Shelley Duvall, the strangely beautiful, big-eyed American actress who starred in seven films directed by her mentor Robert Altman and co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” died Thursday. He was 75 years old.

Duvall died in her sleep of complications from diabetes at her home in Blanco, Texas, her partner Dan Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter, four days after her 75th birthday.

“My dear, sweet, wonderful partner and friend has left us. She has suffered so much lately, now she is free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley,” Gilroy said.

She began her career in various Altman films in the 1970s, including: Brewster McCloud (1970), The Fair Lady and the Card Player (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975) and 3 Women, for for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress.

He played a supporting role in Nervous Lover (1977), before starring in Popeye (1980) and The Flash (1980). Later, Duvall appeared in the films Great Robbers (1981), Frankenweenie (1984), Roxanne (1987) and Portrait of a Lady (1996). She also received an Emmy Award nomination as a producer for Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, in which she also narrated and starred, and other children’s series. Duvall’s most recent performance was in The Forest Hills (2023).

Asked by the New York Times in 1977 why she chose to continue working with Altman, she said: “He gives me good roles. None of them were alike. He has a lot of trust in me, trust and respect in me, and he doesn’t put restrictions on me or bully me, and I love him.”