1972). Photo courtesy of Bernard Sampson.
Being an actress was never an option for Shelley. She was an honor student at school, sold scarves and perfumes at the now-shuttered Northwest Mall Foley's Department store, and had modeled briefly at Neiman Marcus, but acting never crossed her mind as a career.
She cruised through her education at Frank Black Middle School and Waltrip High School until her senior year grades suffered. Her mind was set on studying science. After graduating from Waltrip in 1967, she attended South Texas Junior College to study nutrition and diet therapy. Having been an honor student for most of her school years, science has intrigued Shelley since lying in the tall Texas grass and observing bugs as a child.
“In school, the kids thought I was freaky because I made straight As and daydreamed a lot,” she remarked to Show Magazine in 1971.
However, her college career and path to becoming a scientist didn’t last long. One day, she witnessed a monkey vivisection and realized she did not have the heart to deal with that. As the self-declared flower child at the time, Shelley dropped out to “waft” through life, and it wasn’t long until Hollywood arrived at her doorstep.
Oak Forest Elementary class photo (1957/58).
Waltrip High School, sophomore year portrait (1965).
Waltrip High School, senior year portrait (1967).
Would you like to be in a movie?
Shelley wasn’t discovered for her acting ability but for pure circumstance as her hometown of Houston launched her toward fame. On April Fools 1970, a 20-year-old Shelley was throwing a party for her then-artist boyfriend, Bernard Sampson. Shelley was showing off his artwork when crew members in town to scout for Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud happened to be in attendance. Their goal was to cast a “local girl” as an Astrodome tour guide.
That summer Bernard and Shelley wed on her 21st birthday (July 7, 1970) at her parent’s home. She wore a Raggedy Ann-styled patchwork dress that Shelley later sported in Brewster’s closing scene circus—the couple separated in 1974 and divorced in 1977. Still, they always remained amicable, citing that Shelley’s career made them drift apart. Shelley never officially remarried.
When they were together, it was common for the pair to host parties exhibiting his paintings with various friends. On one of these many evenings, two strange men arrived and took a liking to Shelley as she rambled on about Bernard’s pen and ink drawings. They convinced Shelley to pitch the paintings the next day. What Shelley didn’t know was these mystery guests were screenwriter Brian McKay and assistant Tommy Thompson.
Shelley and Bernard’s wedding was held on Shelley’s 21st birthday in 1970. Photo courtesy of Bernard Sampson.
“The Texas Twiggy”—Shelley photographed for Show Magazine (April 1971) wearing her wedding ring.
Shelley and Bernard photographed for the Houston Chronicle Texas Magazine (September 1971).
Shelley explained in a 1980 interview that a party guest called them and invited the pair in, “people are like that in Texas; it’s Southern hospitality.”
“In the beginning, I thought Brian and Tommy were real narcs. I mean it was a real swinging party. Our friends were all smoking in the playroom and the jukebox was going real loud. So I started talking very fast about how great Bernard’s paintings were…Brian and Tommy seemed interested. They told me they knew some rich patrons of the arts from Beverly Hills who might buy some of Bernard’s stuff…I said I sure could and I did the following afternoon, and while I was talking to these men Tommy took a lot of still photos of me,” Shelley said to Show Magazine.
She hauled 30-something paintings to these “rich patrons of the arts” who turned out to be Robert Altman, right off of his hit M*A*S*H, and music executive Lou Adler. They were enthralled by this lanky girl with big, brown eyes who “looked like a flower,” Adler later remarked. Of course, they didn’t have interest in the paintings and didn’t offer to buy them. Their goal was to cast the then-unknown Shelley in her first movie.
"Instead they asked me, ‘would you like to be in a movie?’...I told him I wasn’t an actress. Actually, I was pretty suspicious. I thought he was making some kind of porno movie or something. Then somebody shouted, ‘But this is Robert Altman. He directed M*A*S*H’. I hadn’t heard of him, and couldn’t have cared less. Anyway, this same person asked for my telephone number, and just to get out of there I gave it to him, figurin’ I was safe. After all, my father’s a lawyer,” she said to Cosmopolitan in August 1981.
When Shelley was introduced to Altman, he assumed she was already an actress. He remembers this fateful meeting with Shelley that would soon change her life:
“When they’d seen her, she was trying to sell paintings by her boyfriend. So I had her come in to see me, and she didn’t know that we were looking at her for a part. But I didn’t believe her. I thought it was an act. She had these eyelashes painted on her face, weighed about four pounds, and if she had any tits they were on her back…I decided to shoot a test, so I took her out in the park and put a camera on her and just asked her questions. I was really quite mean to her, as I thought she was an actress. But she wasn’t kidding; that was her. She was an untrained, truthful person. She was very raw in Brewster but quite magic.”
Shelley quickly abandoned her hopes and dreams of becoming a scientist and embarked on her first role, introducing Actress Shelley Duvall to the world. Shelley played Suzanne Davis, a timid girl with long lashes who befriended the titular character (played by Bud Cort).
The movie was filmed in a developing Houston from May through July 1970. When filming wrapped, Shelley left Texas for the first time to promote the film. It was during this time she visited New York and Hollywood, and it was then that the idea that she could become an actress began to form.
With those long Twiggy-esque lashes, prominent eyes, and those large ears poking through from her wispy brown hair, it was this slapstick comedy that immediately won Shelley a three-movie contract with MGM. From then on Shelley became Altman’s muse “I believe in many things including Bob Altman,” she said in a 1974 Time Magazine interview.
At Brewster’s premiere party (1970).
The invitation for the Brewster premiere held on December 5, 1970 at the Astrodome. Photo courtesy of Bernard Sampson.
Duvall and Altman
Following Brewster McCloud, Shelley went on to film six more movies with Robert Altman: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), 3 Women (1977), and Popeye (1980). Shelley left the country for the first time in 1971 to film her second movie, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in Vancouver. Shelley played a mail-order bride, Ida Coyle, “who becomes a whore in Julie Christie’s whore house.”
Altman was in Canada filming when he “got tired of looking at girls who were pretty in high school and decided to become movie actors” so he sought out his star from the year prior, Shelley.
Shelley—who brought Bernard along for the adventure in Vancouver—filmed her role for three days, but Altman kept her on set to observe the acting process and to gain confidence.
In between McCabe and her next movie with Altman, she spent her time “happily in Houston with [Bernard] and my big sheep dog.” But It was the role that came next in Altman’s Thieves Like Us that solidified Shelley’s desire to become an actress.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).
With Keith Carradine in Thieves Like Us (1974).
On set of Buffalo Bill & The Indians (1976) with Altman.
Thieves Like Us, set during the Depression in Mississippi, is Shelley’s third movie with Altman. In her role, a gas station clerk named Keechie finds romantic interest in escaped convict, Bowie, (played by Keith Carradine). The pair delicately falls in love from there and her character eventually gets pregnant. Shelley also learned to smoke for the role, a habit she quickly latched onto and never quit.
Although the movie wasn’t widely received, The New Yorker critic Pauline Kael called it the “closest to flawless of Altman’s films,” in her review titled Love and Coca-Cola. Pauline had praise for Shelley’s candor and authenticity as the “Houston girl who never acted professionally”:
“She looks like no one else and she acts like no one else. Shelley Duvall may not be an actress, exactly, but she seems able to be herself on the screen in a way that nobody has ever been before. She doesn’t appear to project—she’s just there. Yet you feel as if you read her every thought; she convinces you that she has no veils and nothing hidden. Her charm appears to be totally without affectation.”
It was after Thieves that Shelley felt the burning passion to remain in show business instead of it being a short fling. Over dinner one night with Altman, he remarked she “wasn’t just a good actress, but a great actress.” This was a turning point in Shelley’s career. In comparison to her Hollywood peers, Shelley had no formal training and didn’t grow up in the theater. And yet everything came naturally to her.
“I’ve been so lucky, not having to go through casting calls like most aspiring actors. I don’t know how they do it. You have to be so strong and believe in yourself so much to go out for parts,” she told Sunday Woman magazine in 1980.
Following her desire to establish herself as an actress after Thieves, she made three additional films with Altman in the 1970s: Nashville, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, and 3 Women.
In 1975, she was the groupie and effortlessly cool girl Martha (aka LA Joan) in the satirical Altman comedy Nashville. Shelley’s character comes to Nashville from LA to visit her uncle and pay respects to her dying aunt in the hospital. Instead, LA Joan falls in love with various musicians and dresses in fashionable clothing and attractive wigs. Shot on location in June 1974, Shelley spent her time in between shoots observing the local music scene. She also sourced her character’s outfits directly from various thrift stores. During this time she also dated Patrick Reynolds, a direct descendant of tobacco businessman R.J. Reynolds, and invited him on set, eventually getting him cast.
Shelley and Patrick on set.
Behind the scenes of Nashville (1975).
Shelley’s next feature with Altman was born from a dream he had one night. If it wasn’t for that dream that bore 3 Women then there would be no Shelley Duvall as Millie Lammoreaux brushing her perfectly manicured hair with a toothbrush, frequently getting her skirt caught in her canary yellow car door, or brandishing her neatly decorated apartment with the sign “clean is sexy.”
With a dream in mind, zero script, and approval from 20th Century Fox, Altman, Shelley, and the crew set up shop in the California desert 11 days later. As the title suggests, the film is about three women: Millie (Shelley’s character), Pinky (Sissy Spacek), and Willie (Janie Rule). Millie is a self-absorbed perfectionist to the point of delusion as she mindlessly rambles recipes and constantly tries to win over the people around her; Pinky is quiet and becomes obsessed with Millie’s confidence when she takes up a job at the rehabilitation spa Millie works at; and Willie stays on the sidelines painting suggestive snake-like creatures in a vacant pool while pregnant.
In a 1977 interview with The New York Times, Shelley describes her character as a “product of everything she watches and she reads such as her favorite magazines—McCalls, Redbook, and Apartment Life. She does everything she has to do to have a complete life.”
Given Altman’s actor-centered approach, Shelley wrote Millie’s dialogue, diary entries, letters, and recipes. She estimates that she wrote about 50 percent of her own dialogue with some improvising:
“I put so much of myself into Millie especially the parts I don’t care to see, all the vanities and the mundane things, such as Millie’s fondness for tuna-melt sandwiches, and Scrabble, and the color yellow. No one likes her because she’s boring, and because all she can talk about is recipes. She lives in a fantasy writing in her diary things that don’t really happen to her, and totally ignoring the truth, that she really isn’t popular.” (New York Times, March 1977)
A few months later in May 1977, Shelley took home Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival for her performance of Millie. Although Shelley failed to be nominated for an Academy Award despite some campaigning (after all it was a tough group that year), she did win Best Actress at the LA Film Critics Awards. It was around this time that Shelley got a call from Stanley Kubrick to be in his new horror film.
Shelley, Sissy, and photographer Michael Childers on set in Palm Springs (1977).
Shelley doing what she does best in this 3 Women portrait.
All work and no play…
Shelley’s most difficult and perhaps most memorable role to date, The Shining, was offered to her in 1977 when she was at Cannes Film Festival for 3 Women. Shelley was on director Stanley Kubrick’s radar to cast her as the shrill and tormented wife, Wendy Torrance, after seeing her previous films 3 Women and Nashville (discussed in the section above). Although Wendy in Stephen King’s book is more self-sufficient, Kubrick was attracted to Shelley because of her “eccentric quality,” which made her more believable as the type of woman who would marry Jack Torrance and put up with him. Kubrick offered Shelley the role; there was no script yet and her only homework was to read King’s book.
At the time. Shelley was dating Paul Simon—they originally met in 1976 at Elaine’s in NYC when she was in town to film a cameo in Annie Hall—and living with him in his duplex apartment overlooking Central Park when she was cast.
“I was terrified the night I first read The Shining. I locked every door and waited until my boyfriend [Paul Simon] got home before going to sleep. But I was a fan of horror as a child. I had read stories by Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and Henry James,” she said in 1988 about making the switch to the horror genre.
Shelley and Paul on set of her Saturday Night Live performance, which she hosted (May 1977). Photo courtesy of Harper Simon.
Photographed at Cannes Film Festival, where she won Best Actress for 3 Women (May 1977).
Shelley first met Kubrick in October 1977. She recalls liking him even upon that first meeting:
“He was sitting there with all his papers spread out around him. I liked him. I liked his humor. I felt very good the first week of shooting. I wasn’t nervous at all I was just excited about the beginning of the film,” she said in an interview with Leon Vitali, Kubrick’s assistant.
Between the summer of 1977 and spring 1978, Shelley took a short break from acting to prepare for the daunting performance. Shelley and Paul spent time in The Hamptons and she turned down a role in Altman’s A Wedding, causing a bit of a rift between the actress-director duo. But The Shining quickly creeped upon her. Principal photography began in May 1978 at Elstree Studios outside of London. The shoot was scheduled to take 17 weeks but went on for 14 months due to a set fire. Filming The Shining was stressful for Shelley, she was away from her home living in London and Paul broke up with her after 2.5 years together as she departed for the role of a lifetime.
Before working with Kubrick, Shelley was accustomed to the relaxed filming of Altman who had trust in his actors to let them improvise. She was excited about the challenge and to branch out to a different director. In a 1980 interview with Roger Ebert, she said the following:
“Robert Altman was almost the only director I’ve ever worked with. It was time for me to test my own legs. There was a kind of possessiveness about Bob, he put me in so many of his films, but apart from him, I wasn’t getting offered a lot of roles. Hardly any, for that matter. It was like he was the only one with any confidence in me.”
The most takes she’s ever done pre-Shining was 15. Shelley was not accustomed to Stanley’s obsessive takes and perfection with filming taking six days a week and up to 16-hour days. It was grueling for Shelley having to cry all day long, but despite this, she has fond memories and is proud of her work.
In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shelley said Kubrick was “very warm and friendly to me. He just wanted to sit down and talk for hours while the crew waited.”
Additionally, in 2024 Shelley shared similar sentiments to The New York Times. In the interview, she recalled her off-camera experiences with Kubrick such as playing chess between breaks, smoking together, and eating Big Macs.
Even immediately after filming, Shelley spoke with ease about Kubrick to the Los Angeles Times, “I learned so much from that man. I tend to sound like a fool when I talk about him but I was so impressed.”
Critics at the time had varying opinions of Shelley’s performance calling her acting “strangely cartoonish” and King most famously rejected Kubrick’s Wendy as “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film.” She was also nominated for Worst Actress at the first annual Razzies, which was rescinded in 2022 due to Kubrick’s “pulverizing” treatment towards Shelley, said one of the founders.
Despite popular internet legend that Shelley’s career didn’t amount to much after The Shining, she persisted and had a prosperous career as a television producer with extensive film credits, such as the role she was born to play…Olive Oyl in Popeye.
Shelley and little Danny Lloyd. Photo courtesy of the Stanley Kubrick Archive/Taschen.
Shelley and Stanley enjoying time on set. Photo courtesy of the American Cinematographer magazine.
Here’s Johnny….
He Needs Me
Popeye was Shelley’s 7th film under Altman’s direction but it also marked her departure from him as the new decade ushered in. Shelley as Olive might already seem like the ideal casting considering her fellow peers compared her to the cartoon character growing up, but there were still some differences to overcome. Altman promised the role to Shelley, but Paramount wanted to pursue SNL star, Gilda Radner. With Gilda too nervous to make the jump to film, Altman convinced the studio by editing a demo of Shelley singing “He Needs Me” (written by Harry Nilsson for the movie’s soundtrack) over a reel from her earlier film, Thieves Like Us. From there, Shelley spent more than six months (January to June 1980) on the remote island of Malta filming the role of a lifetime.
“I really had to come out of my shell to play her because believe it or not, before Miss Oyl I really was quite shy,” Shelley told Photoplay’s Dave Smith in 1981.
To transform into Olive, the already slim Shelley had to lose ten pounds and spend two hours in hair and makeup every day before filming began. She would have nearly 100 pins placed into her black hair and partial wig by the film’s makeup artist, Giancarlo Del Brocco.
Filming on Malta with a practical set had its challenges with the ever-changing weather and being worlds away from Hollywood, but Shelley began dating fellow Texan, Stanley Wilson, who starred as the film’s town barber. They were together several years after filming wrapped. To pass the time, Shelley created a weekly newspaper for the cast and crew titled Falconette Gazette. The Gazette featured sketches, poems, column notes, editorials, cartoons, etc. However, after 12 issues, Shelley stopped it due the large effort.
“That was such a physical ordeal, making Popeye. Especially compared to a picture like 3 Women, which was shot in six weeks in Palm Springs. For Popeye, I spent two months jammed down that ship’s funnel, screaming my fool head off. All of Bob Altman’s pictures are like working with family, but for Popeye there were a lot of Italians who didn’t speak the language, and we were off there in Malta,” she said about the film’s challenges.
Popeye premiered on December 9, 1980, with Shelley and Stanley in attendance at the premiere hosted at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The reviews of Popeye varied, and it was not the blockbuster hit that Paramount/Disney had anticipated. However, Shelley’s performance was unscathed and received much praise.
“She brings to Olive a certain…dignity, you might say. She’s not lightly scorned, and although she may tear apart a room in an unsuccessful attempt to open the curtains, she is fearless in the face of her terrifying fiancé, Bluto,” wrote Roger Ebert in his review.
On set of Popeye in the recording studio (1980).
Shelley and Stanley Wilson at the film’s premiere in Hollywood (December 1980).
Popeye (played by Robin Williams) and Olive Oyl forever.
Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall
In the 1980s after the toll of filming The Shining, Popeye, and Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits back to back, all of which were filmed outside of the States, Shelley had her sights set on producing children’s programming.
Shelley’s frustrations with being an actor and constantly going after roles led her to channel her efforts into producing—a path where she gets to create and develop her own ideas instead of waiting for the work to come along.
“When you’re an actor, the day after you’ve wrapped a film, you’re wondering if you’ll ever work again. Too many actors sit around saying ‘when is somebody going to offer me a good role?’ Make them. Create them. Why sit around and wait? If you want something done right, do it yourself. My mother always says that, and she’s a successful businesswoman in real estate in Houston. I guess I got some of my business sense from her,” Shelley said in a 1983 interview with The New York Times.
Shelley’s desire to become a producer actually began in the early 1980s when she acquired the rights to Tom Robbin’s 1976 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Shelley was planning to produce, co-write, and star in the film, with Peter Medak as the director, but it never got going and Shelley sold the rights four years later. Despite its failure to launch, this gave her a taste of producing and she finally got the ball rolling when she had the idea to adapt classic fairy tales.
Growing up, she collected antique illustrated fairy tale books consisting of first and international editions when she was a teenager, so it wasn’t a surprise that she pivoted from acting to producing with Faerie Tale Theatre as her first production, and to this day it is still her most memorable and beloved series.
The idea for an anthology series of classic fairy tales but with a modern spin was formed in 1980 when she was filming Popeye. While being so far away from home, Shelley brought her illustrated fairytale books to pass the time. As she read, she imagined her co-star, Robin Williams, as the Frog Prince, and from there, Faerie Tale Theatre was born.
"I had an idea and no one else was doing it," she says. "I wanted to make family programming suitable for all ages—to entertain adults and not condescend to children. I also wanted something lasting, of a classic nature—like Disney.'”
The show premiered on the emerging cable network, Showtime, on September 11, 1982, with The Tale of the Frog Prince.
Faerie Tale Theatre had 26 episodes (plus one “best moments” recap titled Grimm Party) and ran from 1982 to 1987. Each tale would have different actors with visuals inspired by Shelley’s favorite artists and illustrators such as Gustav Klimt (Rapunzel), Edmund Dulac (The Nightingale), and Norman Rockwell (Goldilocks). The series humorously updated storybook classics in 50-minute episodes with each having a slew of celebrity guest stars. These celebrities welcomed the opportunity to act in these fairy tales for their children or grandchildren and to be introduced to other talents in the industry.
Some of the celebrities that graced their presence in Faerie Tale Theatre included Mick Jagger as the Emperor in The Nightingale, Christopher Reeve as Prince Charming in Sleeping Beauty, Tatum O’Neal as Goldilocks, and Liza Minnelli as Princess Alecia in The Princess and the Pea. Out of 26 episodes, Shelley acted in three: Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and a small role in Snow White, but she always introduced each one with a warm “Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall.”
Introducing the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves episode (1983). Photo courtesy of Doug Gardiner.
Shelley played two different characters in Rapunzel: Marie and Rapunzel. Pictured is Marie eating a radish (1983). Photo courtesy of Doug Gardiner.
Similar to how her career as an actress began, Shelley had no experience as a producer.
"I learned a lot by trial and error. I'd accumulated some knowledge from observing in my film career, and that helped. But an old friend gave me a piece of good advice: What you don't know, you can hire,” she told the Houston Chronicle in 1990.
However, the most difficult part for Shelley was gathering the money to produce and create these fairy tale adaptations while keeping extra costs down. Even for the early 1980s, Faerie Tale Theatre was considered “low budget” with a price tag of about $350,000 to $500,000 per episode. To maintain low costs, Shelley paid the actors at or near union scale, which meant between $1,000 to $3,500 a week.
Before going to Showtime, Shelley approached Disney Productions with the idea of Faerie Tale Theatre, but the deal with Disney would not give her the artistic control that she desired. She skipped over the networks to avoid the bureaucracy fearing they might hire the wrong actors. Instead, she decided to go the cable route to have the control she demanded. Showtime agreed to let her lead the project and offered half the money to get it started. The other half of the cost was footed by Gaylord Television Entertainment, which handled the cable syndication and video cassette rights. Shelley also teamed up with Lion’s Gate Films for this deal with Showtime and Gaylord.
Shelley liked having the creative control and the support from television executives and often ruled each meeting with enthusiasm for the material she was putting out, despite having to make financial sacrifices for her and her crew. She had to make some lifestyle changes as the pay from having her own control over a cable series made no match to her former acting salary.
Shelley persevered through as she was dedicated to providing quality children’s content, often working 15-hour days. To combat busy days of filming, Shelley added her own personal touches on set to care for her cast and crew. She employed a masseur three days a week and often left flowers in the dressing room.
Peter Medak, who directed two episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre and was set to direct Shelley’s Even Cowgirl Get the Blues before she lost the rights, admired Shelley’s tenacity.
"Shelley is the best producer I have worked with in the 14 years I've been directing movies. She's very determined, and she understands what filmmaking is,” said Medak to People Magazine in 1983.
The series had a far reach, not only in the United States, but also in Italy, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and India, among others. Faerie Tale Theatre was a fast success despite being considered a lower-budget production. It later won a Peabody Award, a TCA Award, and a Golden CableACE.
Faerie Tale Theatre was just the beginning for Shelley Duvall, the producer. Following the worldwide acclaim for these sophisticated fairy tales, she went on to produce additional children’s shows for Showtime, such as Tall Tales and Legends (1985), Bedtime Stories (1992), and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (1994).
Shelley and Jean Stapleton on the set of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Based on the popular book series by Betty Macdonald (1994).
Behind the scenes of Bedtime Stories, which had 13 episodes and originally aired on Showtime (1992-1994).
In January 1988, Shelley founded her own production company called Think Entertainment, which was a partnership between multiple operators within the cable field. The goal was to be an independent source that generated original and informative content exclusively for cable television. In comparison to her earlier shows, Shelley was more hands-off on screen, focusing on the behind-the-scenes as executive producer. This was a continuation of the company she created in 1982 called Platypus.
As the chairman of Think, Shelley pivoted from children's shows like Faerie Tale Theatre and Tall Tales into more adult content, such as a horror series called Nightmare Classics. This was the least popular of her productions. Her 1990 TV movie Mother Goose Rock ‘N’ Rhyme was also a Think Entertainment production, as well as an unknown TV movie adaptation called Dinner at Eight. Shelley was optimistic about the future of Think to create a valuable library of shows with many bold ideas for programming, but unfortunately, finances were an issue and the production company was sold in 1993 to a small British firm and she retired from producing.
During the 1980s, Shelley took a step back from prioritizing acting but she still had several film credits in the decade, including Tim Burton’s short Frankenweenie (1984), the main character’s best friend, Dixie, in Roxanne (1987), and the wacky TV movie Frog (1988).
“My success so far is like a fairy-tale happy ending,” said Shelley to People Magazine in 1983.
Shelley with cable television executives at the forming of Think Entertainment, photo included in the Entertainment Industry Magazine (January 18, 1988).
“Thinking big: Duvall leads production charge,” reads the caption of this photo included in Electronic Media (April 25, 1988).
Frankenweenie publicity shot with Daniel Stern and Barret Oliver (1984).
Hollywood to Texas
Into the 1990s, Shelley continued having a prosperous career. Shelley played Little Bo Beep in Mother Goose Rock ‘N’ Rhyme where she met the musician Dan Gilroy and cast him in the role of Gordon Goose. Dan did not have an extensive acting background but he was an artist, singer, and songwriter, so Shelley thought he was perfect for the role. This project with the Breakfast Club star quickly formed into a decades-long relationship and Dan remained Shelley’s life partner up until her death in July 2024.
Shelley starred in several films including as wife to Christopher Lloyd in the action film Suburban Commando (1991), as a nurse in Steven Soderberg’s The Underneath (1995), as a countess in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and as a witch in the family-friendly Casper Meets Wendy (1998), with her final film being a small role as a detective in Manna from Heaven (2002).
Shelley was not stopping her creative reach at just film and TV. She also dabbled in video game development with It’s a Bird’s Life, a 3DO game, and Tales of Digby the Dog, an interactive CD-ROM. Both games are based on her beloved animals. Around that time she had dozens of birds, eight dogs, two cats, and two goldfish in the Studio City home that she shared with Dan.
In 1994, Shelley and Dan relocated from Los Angeles to the small town of Blanco, Texas, after the Northridge Earthquake destroyed their home, which spooked them enough to pack up and leave. While on their way to Shelley’s native Houston, along with their many animals, the pair stumbled upon a farm for sale in a small town called Blanco in the Texas Hill Country and decided to settle down on a ranch.
Blanco is a community of 2,000 people nestled in the dry Texas hills between Austin and San Antonio. It’s known for its annual lavender festival that draws flocks of people and it has a state park on the Blanco River that is good for swimming and tubing. It’s the kind of town you’d simply pass through on the way to the bigger city, but for Shelley, it was home.
"Texans are individuals. They take charge. They have a pioneer strength. I grew up with a lot of colorful, different, eccentric people. Texas is full of them. I'm a Texan and I always will be,” she said in 1990 to the Houston Chronicle.
There’s been online speculation of whether Shelley abandoned Hollywood after the tumultuous filming of The Shining, but that’s far from the truth. The disaster was a natural catalyst for Shelley’s departure, and she desired that move even before the quake. It also gave her a reason to be closer to her family since her brother, Scott, fell ill around this time. Shelley continued acting even after her move (some titles listed above) up until her retirement in 2002.
The cover for It’s a Bird’s Life pictured with her real life bird, Mowgli, in the top left.
Shelley in Tuscany, Italy where The Portrait of a Lady was filmed (1995). Photo courtesy of Renee Pappas.
Shelley and Dan on set of Mother Goose.
Retirement & Legacy
After her retirement, Shelley and Dan kept a low profile avoiding widespread media coverage. The fellow townspeople watched out for Shelley and remained protective of their local celebrity. Shelley spent her time visiting local eateries, driving around the Hill Country, and playing with her several animals.
"When somebody recognizes you at a Dairy Queen in Texas, you're a star,” Shelley said to People Magazine in 1983 and this sentiment remained the same with DQ being one of her favorite fast food joints to frequent.
However, a November 2016 Dr. Phil interview titled “A Hollywood Star’s Descent Into Mental Illness: Saving The Shining’s Shelley Duvall” forced Shelley back into the spotlight. She appeared disheveled and babbled about paranoid fantasies such as that her Popeye co-star, Robin Williams, who died in 2014, was a “shapeshifter.” McGraw framed the episode as helping Shelley when in reality it was highly exploitative and received criticism from many for being a sensationalist story causing speculation about her mental sanity. Shelley declined his support.
“[Dr. Phil] did nothing for her. It just put her on the map as an oddity,” Dan later said about his partner’s public distress.
Despite the flawed interview, Shelley slowly returned to the public eye through her own desires and terms.
In 2021, she was interviewed for a profile in The Hollywood Reporter stating that “yes, she could be gripped by anxiety attacks or meander into unsettling descriptions of alien-surveillance programs. But she also could converse for long, coherent stretches and conjure up the slightest details about her life and of her career, of which she remains very proud.”
After a 20-year hiatus from acting, it was announced in October 2022 that Shelley was returning to acting in The Forest Hills, an indie horror flick. Shelley played a small role, which was filmed at her home, and she was excited to use her acting skills again. It was digitally released in October 2024.
In April 2024, The New York Times gave coverage to her small-town life, which included beautiful portraits of the aging Shelley sitting in the front seat of her white Toyota 4Runner, where she was most comfortable sitting in her later years. The story also discussed her extensive health issues, including diabetes and an injured foot that impacted her mobility.
A few months after that glowing New York Times profile and in the days following her 75th birthday celebrations, Shelley died peacefully in her sleep in her Blanco home. She was in hospice care for several months due to diabetes complications. Dan originally announced her death to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shelley’s legacy continues to live on with the creation of this website and she will forever be loved by many no matter how you originally discovered her. It is my goal to celebrate her work by documenting her projects and sharing her performances and personhood with new generations. May she inspire us all and live on through our memories.
Shelley in her Toyota 4Runner, photographed by Katherine Squier for The New York Times (April 2024).
Shelley and Dan in Blanco (May 2023). Photographed by Sarah of Shelley Duvall Archive.
Photographed by Eric Ryan Anderson for The Hollywood Reporter (February 2021).