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Shelley Duvall, a versatile face of 1970s film, dies at 75

Shelley Duvall was pursued by an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” and appeared in acclaimed Robert Altman movies including “Nashville” and “3 Women.”

Shelley Duvall, the waifish, wide-eyed actress who became a face of 1970s film, demonstrating her range in acclaimed movies such as “Nashville” and “3 Women” before delivering an unforgettable performance — chased by an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson — in the horror touchstone “The Shining,” died July 11 at her home in Blanco, Tex. Discovered by director Robert Altman at a party in Houston in 1970, she made her debut that year in his black comedy “Brewster McCloud,” playing the love interest of a young recluse (Bud Cort) who lives at the Astrodome and dreams of taking flight with a pair of wings. Over the next decade, she became a staple of Altman’s dialogue-rich, ensemble-driven movies, playing a mail-order bride in the western “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971), the mistress to a bank-robbing Keith Carradine in “Thieves Like Us” (1974), a groupie in “Nashville” (1975) and the wife of President Grover Cleveland in “Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson” (1976).

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