Cause of Death Released for ‘The Shining’ Actress Shelley Duvall, 75: Report

shelley duvall

Getty Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."

“The Shining” actress Shelley Duvall died on July 11 at the age of 75, and the cause of death was “complications from diabetes,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Duvall “died in her sleep” at her home in Blanco, Texas, her partner Dan Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter.

The New York Times also confirmed through a family spokesman that Duvall’s cause of death “was complications of diabetes.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Duvall starred in seven Robert Altman films in addition to “The Shining.” However, a 2016 Dr. Phil interview raised concerns about Duvall’s mental health when she claimed actor Robin Williams was still alive, among other unusual comments. Williams died in 2014.


Shelley Duvall’s Partner Remembered Her as ‘Dear, Sweet, Wonderful’ in a Tribute & Said She Was ‘Bedridden’

shelley duvall.

GettyAmerican actress Shelley Duvall, wearing a grey blazer over a white top with a gold brooch on the blazer’s left lapel, and a white shoulder bag over her left shoulder, circa 1987.

Gilroy paid tribute to Duvall.

“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us. Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gilroy was a member “of the early Madonna band Breakfast Club,” a 2021 article in The Hollywood Reporter reported.

That article reported that Gilroy and Duvall had been together since 1989 when they co-starred in the Disney Channel movie “Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme.”

Gilroy also paid tribute to Duvall in a separate interview with NBC News. In that interview, published by TODAY, he revealed that she had died “a little after midnight” at the home they shared. However, Gilroy told TMZ that he found Duvall deceased at 7 a.m. on July 11.

“She’s gone after much suffering, which I guess is a good thing, which after 34 years . . . I can’t tell you how much I miss her,” he told NBC News, according to TODAY. NBC News’ story on Duvall’s death used a truncated version of that quote.

According to TODAY, Gilroy revealed that Duvall “had been in hospice care and bedridden over the last few months.”


Shelley Duvall Met Robert Altman After Becoming Acquainted With Members of His Film Crew at a Party, Reports Say

According to The New York Times, Altman first met Duvall after she met members of his production crew on “Brewster McCloud” at a party she threw to “sell her husband’s artwork.” They introduced her to Altman, and he cast her in the film, The Times reported.

She went on to star in other Altman films, including, according to The Times, 1971’s “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” “Thieves Like Us” in 1974, “Nashville” in 1975, and “Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson” in 1976.

Her breakout role in 1980’s “The Shining” by Stanley Kubrick saw her cast as the wife of Jack Nicholson’s character, who goes mad in a remote hotel, The Times reported.

In the interview with Dr. Phil, she made some unusual comments, saying that the joy in her life had come mostly from “watching the smallest life forms that are visible to the naked eye.” She told Dr. Phil that she was sometimes “excessively blissful” during the day.

Duvall said she had not made friends in that interview and said that she disagreed with the U.S. Defense Department. She also discussed the FBI. In that interview, she said that she loved Robin Williams but also claimed he was a shape-shifter who hadn’t died and told Dr. Phil she had a “whirring disc” inside. She said she might want to go back to acting but that she had “broken teeth.”

“I don’t think he’s dead,” she told Dr. Phil of Williams, also acknowledging in the interview that she was “sick.”