Shelley Duvall was anything but a bad actor, she was a Hollywood icon

Shelley Duvall's career will always be defined by The Shining. The star, who sadly passed away this week at the age of 75, appeared in more than 20 movies and loads of TV shows, but she'll be remembered most as one of horror's most famous scream queens.

The Shining's reputation is undeniable. It's among the most acclaimed and beloved horror movies ever made. But that's not necessarily true of Duvall, whose performance as Wendy Torrance remains divisive even more than 40 years on.

Now, though, is the time to look back at Duvall's work — in The Shining and beyond — and celebrate her as the unpredictable and truly unique screen presence that she was.

Shelley Duvall's unusual start

Duvall's career began when she met Robert Altman in the early 1970s. Altman had just made the step to super-stardom having won the Palme d'Or and secured a string of Oscar nominations for Korean War movie M*A*S*H. So it was a good time to win the attentions of the director.

She would go on to appear in seven Altman films, including his epic satirical comedy Nashville in which she played a groupie pursuing various country musicians. One of her few lead roles came in Altman's 1977 movie 3 Women and she was duly rewarded with the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. In that same year, she hosted Saturday Night Live.

Read more: 'Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall': How a viral TikTok trend celebrated the “Popeye” star (Entertainment Weekly)

Shelley Duvall's breakthrough year

In 1980, Duvall's career changed forever with two of her biggest roles to date. Firstly, she played Olive Oyl in Altman's take on Popeye, with Robin Williams as the titular sailor. The film is a fascinating one, reviled by critics and underwhelming at the box office — not helped by a ballooning budget, which included a set so massive that it's still a tourist attraction in Malta.

Duvall's performance is bizarre and brilliant. Her painted-doll looks are the perfect fit for a comic strip character and her odd, ethereal work slots into the weird world Altman created for the movie. Not everything works, but you have to admire and embrace the big swings.

Read more: Shelley Duvall’s Best Performances, From ‘The Shining’ to ‘3 Women’ (IndieWire)

Speaking of big swings, her other movie of 1980 was the one that would go on to define her: The Shining. As Wendy Torrance, she's the wife trying to hold her family together as her son's psychic gifts and her husband's increasingly fragile sanity threaten to tear everything to pieces.

The film wasn't beloved on its release. Stephen King hated it, the reviews were mixed, and Duvall's performance was so disliked that she got a nomination for Worst Actress at the first Razzie Awards. The Razzies eventually rescinded that recognition in 2022, noting allegations around director Stanley Kubrick's treatment of Duvall on set.

Critics have looked again at Duvall's performance in recent years and her work has grown in esteem, particularly given the intense filming environment of The Shining. Jack Nicholson has always got credit for his outsized, extravagant performance, so it seems bizarre that Duvall has been pilloried for her own, wide-eyed work.

Read more: No, Shelley Duvall was not traumatized by Stanley Kubrick on The Shining – she embraced it (The Independent)

Duvall evokes pure, primal fear better than almost any actor in the history of the horror genre and it's impossible not to be drawn into her terror. In a movie packed with strangeness and heightened carnage, she's the closest thing to a real human there is.

The Shining needs Duvall. It simply wouldn't work without her to provide that human response. Yes, her work is strange and over-cranked, but those are exactly the qualities that made her such a memorable and unique screen presence.

Watch: Shelley Duvall in a terrifying scene from The Shining

Duvall's film career was never as prominent again after that and she instead moved into television, fronting programmes like Faerie Tale Theatre and the Emmy-winning Tall Tales and Legends. In 2002, she made what would be her final movie appearance for two decades in Manna from Heaven.

The star subsequently retreated from the public eye and faced struggles with her mental health. In 2023, she made a return to the big screen for a cameo in low-budget horror The Forest Hills. That would ultimately become her final movie role.

Read more: Was Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' his moon landing confession? (Yahoo Entertainment)

Now that Duvall is sadly no longer with us, we should look back on her controversial career and realise just how amazing she was. There has never been anybody like her on the big screen, and there never will be again.