Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel .
These fictitious tales of damsels in distress and prince charmings have influenced generations of young children, often unwittingly providing a false sense of chivalry or romance for decades to come. But Faerie Tale Theatre – the award-winning series helmed by late actor Shelley Duvall – was unlike any other fairy tale adaptation that major production studios have since churned out today (and without all the headache-inducing CGI, too). Duvall – known for her roles in The Shining and Popeye – died aged 75 at her home in Texas.
News of her death was shared on July 11 by Dan Gilroy, her partner since 1989. According to Gilroy, Shuvall died in her sleep of complications from diabetes. The beloved actor was unarguably most recognized as Jack Nicholson’s wife, Wendy Torrance, in director Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Stephen King adaptation of The Shining .
But for someone like me, who was born two decades after the horror film hit theaters and never had much of a desire to watch someone wield an ax at his wife, my early introduction to the waif-ish icon came with the much more child-appropriate series, Faerie Tale Theatre. Of course, there aren’t many Gen Zers out there confessing that their favorite childhood series had legendary actors of the 1980s dressed in leotards and frilly oversized collars. But if there was one goal my parents had in raising a child during the internet age, at least she would have a wide breadth of 20th Cent.
