Just wanted to pop in to say I think she is a terribly underrated actor. Truly a gem. For my money, the only reason that The Shining has any stakes at all is because of her incredible performance! RIP, Shelley.
The Shining has so many reasons why it "has stakes". While Duvall was definitely an amazing part of that, it seems unfair to deprecate the rest of the creative folks involved in the film.
I never read the book, but I saw the TV mini-series remake that King was personally involved with and approved, and it was awful.
Personally, I think King's stories just don't translate very well to movies, unless (as with Kubrick's "The Shining") huge liberties are taken with the source material. Most adaptations I've seen of his stories were just bad.
When I heard they were making a movie of Doctor Sleep, knowing that the final 20% of the book is absolutely untranslatable to coherent movie content, I could not understand how they could close it. In the end, they more or less worked around the finale, which is basically a series of psychic battles fought remotely. It's a tolerable movie.
One example of a truly unfilmable King/Bachman novel is Thinner, though maybe it could now be done, at great expense, with AI (there was a ridiculous TV version, though).
I interviewed him, when I was aged 16, in 1983, and asked him about The Shining. He was in a conciliatory mood on the topic that day, but re-emphasized how little he thought of Kubrick's shot choices for the scene where Danny discovers Wendy reading his manuscript.
To that criticism, Kubrick responded over the years that if we had just been jump-scared by Jack suddenly appearing over Wendy's shoulder as she read, we would have felt relief and even started laughing to blow it off, which would have undermined the tension Kubrick was looking to build past this point in the scene.
Keep in mind that performance was controversial and possibly contributed to her mental decline, in particular because of the subject matter and Kubrick's penchant for perfectionism. She had clumps of hair coming out of her head from the stress.
The baseball scene alone is famous for taking 127 takes.
There's a documentary that gives the lie to the rumor that Kubrick was abusive to SD. I believe that she recalls fondly that the project was challenging but ultimately rewarding.
It's caution using words "rumor" and "lie" as if a viewpoint espoused by some documentary is fact. What I noted above did in fact happen. Someone can decide for themself if that is abusive. I did not use that word. My take on Kubrick is he did what he felt was necessary to achieve his vision and little more. It didn't come from malice or poor character. He wasn't an Aronofsky.
The life of an actor on a challenging shoot can definitely have an impact on their physical and mental health and Kubrick was notably one of the most demanding and meticulous directors. It's just a thing, similar to Elon Musk in business. The results are wildly successful and most involved were likely aware of what they were signing up for, the sacrifices that had to be made to work with one of the most revered in the business and to create high and lasting art. Unfortunately for Shelley I don't believe she had the mental constitution for it.
Also keep in mind that people in the public eye are going to want to craft a narrative when it comes to their own legacy. At the end of the day most would want to be remembered more for their accomplishments than the difficulties that went into achieving them, esp. when it comes to their most culturally significant work.