Shelley Duvall, a Shining Star in 1980, as Olive Oyl and Beyond

              Hearing the sad news of Shelley Duvall’s passing on July 11^th at 75 immediately evoked memories of what, as a young moviegoer, struck me as one of the great years for a performer I’d witnessed. I wasn’t allowed to view her dedicated, vivid work in The Shining upon its 1980 release, but certainly heard plenty about her terrific contributions to that film, which was a sizeable hit, whose reputation and praise for Duvall’s great work therein only grew over time, but I was exactly at the right age to stand in awe later that year over her magnificently on-point portrayal of the quirky Olive Oyl in Robert Altman’s oddball film version of Popeye, which a recent viewing after decades only served to confirm Duvall’s singular greatness as the Olive Oyl for the Ages. 

                Long before the internet, I first became excited about Popeye when my cousin, who had already seen the film, offered prime “buzz” for the movie by mentioning how perfect Duvall was as Olive Oyl, I believe even stating “she should get the Oscar,” which really got me going. Robert Williams’ foray into movies after scoring huge via television’s Mork & Mindy was the initial selling point for me, and for probably most of the general audience, and while he brings plenty of razzmatazz to the title role Duvall, once seen ambling around the creative sets as a cartoon-come-to-life, proves herself to be the beating heart of the movie in rather unforgettable fashion. With every “Oh Popeye!” and rolling of those ultra-expressive eyes, Duvall is in beautiful synch with each Olive idiosyncrasy, uniquely meshing her own talent with Oyl’s firmly-established persona. Although I left the theater with mixed feelings concerning the overall merits of the film, I was floored by how completely Duvall gave herself over to the part, and convinced I’d just seen one of the most strikingly original performances ever.

                It took me several years to grown up enough to finally view The Shining, wherein I once again stood in wonder over Duvall’s dedication to her craft, and the remarkable results it produced. In a very different manner than her work in Popeye, Duvall is again the most human element in The Shining, with the audience fully pulling for her Wendy Torrance’s safety once Jack Nicholson, as her rattled husband Jack, goes around the bend and into another, horrific dimension. Duvall movingly expresses Wendy’s mounting uneasiness, then terror-ridden state as she tries to fend off her demented spouse while being confined in the eerie, snowbound “Overlook Hotel,”; with complete conviction and riveting emotionalism, Duvall allows the movie to reach frightful levels of tenseness that should have made director Stanley Kubrick, who reportedly drove Duvall to distraction during filming, proud.

                As an adult, I also finally viewed Duvall in one of the great roles and performances of the 1970’s, as “Millie” the seemingly confident, somewhat isolated eccentric who views herself as popular before more morose facets are revealed in her character, in Altman’s fascinatingly oblique 1977 masterpiece Three Women. Altman had originally discovered Duvall in 1970 and, taken by her one-of-a-kind look and personality, immediately cast her in Brewster McCloud, before continuing to use Duvall to great advantage in other prime Altman works, such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us and Nashville, while also being seen to ideal advantage on television as the title character in the ace 1976 PBS adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920 short story “Bernie Bobs Her Hair.” With Three Women, Duvall reached a cinematic peak, as her Millie represents a heroine unlike any seen onscreen. Millie comes across as an ideal visual representation of the outcast Janis Ian summons in her hit “At Seventeen,” but with a tantalizing twist: outwardly at least, the calm, self-assured Millie doesn’t initially view herself as anything less than perfect. How Millie convincingly evolves throughout the film is a testament to Duvall’s terrific skills as a performer, with her ultimately heartbreaking work making one feel both pity and protectiveness towards Millie. Although Duvall never received the Oscar nomination she warranted based on her astounding work in Women (or for Popeye or The Shining, for that matter), she did gain the Cannes Best Actress Award and Los Angeles Film Critics prize for her very moving, multi-dimensional and uncanny work as Millie, one of the most individual and indelible figures found in an Altman work, or in movies, period.

                Duvall would achieve additional fame during 1982-1987 with her very successful, Peabody Award-winning Faerie Tale Theatre, which aired on Showtime and featured 27 reworkings of classic children's fables. After costarring with Steve Martin in 1987’s charming Roxanne, Duvall would continue to lend her offbeat presence through intermittent work in films and television in a variety of character roles. However, her place as a leading figure in 1970’s and 1980’s film rests largely on her peerless work with Altman (and Three Women most notably), her understandably petrified Wendy in The Shining and Popeye, with the sweet memory of Duvall, supremely in her element as Olive Oyl, somehow simultaneously dancing and lolling around while poignantly singing “He Needs Me” looming large in a viewer’s mind, perhaps decades after seeing the movie. R.I.P. to Shelley Duvall, a true free spirit, both onscreen and off.