Shelley Duvall, the actor best known for her roles in “The Shining,” “Nashville,” and “Popeye,” died in her Blanco, Texas, home on July 11, 2024, at age 75. Her cause of death was complications from diabetes.
Duvall hadn’t been seen in public for some years prior. Her last role was in “The Forest Hills,” a 2023 horror film. Before that, she hadn’t appeared in a film since “Manna From Heaven,” released in 2002.
In a 2024 interview about "The Forest Hills," Duvall said it was "great fun being back (to acting). I do love this work. It can really help bring you out of a slump."
The film's director, Scott Goldberg, told People in a statement after Duvall's passing, in part: "I am proud of her for overcoming adversity to act again and will always be forever grateful for her friendship and kindness."
Prior to her death, speculation about Duvall's health, especially her mental health, surrounded her. In a controversial 2016 interview on "Dr. Phil," she publicly revealed she was ill. Duvall had also been diagnosed with diabetes and had limited mobility because of a foot injury, according to a New York Times profile from April 2024.
While Duvall kept most of the details about the state of her health private, here’s what the actor and those closest to her have shared.
What was Shelley Duvall’s cause of death?
Duvall’s longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, said her cause of death was complications from diabetes. Duvall died in her sleep a little after midnight on July 11.
“She’s gone after much suffering, which I guess is a good thing," Gilroy told NBC News. "After 34 years … I can’t tell you how much I miss her."
Gilroy added that Duvall had been bedridden and in hospice care for several months prior to her death due to her diabetes.
Shelley Duvall's mental health
Duvall made an appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show in a 2016 episode called, “A Hollywood Star’s Descent Into Mental Illness: Saving The Shining’s Shelley Duvall.”
“I’m very sick. I need help,” Duvall said in the episode.
The star of the show, Phil McGraw, and his team received backlash for allowing the interview to air. A “Dr. Phil” spokesperson previously told TODAY.com that they wanted to “document the struggle and bring amazing resources to change her trajectory,” but “she declined our initial offer for inpatient treatment.”
In a 2023 interview with CNN, McGraw said he "(doesn't) regret what (he) did. ... What I did regret is that it was promoted in a way that people thought was unbecoming.” McGraw added that he and his team supported Duvall for more than a year after taping the interview, “providing her opportunities for inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care. I can’t tell you the extent we went to.”
Gilroy told The New York Times he didn't learn Duvall filmed the segment until days afterward. “It did nothing for her,” Gilroy told the outlet. “It just put her on the map as an oddity.”
Duvall opened up about the interview in a 2021 article in The Hollywood Reporter. “I found out the kind of person (Dr. Phil) is the hard way,” Duvall said. “My mother didn’t like him, either. A lot of people, like Dan (Gilroy), said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Shelley.’”
Neither The New York Times nor The Hollywood Reporter shared anything definitive about her mental health in their interviews.
The Reporter noted she had shifting moods and was still "sharp." The Times said her receding from public life and return to Texas wasn't because of her mental health, but more likely because her Los Angeles home was destroyed in an earthquake and her brother became ill.
Duvall and Gilroy moved to Texas from California together after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. She was doing well in L.A., and at first, life in the south was “terrific,” Gilroy told The New York Times.
“Things went downhill when she started becoming afraid of things, maybe didn’t want to work. It’s really hard to pin it on any one thing,” he said. “She became paranoid and just kind of delusional, thinking she was being attacked. ... She tried to make calls to the F.B.I., and asked our neighbor to protect us.”
“It was just shocking that, suddenly, from normal, it went south like that,” Gilroy added.
Shelley Duvall died of diabetes complications. How does this happen?
Neither Duvall nor Gilroy ever revealed the kind of diabetes she had, but Gilroy said complications from the disease caused her death.
Diabetes is a group of diseases that result in excess sugar in the blood, per the Mayo Clinic. Complications may include heart disease, nerve damage, kidney damage, eye damage and blindness, foot damage, skin and mouth conditions, hearing impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and coma, according to the Mayo Clinic.
If diabetes goes untreated or the disease worsens despite treatment, symptoms can lead to death. One way that can happen is if the body enters a diabetic coma, when blood sugar gets too low or too high. Diabetes can also lead to kidney disease or cardiovascular disease, which can be fatal.
