From her difficult upbringing until her death in July 2024, here are the tragic details about Shelley Duvall.
“We lived mostly in hotels for the first five years of Shelley’s life.
“I was practically a parent to my brothers.
I was the eldest child, the responsible one,” Duvall explained.
In fact, she sort of stumbled into it after giving up her dreams of becoming a scientist.
Having lost her direction, the young star took up a retail job.
I’d come home smelling like a lily.
And I did some modeling not much.”
“It’s the reason I stuck with it and became an actress.”
“You didn’t get paid much just scale plus 10 percent,” Duvall said.
“They thought women would just marry and the husband’s going to support them.
But that doesn’t happen for everybody.”
Unfortunately, the actor and Sampson parted ways within the same year.
“We just grew apart,” she toldThe New York Timesin March 1977.
“There really was no explanation at all.
We’re still very good friends.”
We were just so young."
The couple lived together for a couple of years, but things weren’t exactly great in their relationship.
So I did, which was against my better judgment.
And then came my birthday.
I missed them so much.
And what did I do on my birthday?
Served chicken salad sandwiches to Paul’s parents," she said.
In a February 2023 interview withPeople, she explained, “I didn’t feel beautiful.
I had big eyes, big ears.”
Duvall’s iconic look undoubtedly set her apart from the other stars of her time.
“It’s her unique look: the big eyes and oversized teeth and her offbeat personality.
… She was such an enigmatic force.
I will never give that much again.
“He was very warm and friendly to me,” she explained.
To prepare for the role, Duvall would “listen to sad songs.
But after a while, your body rebels.
It says: ‘Stop doing this to me.
I don’t want to cry every day.’
I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.’
And yet I did it.”
The disaster caused an estimated 57 deaths and $35 billion in damage.
They wear you out, man.
Afterwards, it’s like FEMA, then the next guys, and the next guys.
Engineers one day, insurance people the next.
Sometimes at the same time.”
“It’s not just owning something that makes money.
You have to also control it.
You have to check that it’s a good deal,” she said at the time.
And I kept thinking, ‘Yeah, Joni Mitchell gets $40,000 a painting.
I might as well try.'"
Duvall sadly never followed through with the idea, though.
At this point, her fame hadn’t been what it once was and the offers were drying up.
People think it’s just aging, but it’s not.
You would never believe it unless it happens to you.
She tried to make calls to the FBI and asked our neighbor to protect us.
It was just shocking that, suddenly, from normal, it went south like that."
It was revealed around 2016 that Duvall had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
It was heartbreaking to watch as Duvall admitted, “I’m very sick.
I need help.”
She was accompanied by trained professionals and was safely returned to her family and boyfriend at home."
He also claimed that his team was working with Duvall’s mother to continue to help the actor.
It became clear to many thatDr.
Phil took things too far.
“I found out the kind of person he is the hard way.
My mother didn’t like him, either.
… [McGraw] started calling my mother.
She told him, ‘Don’t call my daughter anymore.’
“I don’t regret what I did.
I regret that it was promoted in a way that people thought was unbecoming,” he said simply.
Her cause of death was determined to be from complications because of her diabetes.
Too much suffering lately, now she’s free.
It enriches your life.”
She later added with a laugh, “[Jessica Tandy] won an Oscar when she was 80.
I can still win.”
