Shelley Duvall died on 11 July 2024 at her home in Texas (USA), aged 75. Her cinematic legacy is immortal, especially thanks to her extraordinary performance as Wendy Torrance, the tormented wife of The glowand years later she acknowledged that shooting Stanley Kubrick’s film was traumatic for her. “I woke up early on a Monday morning and realized I was supposed to cry all day because it was planned… I started crying. I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t,'” she confessed. People in 2021. Her private life has been more low-key, especially after her retirement from Hollywood in 2002. However, a follower of the actress has opened a new window into Duvall’s most intimate memories. “I’ll be right back, I’m crying because I have Shelley Duval’s wedding album from 1970,” Sarah Lukowski, a 25-year-old fan from Austin, wrote in a TikTok video revealing the previously unknown photo archive of the singer’s wedding. He got it for 300 dollars, 260 euros, at a sale of the actress’s items.
Duvall married the artist Bernard Sampson in a small informal ceremony at her parents’ home in Houston on July 7, 1970. It was the actress’s only marriage, although it did not last: they separated in 1977, as their careers progressed and their common goals diverged, but they remained good friends. “In fact, I showed the photos to Bernard a few weeks ago!” Lukowski celebrated in his publication on Monday, November 17. The video shows an old gift album from the parents of the bride and groom, as the text on the cover anticipates: “Our children’s wedding”. The content reveals images of the newlyweds with their closest relatives – it also includes a photo of Duvall holding his cat -, cutting the wedding cake or joining hands with the newly shared wedding rings.
The young woman who brought this previously unpublished material to light is the creator of a website dedicated to Shelley Duvall and a collection of social media profiles dedicated to honoring the late actress’ life and legacy. “I was fortunate enough to know Shelley in her later years, so this site offers a unique perspective that reveals the real Shelley. This site allows her fans to stay connected to her and allows me to share with others what I have learned directly from Shelley and other key people in her life,” Lukowski explains on the site.
Duvall’s wedding photo album was one of his latest acquisitions, according to his account in the video he also shared on Instagram: “I bought it at the Shelley estate sale in September, organized by her family through a local auction house.”
Since the actress passed away from complications of diabetes, many of her personal effects have been available at various auctions and sales. When Lukowski saw the album in one of the preview photos, he knew he “had to have it,” he said People. “When I went to the sale it was the first thing I bought. I knew she had worn that dress patchwork with the printed peplum, but I had never seen the photos of the ceremony. I fell in love with him instantly and I even got a little excited,” she confesses in the publication.
The emerald and diamond ring that the actress wears Popeye what he looks at in the snapshots after “yes, I want” is the same one he used during a photo session Show magazine in April 1971, as his fan discovers in another of his publications. “He (Sampson) showed me what I thought were a bunch of glass beads in a cardboard box. Then he told me they were real jewels and that he was going to design a ring with them,” Duvall told the magazine more than 50 years ago. As he later explained Show magazinethe performer lost her wedding ring during a photo shoot for the magazine Rowing and “cried hysterically” until she found it. “Not because it’s worth so much money, but because it was Bernard’s gift to me,” he said.
The wedding took place on the actress’s 21st birthday and coincided with the filming of her first film, the 1970 comedy Flying is for birds. “Seeing those photos and knowing that her acting career was about to take off is bittersweet,” Lukowski says. In fact, the floral dress that Duvall wears was also worn in one of the film’s scenes. “That unconventional dress is very typical of Shelley. It’s funny because I can’t imagine her in a classic white wedding dress. A unique dress for a unique person,” considers her fan. As stated in PeopleDuvall told Lukowski in February 2024, just five months before her death, that the film’s producer, Lou Adler, had taken her to the luxury store Neiman Marcus and let her pick out the dress. Another “unique Shelley touch,” she points out, is that the actress achieved her iconic lower lash makeup by “applying Andrea brand false lashes with Duo glue.”
Shortly after purchasing the wedding album, Lukowski scanned the photos and shared the digital files on all of his social networks. His publications immediately went viral, which is why he has now decided to also share a video with the entire content. “I’m so happy that other fans appreciated it, and Shelley would feel it too,” he celebrates.
