Shelley Duvall biography

"The first few weeks shooting were so much fun and we all got along great," Duvall recalled. "So, when it came to shooting a serious scene, whether it be looking shocked or terrified, I couldn't do it. I would start giggling. After a while Stanley became impatient with me, and just let loose. And that terrified me! But you have to understand, some scenes take hours to make, sometimes,

a whole 12 hour shooting day would only translate to being three minutes on screen. So you go into a scene acting terrified or cying, and by the end of the day you just don't have anything more to give, [but] there is the genius of Stanley Kubrick. He gets it out of you. But it was very tough and grueling."

Duvall also brought her talents to the small screen. Perhaps most notably in Berrnice Bobs Her Hair, part of PBS's Great American Short Story Series. In the 1990s, Duvall took on a number of guest roles in programs such as NBC's Frasier and ABC's Aliens for Breakfast.

Children's Shows

In addition to her on-screen work, Duvall has also become a respected children's show producer. In 1982, she formed her own production company, Platypus Productions, and went on to create two award-winning programs for Showtime: Faerie Tale Theatre and Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends.

In 1988, Duvall formed a second production company, Think Entertainment, which created several other new shows including, Nightmare Classics, Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories, and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

Recent Years

Since the 1990s, Duvall's acting career has been largely quiet. Tired of the rush and mayhem of city life in Los Angeles, Duvall returned to Texas, where she has effectively retired and settled into a life raising animals and enjoying the quiet. "I write a lot of poetry," she has said. "Would love to publish a book of my work one day." That doesn't mean, however, that Duvall has ruled out a return to her acting career. "I still get a lot of scripts sent to me," she has said. "A return to acting is never out of the question."

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