Tragic Last Days: Shelley Duvall Lived in Fear of Aliens Ahead of Her Miraculous Movie Comeback
Prior to her death, Shelley Duvall was a reclusive, broke, woman who believed she was surrounded by aliens.
July 12 2024, Published 4:44 p.m. ET
Troubled Shelley Duvall made a miraculous movie comeback before her death – after h---ish years spent in showbiz wilderness, tormented by fears about aliens, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The Shining actress, who passed away on Thursday, July 11, at 75 years old, had not appeared on screen since her role in 2002’s Manna from Heaven. However, she finally made a surprise comeback last year for Scott Goldberg’s indie horror movie, The Forest Hills, which has yet to receive a wide release date.
After leaving Hollywood, Duvall lived in a ramshackle house off a dirt road, just outside Blanco, Texas. The once tiny actress with the saucer eyes had put on over 75 pounds and friends and neighbors called her “odd,” “out of touch with reality,” and that she would flash her car lights at night to communicate with space aliens.
Duvall fled Hollywood in the '90s and lived in a ramshackle house with her long-term partner, Dan Gilroy.
The former movie scream queen also believed a hole in her backyard was a portal to another dimension and she lived in fear of aliens, saying they were out to get her.
In 2017, Radar visited Duvall, where she chain-smoked the entire day and rambled on that aliens had infiltrated the Earth. “Oh come on!” she scoffed. “They’re all over the place. Name a country.”
She also confessed to being distraught about her plight. “I’m miserable here,” she said. “I really don’t want to die like this, confessing to being broke and living off social security checks alongside her decades-long partner, Dan Gilroy.
“I have no money,” she declared. “I’ve made five TV series and a whole bunch of movies — and I have nothing!” She laid the blame for her financial woes squarely at the feet of the industry saying royalties from the 27-episode, kids TV series and videos she produced called Faerie Tale Theatre, had been ripped off.
Shelley and Dan moved to Blanco, Texas for a quieter life in the mid-90s.
In November 2016, a disheveled Duvall shocked fans by discussing her mental health struggles on a controversial episode of Dr. Phil that some slammed as exploitative. The actress appeared paranoid and delusional as she publicly admitted, "I'm very sick. I need help."
She also told this outlet that she believed the grocery store was trying to drug her and that she’d been“imprisoned” at an unnamed medical center. “I was put in a facility,” she insisted. “It was very subtle. They didn’t say, ‘You’re a prisoner,’ but you can’t get out.”
At the time, she said she maintained her reclusive lifestyle because Gilroy warned her to stay home, otherwise she would get “hurt” by people.
'The Forest Hills' director, Scott Goldberg released exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of Duvall and spoke about working with her.
Yet somehow, she found her way back on set thanks to Goldberg, despite her limited mobility due to diabetes and a foot injury that saw her using a wheelchair. The NewYork Times reported in April, that Goldberg had found a way to include Duvall’s wheelchair in her character’s story.
According to the Times, she provided no concrete explanation as to why she suddenly decided to return to a movie set. In what was Duvall’s last interview, she said she landed the role, because “I wanted to act again. And then this guy kept calling, and so I wound up doing it.”
In an exclusive behind-the-scenes video released by Goldberg following Duvall’s death, Goldberg says Duvall was initially cast as a cameo, playing the abusive mother of Rico (Chiko Mendez). Rico is described asa man “tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill woods."
'It’s great fun being back, but I do love this work. It can really help bring you out of a slump,' Duvall said in an exclusive video on filming 'The Forest Hills.'
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In the first of two videos, Goldberg described Duvall’s character as a “Friday the 13th Pamela Voorhees type of flashback.” However, he said he later expanded her role when Duvall “expressed interest in working with someone else on camera. Then being able to finally work with Shelley and be there in person, and actually film with her…she's kind, sweet, gentle, and such an amazing actress."
Duvall also offered insight into her experience in two separate videos. In the first, she stated, “Working with Scott Goldberg was really exciting because we used a lot of new technologies [and] cameras, and I was amazed at how easy it became to become a filmmaker."
In the second, three-minute video of her alone, it’s almost as if she’s come full circle, back to enjoying life and immersing herself in her love of acting.
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“Hello, I'm Shelly Duvall,” she declared. “Check out my return film The Forest Hills. It’s great fun being back, but I do love this work. It can really help bring you out of a slump. It’s great to be around a close-knit, or what becomes a close-knit cast and crew making a good movie.”
It appears as though Duvall might have been looking forward to more work before her sudden passing. Looking directly into the camera she said of returning to set, “It just showed me that there was a great future for aging actors as well.”
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