'The Shining' Star Shelley Duvall Dies

Actress Shelley Duvall, who played Wendy Torres in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, has died at the age of 75, The Hollywood Reporter reported, citing her partner Dan Gilroy.

The actress died at her home in Blanco, Texas. The cause of death was reportedly complications from diabetes. "My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend has left us. There has been too much suffering lately, now she is free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley," Gilroy said. It is known that in recent years she also suffered from mental illness and felt very depressed.

Shelley Duvall is best known for her role as Wendy Torres in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The director forced her to "cry for 12 hours a day for weeks on end. I'll never do that again. If you want to feel pain and call it art, go ahead, but not with me," she told People magazine in 1981. To make herself sad, she listened to sad music or thought about sad things before filming. But the filming itself ended up being a torment for her: one report says she was forced to perform the iconic baseball bat scene 127 times.

Shelley Duvall was memorable every time she appeared on screen. She also played a rock journalist in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), appeared as Pansy in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981), and played Steve Martin's supportive girlfriend Dixie in Roxanne (1987).