Shelley Duvall was born on the 7th July 1949, in Houston, Texas USA, and is a film and television actress, the winner of an LAFCA Award, Cannes Film Festival Award as well as Peabody Award. Moreover, Duvall also worked as a producer, singer, writer and comedian, and as a producer, she was nominated for an Emmy Award. Shelley was active in the entertainment industry from 1970 to 2002.
How much is the net worth of Shelley Duvall? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the outright size of her wealth is as much as $5 million, as of the data presented in the middle of 2016. Acting is the main source of Duvall net worth, although directing, producing and writing has also added significant sums.
Shelley Duvall Net Worth $5 Million
To begin with, Duvall is the daughter of attorney Robert R. Duvall, and Bobbie Crawford. She has a brother Stewart. Shelley studied at the South Texas Junior College.
Shelley was discovered by Robert Altman while working in a cosmetics shop, and began her career in the 1970s in films directed by the previously mentioned director. To give examples, she debuted in the film “Brewster McCloud” (1970), then starred in films including “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971), “Thieves Like Us” (1974) and “Nashville” (1975). Later, the actress starred in movies directed by Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. In 1977, Duvall won a Cannes Film Festival Award in the category of the Best Actress as well as won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award in the same category for her portrait of Millie Lammoreaux in Altman’s film “3 Women” (1977). The same year Duvall appeared in the lead role in the romantic comedy film “Annie Hall” (1977) co-written and directed by Woody Allen.
Another significant role was that of Wendy opposite Jack Nicholson in the psychological thriller “The Shining” (1980), adapted from the Stephen King novel, and written, produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick; yet the actress failed to succeed as after the film release she was nominated for a Razzie Award as the Worst Actress, despite the film ultimately being listed as one of the best of its genre.
In the early 1980s, Duvall starred in “Popeye” (1980) and “Time Bandits” (1981). Afterwards, she devoted herself to the work of executive producing, for the television films including “Popples” (1986), “Frog” (1987), “Stories from Growing up” (1991) and “Backfield in Motion” (1991). In addition to this, she worked as a creator, writer and producer of the series “Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories” (1992 – 1993) and “Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle” (1994). However, she got back to the big screen in the main cast of the films “The Underneath” (1995), “The Portrait of a Lady” (1996), “Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), “Home Fries” (1998), “Tale of the Mummy” (1998), “Dreams in the Attic” (2000) and “Manna from Heaven” (2002). In 2002, the actress retired from full-time work, but she still appears occasionally on television and in movies.
Finally, in the personal life of the actress, she married Bernard Sampson in 1973, but they divorced in 1977. Duvall has been in relationships with Paul Simon (1976 – 1978) and Stanley Wilson (1979 – 1981). She is known as an animal lover, and since retirement keeps herself very much to herself, living in Blanco, Texas.
LAFCA Award, Cannes Film Festival Award in the category of the Best Actress (1977), Peabody Award (1984)
Nominations
Razzie Award for Worst Actress, NSFC Award - Best Actress, NYFCC Award - Best Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress (1978), Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated and Children's Program (1992), Gemini Award for Best Performance as a Guest Role in Dramatic Series (1998)
Movies
“McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971), “Thieves Like Us” (1974), “Nashville” (1975), “3 Women” (1977), “Annie Hall” (1977), “The Shining” (1980), “The Underneath” (1995)
TV Shows
“Popples” (1986), “Frog” (1987), “Stories from Growing up” (1991), “Backfield in Motion” (1991), “Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories” (1992 – 1993), “Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle” (1994), "Faerie Tale Theatre", "Manna from Heaven" (2002)
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Trademark
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Wide eyes, toothy smile, and lanky figure
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Playing quirky and eccentric characters
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Quote
1
[on The Shining (1980) and Stanley Kubrick]: Stanley's head to head approach brought the very best out of Jack, Scatman, me, Danny, everybody. The mixture of anger, frustration, and ideas made the film really fly. I might have hated him at the time, but I now see him as a really important filmmaker who gave me the role of my life and made me the sort of actress I never dared think I'd become.
2
I'm not a fan of CGI, I think it's a bit lazy. Look at what many filmmakers accomplished before it came along!
3
Tim Burton is just a gem. He is very quiet and shy, believe it or not, but very funny too.
4
There have been many amazing movies in the last decade or so. I always wonder what Stanley Kubrick would have done if he directed Inception (2010) or Donnie Darko (2001). I enjoyed them both.
5
I struggled to get a decent acting job for years, before finally giving it a rest for a while. It would be great to start all over again, if the right role came along.
6
[on Robert Altman] Bob is like family, I trust him almost implicitly. He would never do anything to hurt me. Bob won my trust right at the beginning. He encouraged me to be myself, to never take acting lessons or to take myself too seriously.
7
When I play a character, at that moment nothing else exists. Certainly no theory. I try not to intellectualize.
8
[on working with Stanley Kubrick] Well, of course, Robert Altman was almost the only director I'd ever worked with. It was time for me to test my own legs. There was a kind of possessiveness about Bob. He put me in so many of his films, but apart from him, I wasn't getting offered a lot of roles - hardly any, for that matter. It was like he was the only one with any confidence in me. So here was my chance to work with Kubrick.
9
Acting isn't difficult. You just do it. Everybody in life acts anyhow, President Nixon, The Pope, even John Lennon.
10
[on director Robert Altman] Nobody else calls him "Pirate" 'cept me. That's 'cuz I think he's the bravest, toughest, most imaginative man I've ever met.
11
I might get killed, but I wouldn't die. I'd be born again as another me - or a lampshade, but I'll be on earth - always... (I) believe in everything and everybody existing forever and on and on in the same or other forms.
12
If I had listened to everyone who told me no, I'd never have gotten anything accomplished. When I really believe in something and someone says, "You can't do it," it just spurs me on.
13
Life is all about movement, and when you stop moving, you're dead! That's my big philosophy -- it's all about motion. Life can change in the blinking of an eye, so you just have to appreciate every minute and keep going.
14
[on filming The Shining (1980)] That was a life experience like the Vietnam War probably was for veterans. It was grueling -- six days a week, 12- to 16-hour days, half an hour off for lunch, for a year and one month. The role demanded that I cry for, whew, at least nine of those months. Jack [Nicholson] had to be angry all the time, and I had to be in hysterics all the time. It was very upsetting.
15
[on working with Woody Allen on Annie Hall (1977)] He wanted "Faster! Faster!" That was my main note from him. He likes the dialogue to be fast and for a Texan, especially one who'd only been to New York a couple of times at that point, it was very difficult.
16
[on her memorable role in Popeye (1980)] God, as a child, I was so embarrassed when the kids would call me "Olive Oyl" because it meant you were skinny as a rail, you had sparrow legs, and an Adam's apple. I mean, who wants to admit she was born to play Olive Oyl?
17
Don't let any setback defeat you. The world doesn't end just because one thing goes wrong.
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[on filming Nashville (1975)] Lily Tomlin said we were like twenty-four big kids in a play pen. Which is absolutely true.
19
The trick to acting is not to be afraid. If you're not afraid of making mistakes, you usually don't make them.
20
When I turned 18, I felt I was grown up. Then when I was 21, I reflected, "Boy, I was just a kid then; now I'm grown up." The same thing happened when I was 27. It wasn't until I was in my early 30s that I realized it was a futile goal to have. You're never grown up. We're all still dealing with the same hopes, same fears, same dreams that we had as children.
21
[on working with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining (1980)] For a person so charming and so likable - indeed lovable - he can do some pretty cruel things when you're filming. Because it seemed to me, at times, that the end justified the means. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Why? Because of Stanley, and it was a fascinating learning experience. But I wouldn't want to go through it again.
22
[on director Terry Gilliam] Terry is one of those people that everybody wants to please, because he has such a great sense of humor, and he cares so much about his work, that he just makes everyone else care. Terry really is a true artist. In every way, he lives and breathes his work, and enjoys the hell out of it.
23
[on Stanley Kubrick's method of shooting multiple takes of every scene] Have you seen the film Groundhog Day (1993)? Well, that's what it was like.
Said she based her characterization of "Olive Oyl" on a combination of Stan Laurel and Mae West.
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Was Robert Altman's second choice for the role of "Sheila Shea" in A Perfect Couple (1979), the role having been originally written for Sandy Dennis. However, when Dennis left the project, Altman offered it to Duvall, but as she had already begun production on The Shining (1980), she couldn't commit. The role ultimately went to Marta Heflin.
9
At director Stanley Kubrick's insistence, she and Jack Nicholson performed 127 takes of the baseball bat scene in The Shining (1980), which broke a world-record for the most retakes of a single movie scene with spoken dialogue. Shelley said she learned more from working with Kubrick on that film than she did on all her previous films.
10
Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake that damaged her Los Angeles home, she left California and since then has lived primarily in Blanco, Texas, where she remains fairly reclusive.
Is a huge fan of Sean Connery, and was lured by Terry Gilliam into making Time Bandits (1981) under the assumption that she would be working with him. Gilliam called Duvall while she was completing work on Popeye (1980) to ask her to appear in the film. When she displayed reluctance, Gilliam, knowing her adoration of Connery, told her "Sean Connery's going to be in it," to which Duvall immediately replied, "I'll do it." As it turned out, they didn't share any scenes together. She later laughed this off, crediting Gilliam's "devilish" sense of humor.
14
Was intended to star opposite Paul Simon in One-Trick Pony (1980), which Simon wrote as a vehicle for the two of them while they were in a relationship during the late '70s. However, after their split and Duvall's departure for England to film The Shining (1980), Simon made the film with Blair Brown.
15
Studied at the renowned Actors Studio in New York, during the early 1970s, however dropped out after only a few classes as she found the process too analytical and technical. She left and returned to her own instinctive, organic approach to acting.
16
Once owned the film rights to Tom Robbins' "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues." Despite being signed by Warner Bros. in 1980 to write and star in her own adaptation of the book, the project fell through and she gave up the rights after four years.
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Turned down a role in Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978).
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Got hooked on cigarettes after having to smoke for her role in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974).
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Pauline Kael once referred to her as "The Female Buster Keaton".
Once lived with 11 dogs, 12 parrots, and 58 finches, budgies, and cockateels.
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Was inducted into the Video Hall of Fame in December 1985 as an innovator in video programming.
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Served as chairman for the 1987 Golden ACE committee for the National Cable Television Academy's ACE Awards.
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Served as secretary of the Board of Governors Executive Committee for the National Academy of Cable Programming.
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Was romantically involved with Paul Simon from 1976 to 1979. He was the one to tell her she had won Best Actress at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Robert Altman's 3 Women (1977). He broke up with her at the airport as she was about to board a plane to London to begin filming The Shining (1980).
Graduated from Waltrip High School in Houston, Texas in 1967. Patrick Swayze and wrestler Mark Calaway (aka The Undertaker) graduated from the same high school.
Was discovered in 1970 by Brian McKay and Tommy Thompson, who spotted her at a party while scouting locations for Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970) in Houston, Texas. At the time, she was majoring in nutrition and diet therapy at South Texas Junior College and working as a cosmetics salesperson at a Foley's department store. Although she had no prior acting experience, she was casted by Altman in the film and won a three-picture contract with MGM for her performance.
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
1994
TV Series executive producer - 2 episodes
Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories
1992-1993
TV Series executive producer - 5 episodes
Stories from Growing Up
1991
TV Movie executive producer
Backfield in Motion
1991
TV Movie executive producer
Nightmare Classics
TV Series executive producer - 1 episode, 1989 producer - 1 episode, 1989
Frog
1987
TV Movie executive producer
Faerie Tale Theatre
TV Series executive producer - 25 episodes, 1982 - 1987 producer - 2 episodes, 1983 - 1986
Popples
1986
TV Movie executive producer
Tall Tales & Legends
TV Series executive producer - 9 episodes, 1985 - 1986 producer - 3 episodes, 1985 - 1986
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Manna from Heaven
2002
Detective Dubrinski
Dreams in the Attic
2000
TV Movie
Nellie
Big Monster on Campus
2000
Mrs. Stein
The 4th Floor
1999
Martha Stewart
The Hughleys
1999
TV Series
Mrs. Crump
Maggie Winters
1998
TV Series
Muriel
Home Fries
1998
Mrs. Jackson
Casper Meets Wendy
1998
Video
Gabby
Tale of the Mummy
1998
Edith Butros
The Player
1997
TV Movie
Alone
1997
TV Movie
Estelle
Wishbone
1997
TV Series
Renee Lassiter
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
1997
TV Series
Ocka
RocketMan
1997
Mrs. Randall (uncredited)
Shadow Zone: My Teacher Ate My Homework
1997
Mrs. Fink
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs
1997
Amelia Glahn
Changing Habits
1997
Sister Agatha
Adventures from the Book of Virtues
1997
TV Series
Fairy
The Adventures of Shirley Holmes
1997
TV Series
Alice Flitt
The Portrait of a Lady
1996
Countess Gemini
Frasier
1995
TV Series
Caroline
The Underneath
1995
Nurse
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
1994
TV Series
L.A. Law
1994
TV Series
Margo Stanton
Frogs!
1993
TV Movie
Annie
The Ray Bradbury Theater
1992
TV Series
Leota Bean
Suburban Commando
1991
Jenny Wilcox
Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme
1990
TV Movie
Little Bo Peep
Frog
1987
TV Movie
Mrs. Anderson
Roxanne
1987
Dixie
The Twilight Zone
1986
TV Series
Margaret (segment "A Saucer of Loneliness")
Frankenweenie
1984
Short
Susan Frankenstein
Booker
1984
TV Short
Laura Burroughs
Twilight Theater
1982
TV Movie
Time Bandits
1981
Dame Pansy Pansy
Popeye
1980
Olive Oyl
The Shining
1980
Wendy Torrance
3 Women
1977
Millie Lammoreaux
Annie Hall
1977
Pam
Saturday Night Live
1976
TV Series
Patron
Bernice Bobs Her Hair
1976
TV Movie
Bernice
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson