Shelley Duvall had no intention of becoming an actress in the spring of 1970, when a 20-year-old Duvall had her first meeting with iconoclastic filmmaker Robert Altman in Houston, Texas, where filming was set to begin for Altman’s black comedy film Brewster McCloud. After being instantly enchanted by Duvall’s effervescent personality and guileless manner, Altman decided to cast the Texas native in the featured role of Suzanne Davis, a bubbly, free-spirited Houston Astrodome stadium tour guide who befriends the film’s titular character, a reclusive young man who lives in a nuclear fallout shelter under the Astrodome, where he attempts to construct wings in order to be able to fly.

With her big eyes, fluttery, kooky Texas accent, sparrow legs, and skinny-as-a-rail form, Duvall’s unconventional appearance completely defied Hollywood’s established image of female beauty and stardom. Her eccentric sensibilities and distinctive appearance formed a kinship with the subversive Altman, who seemed to recognize in Duvall the beauty and naturalness of an exotic and undefinable flower.

Following Brewster McCloud, Duvall became a staple of Altman’s unofficial repertory company throughout the 1970s, in which Altman and Duvall’s pairing resulted in some of the most exciting and inventive films of the decade, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, Thieves Like Us, and 3 Women, which collectively established Duvall as being arguably the most interesting and versatile actress of the 1970s.

Altman and Duvall Perfectly Complemented Each Other

The rich creative partnership between Robert Altman and Shelley Duvall, which spanned seven feature films between 1970 and 1980, was vital to establishing the 1970s as being arguably the greatest film decade in history. Between Brewster McCloud and their final collaboration, the 1980 musical comedy film Popeye, Altman and Duvall’s respective unconventional approaches to their work proved to be utterly compatible, as Altman’s improvisational, irreverent directorial approach was clearly embodied within Duvall’s effortlessly captivating screen presence.

In Altman and Duvall’s second collaboration, the revisionist 1971 Western filmMcCabe & Mrs. Miller, Duvall almost silently plays Ida Coyle, a young mail-order bride who arrives in a rundown mining town to marry a much older man. After her husband is murdered in a fight over her, Ida joins a brothel run by Constance Miller, played by Julie Christie.

Duvall received her first starring role in Altman’s 1974 crime film Thieves Like Us, in which Duvall plays Keechie, an initially shy, simple young girl in 1936 Mississippi who falls in love with an escaped convict, played by Keith Carradine. Thieves Like Us transcends its similarities to the archetypal lovers-on-the-lam filmBonnie and Clyde through the performances of Carradine and Duvall, whose shared awkward, ungainly appearance and uncertain behavior makes this doomed relationship seem unexpectedly heartbreaking and sweet by serving as a poignant reminder of the happiness that they will forever be denied.

In Altman’s sweeping 1975 satirical musical-comedy film Nashville, Duvall has a small but memorable role as Martha, a compulsive groupie who visits Nashville under the pretense of seeing her dying aunt while actually spending most of her time aggressively pursuing several male musicians.

Altman never worked with another actor or actress who displayed the range of characterizations and emotions that Duvall did. She transformed the characters she played, not vice versa. Within this partnership, Altman and Duvall defined each other’s personas as clearly as any actress-director pairing in the 1970s.

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Duvall Was a One-Of-A-Kind Actress and Talent
Paramount Pictures 

Shelley Duvall, who died on July 11, 2024, at the age of 75, was and will always be completely unique in terms of her appearance, her performances, and her voice. Duvall undoubtedly could only have become a star in the cynical, gritty 1970s, in which unconventionality became oddly fashionable, as evidenced by the stardom of Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, and Donald Sutherland, who gained stardom alongside co-star Elliott Gould from Altman’s 1970 black comedy war film M*A*S*H.

Duvall’s incomparable qualities as an actress are showcased most effectively in Altman’s 1977 drama film 3 Women, in which Duvall plays Millie Lammoreaux, a relentlessly cheerful and self-absorbed woman who works at a health spa for the elderly in a small California desert town. As the film opens, Millie, whose overly outgoing nature has a grating effect on seemingly everyone in her orbit, forms a friendship with an insecure young woman named Pinky, who becomes Millie’s roommate.

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However, Millie’s volatile behavior eventually inspires Pinky, played by Sissy Spacek, to jump off their apartment balcony into a swimming pool. After Pinky awakens from a coma, the relationship takes a bizarre turn, as Pink starts imitating Millie’s extroverted personality, while Millie adopts Pinky’s previously timid persona.

This is Duvall’s best performance. However, while she received several awards for her acclaimed performance in 3 Women, including the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, Duvall was unfairly overlooked for an Academy Award nomination.

Altman and Duvall Became Hollywood Renegades

Robert Altman and Shelley Duvall’s final collaboration, Popeye, is highlighted by Duvall’s scene-stealing performance as the titular character’s love interest, perpetual damsel-in-distress Olive Oyl, a role Duvall was born to play. However, the relative commercial failure of Popeye turned Altman into a Hollywood pariah, while the combination of Popeye and the torturous experience Duvall endured during the filming of the 1980 horror film The Shining compelled Duvall to withdraw gradually from acting.

While Altman was shunned in Hollywood throughout the 1980s, Duvall turned to creating children’s programming, most notably with the acclaimed anthology television series Faerie Tale Theatre, which Duvall hosted and narrated between 1982 and 1987. However, while Duvall had been retired from acting for more than 20 years prior to her death, notwithstanding her final acting appearance in the independent 2023 horror film The Forest Hills, she has an enduring and important legacy due to her historic partnership with Altman and iconic performance in the ever-popular The Shining.