Photo: Sharon Kinney via ArtsMeme.
The recently deceased actress Shelley Duvall dancing as Olive Oyl in director Robert Altman’s Popeye (1980).
One of the films that the late, versatile actor Shelley Duvall was best known for was her wistful interpretation of a cartoon character — Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl.
Website ArtsMeme says, “Duvall (1949-2024), who recently passed away, led a long and memorable career primarily as a character actress, but in this case she played a full leading role countering Robin Williams as Popeye. …
“Sharon Kinney … the creator/choreographer/coach of Shelley’s special dance, tells us that Duvall did her own singing in the number. She was not dubbed, which would be common in this circumstance.
“The dance world reveres Sharon for having been one of choreographer Paul Taylor‘s original dancers in his iconic dance company. But since retiring from performance, she has led a fruitful career as an instructor at Cal State Long Beach, as a filmmaker and indeed as a dance-film choreographer/coach living in Los Angeles. Sharon shared with Facebook friends her memories of working with the lanky Ms. Duvall in staging a solo song ‘He Needs Me,’ in the Altman film.
“Sharon reminisced, ‘She was so professional, so invested and really wanted to personify Olive Oyl and her love for Popeye! She did great things before with Altman and had just finished The Shining with Stanley Kubrick! She then went on to do some other great work with Faierie Tale theater!’
“Shelley Duvall’s inscription to Sharon Kinney on the glossy photo [above] is good natured. ‘Think I’ll ever make New York City Ballet?’ she mused. Dance ‘people’ will recognize the innate beauty of her pose that is rooted in the cartoon version of OO as gangly. Even in her clodhopper shoes, this Olive Oyl is luscious.” Check out YouTube videos of Duvall singing “He Needs Me” and “He’s Large,” in which she’s defending an early attachment to the character Bluto.
In a comprehensive reminiscence after her death, Owen Gleiberman at Variety notes, “In Robert Altman’s Popeye, an early visionary/cracked comic-book musical. With goldfish eyes, pursed lips, and a Victorian knot of hair set off by her dainty clenched-fist pose of adoration, Duvall gave a performance as Olive Oyl that was so perfect it was almost a joke.
“As an actor, Duvall could seem naturally stylized, which made Olive a role she was born to play. Yet within all that, she found a reservoir of heart. The highlight of Popeye might be Duvall’s performance of ‘He’s Large,’ in which Olive explains her devotion to the oversize Bluto with a girlish defiance that’s indelible.
“And indelible, make no mistake, was the word for Shelley Duvall. She imprinted her presence upon you; once you’d seen her, you couldn’t forget her. It was Altman who first had that reaction. In 1970, a few months after MASH came out and made Altman the hottest director in Hollywood (a status that wouldn’t last long — he was far too independent an artist), he was shooting his next feature in Houston, a fantasy comedy called Brewster McCloud, when he met Duvall at a party and, encouraged by a handful of crew members, decided to cast her in the movie.
“She’d had no experience as an actor. What they were all reacting to was what you can only call Duvall’s being — the eyes that were like something out of anime, her rabbity two front teeth, and a quality that could make you laugh or break your heart: the softness of her gaze, the tender passive radiance with which she looked out at the world.”
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 