Shelley Duvall

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shelley Duvall

• Shelley Duvall was said to be named after the English novelist Mary Shelley.

• In childhood, she lived in various cities in the US as her father had a transferrable job. When she was five years old, her family settled in Houston.

• During her school days, she loved to draw things.

• While she was studying in school, she was one of the toppers and dreamt of becoming a scientist. However, when she was in class 11, she started dating one of her classmates after which her grades in school started declining.

  

• She then dropped out of her junior college and started working as a salesgirl at Foley’s department store. There, she got to know more about nutrition and diet therapy.

  

• She also worked as a model at that time.

• She was then offered to act in an adult film. However, she declined it.

• In 1970, she joined the acting school ‘Acting Studio’ in New York, but she found the course very technical and left the school midway.

• In the same year, she met the American film director Robert Altman at a party who was in the city for the shooting of the English film ‘Brewster McCloud.’ The crew members who were also present at the party liked Shelley’s physical appearance and asked her to work in the film. She agreed to it.

• Later, she appeared in various English films directed by the film director Robert Altman. Some of such films are ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ (1971), ‘Thieves Like Us’ (1974), ‘Nashville’ (1975), ‘3 Women’ (1977), and ‘Popeye’ (1980).

  

• She was also known for appearing in many English TV series including ‘Faerie Tale Theatre’ (1982), ‘The Twilight Zone’ (1986), ‘Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’ (1994), ‘Maggie Winters’ (1998), and ‘Wishbone’ (1999).

  

• She produced various English TV series and TV movies such as ‘Popples’ (1986; TV movie), ‘Faerie Tale Theatre’ (1982; TV series), ‘Nightmare Classics’ (1989; TV series), ‘Backfield in Motion’ (1991; TV movie), and ‘Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’ (1994; TV series).

• Shelley also worked as a writer in ‘Popples’ (1986; TV movie), ‘Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories’ (1992; TV series), and ‘It’s a Bird’s Life’ (1992; video game).

  

• In 1988, she started her film and TV production company, Think Entertainment.

• She lent her voice to a few 1991 English songs “Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall…Sweet Dreams” and “Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall…Merry Christmas.”

  

• In 1994, she returned from Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles to Blanco, Texas after the Northridge earthquake.

• Shelley acted in many English films including ‘Twilight of the Ice Nymphs’ (1997), ‘Tale of the Mummy’ (1998), ‘The 4th Floor’ (1999), and ‘Manna from Heaven’ (2002).

  

• In 2002, she took a break of around 21 years from the films and in 2023, she made a comeback with the English film ‘The Forest Hills.’

  

• In 2016, on the talk show Dr. Phil show, she shared that she was struggling with mental illness and needed help. However, viewers criticised the makers of the show for making her personal life public by talking about her mental illness on a TV show.

• Shelley was an avid animal lover. Once she had six birds, eight dogs, and two cats. Two of her pet parrots were Mowgli and Scarlet.

  

• She was featured on the cover of various magazines such as Viva, Texas Sunday, and People Magazine.

  

• On her YouTube channel Miss Shelley Duvall, her interviews are uploaded.

  

• She used to smoke cigarettes and consume alcohol.

  

• She once shared that she was religious.

• During her older days, she lived with her boyfriend Dan Gilroy in Texas.