Duvall in Robert Altman’s 3 Women.
Photo: 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection
Hollywood never quite knew what to do with Shelley Duvall. The Texas-born actress, who died last week at the age of 75, didn’t look like movie stars of her generation or any other. She had exaggerated features (big doe eyes, a bright and toothy smile) that gave her a stylized quality, like a boardwalk caricature come to life. And as a performer, she exuded an upbeat eccentricity — an oddball spirit — well suited to the shaggy American cinema of the 1970s, but less obviously to the slicker entertainments that followed. She didn’t fit easily into any mainstream paradigm of movie stardom, which partially explains the infrequency of her roles over…
