Who did Shelley Duvall play in Popeye? Iconic character revisited as veteran actress dies aged 75 

Veteran actress Shelley Duvall passed away at the age of 75 on Thursday, July 11, 2024 at Blanco, Texas due to diabetic issues. The actress was known for her iconic roles in The Shining, 3 Women and Popeye among others.

Duvall's partner, Dan Gilroy confirmed the news of her death to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety on Thursday.

“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us. Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” he told THR.

Shelley Duvall played the role of the iconic comic-strip character Olive Oyl opposite Robin Williams' Popeye in Altman's live-action adaptation, Popeye in 1980.

The actress quit acting in 2002.

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Shelley Duvall played Olive Oyl in Robert Altman's 1980 film Popeye

In her illustrious career spanning multiple films, Shelley Duvall starred in seven films under the direction of Robert Altman. The director cast Duvall in her first onscreen role in Brewster McCloud. She then starred in Thieves Like Us and McCabe and Mrs Miller under his direction.

Shelley Duvall won immense critical acclaim for her performance in the 1975 Atlman directorial Nashville. The director then cast her in 3 Women, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award in the category of Best Actress and a BAFTA nomination.

In 1980, Robert Altman once again cast her as the iconic comic-strip character Olive Oyl in his musical comedy film, Popeye. The film was jointly produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures and was based on E.C Segar's eponymous comic character.

Shelley Duvall was cast as the damsel-in-distress and Popeye's girlfriend, Olive Oyl, known for her big eyes and iconic hairstyle. The actress starred opposite Robin Williams' Popeye and also sang multiple times on screen owing to the musical nature of the film. In one of her last interviews in 2023 with PEOPLE, Duvall recalled her experience of portraying Olive on screen. She said:

"All it took was to put on the costume, and I knew exactly how to play Olive."

At the time of release, the film did not receive enough critical reception. However, it has received a better following over time. Although it garnered a good amount at the box office, it did not turn out to be a mega blockbuster as expected by Walt Disney and Paramount Pictures.

In 1977, Shelley Duvall shared why she kept working with Robert Altman multiple times, in an interview with The New York Times. She said:

"He offers me damn good roles. None of them have been alike. He has a great confidence in me, and a trust and respect for me, and he doesn’t put any restrictions on me or intimidate me, and I love him."

The actress also recalled the first advice Altman gave her, and said:

"I remember the first advice he ever gave me: ‘Don’t take yourself seriously.’ Sometimes I find myself feeling self-centered, and then all of a sudden that bit of advice will pop into my head and I’ll laugh.”

Apart from Altman's films, Shelley Duvall went on to play Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and a rock journalist in Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall. As per Variety, Duvall shot for The Shining for more than a year and Kubrick pushed her to do better throughout the process.

Some of Shelley Duvall's scenes reportedly needed more than 100 takes to reach perfection. The iconic baseball sequence from the film is a part of the Guinneas Book of World Records for requiring the most number of takes for a scene with dialogues.

The actress recalled her experience of working with Kubrick in the iconic horror film in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She said:

"After a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.’ And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry. To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying. I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.’ And yet I did it. I don’t know how I did it. Jack said that to me, too. He said, ‘I don’t know how you do it."

Shelley Duvall moved to Texas and quit acting in 2002. However, she briefly returned to acting in a role in The Forest Hills almost two decades later in 2022. Speaking to PEOPLE in one of her last interviews, she revealed that she left acting as she wanted to spend time with her family.

"It's the longest sabbatical I ever took but it was for really important reasons—to get in touch with my family again."

The actress is survived by her partner Dan Gilroy and her three brothers.