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Adrienne Shelly
2006-11-06 10:00
by Jon Weisman

I was hoping someone would write a tribute to actress Adrienne Shelly, the talented, crush-worthy, that-hair and those-lips actress whose sudden death last week came as a shock. Here's Gary Susman of Entertainment Weekly:

Before Maggie Gyllenhaal, before Parker Posey, there was Adrienne Shelly. Around 1990, when the first wave of the Sundance-era indie-film revolution was cresting, Shelly was the queen of the scene. With the one-two punch of The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, she and filmmaker Hal Hartley had made put each other on the map, and those deadpan romantic comedies had made the lush-lipped actress a pin-up among indie film fanboys. She'd go on to specialize in portrayals of waifish, fringe-dwelling women who often seemed to hide a ferocious intelligence behind an offbeat exterior. In recent years, she'd largely given up acting for directing (though she appeared on screen this year in Matt Dillon's Factotum), including a movie she'd recently directed and submitted to the 2007 Sundance Festival called Waitress, starring Keri Russell.

It seemed that the 40-year-old indie-film fixture was finally on the verge of fulfilling the potential of those early Hartley comedies, which is why her mysterious apparent suicide this week is such a shocker. It's horrible to think she'll now get more international press attention for the manner of her death than she did for her life's work. It's worth going back and watching the Hartley movies or Joel Hershman's Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me and Deran Serafian's The Road Killers in order to recall what a singular, sharp but sweet presence she was in movies. Meanwhile, let's hope Sundance screens Waitress and finds a way to pay tribute to Shelly; after all, she helped lay the fest's foundation.

Update: An arrest has been made in what is has become a homicide investigation.

Comments
2006-11-06 15:50:01
1.   bhsportsguy
I never saw her movies but I do recall that episode of "Law and Order" she was in.

Her death has now been labeled a homicide and a person has been charged with that crime.

http://tinyurl.com/y2znbp

2006-11-06 16:03:39
2.   Jon Weisman
"Pillco allegedly punched the 5-foot-2 actress after she complained about the noise he was making in the West Village apartment building where her office is located, killing her.

He then allegedly admitted to dragging the body up to her office, and positioning her in the shower to make her death look like a suicide."

That's awful, just awful.

2006-11-06 16:38:42
3.   bhsportsguy
I agree and I only put up the link so others could see that her death wasn't some unresolved cry for help but alledgedly a very violent murder.
2006-11-06 17:01:17
4.   Jon Weisman
I understood.
2006-11-06 17:49:35
5.   Bluebleeder87
wow that guy pillco has some serious issues again WOW!!
2006-11-06 23:31:46
6.   Steve
So long Studio 60. Bradley Whitford isn't half as bored of this conversation as I am.
2006-11-07 11:34:16
7.   Sospiro0
I can't remember the movies I've seen Adrienne Shelly in, but I do recall seeing her in just about every movie I watched on the Sundance channel when I was a teenager in the 90's. I don't know why, but the Sundance channel was my number one station then; I rarely watch it now.
2006-11-07 13:17:12
8.   MadMonk
What a shocking news?! Homicide now, instead of suicide. I'm twice shocked and sad.

I remember those early Hal Hartley movies with her and Martin Donovan. It's a surprise that she never made it bigger.

2006-11-07 18:08:38
9.   Bluebleeder87
she looks pretty good, i guess i have to see some of her work to really get a feel for her

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