Adrienne Shelly

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Adrienne Shelly

Adrienne Shelly on the DVD cover of The Unbelievable Truth
Born June 16, 1966 or June 30, 1966
Flag of United States Queens,New York. USA
Died November 1, 2006 (aged 40)
homicide
Flag of United States Queens,New York. USA

Adrienne Shelly (June 16, 1966[1] or June 30, 1966[2] – November 1, 2006), sometimes credited as Adrienne Shelley and by her birth name, Adrienne Levine, was an American actor, director, and screenwriter.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life and career

Of Russian Jewish extraction,[3] Adrienne Shelly was born in Queens, New York, USA and raised on Long Island. She began performing when she was about 10[4] at a performing arts camp. She made her professional debut in a summer stock production of the musical Annie[3] while a student at Jericho High School[5] in Jericho, New York. She went on to Boston University, majoring in film production, but dropped out after her junior year and moved to Manhattan.[1] Shelly's career breakthrough came in her starring roles in independent filmmaker Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990),[6][7] the latter of which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, where Hartley's script tied for the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.[8]

She appeared in a number of films during the 1990s, and as she segued toward a behind-the-camera career she wrote and directed others, including 1999's I'll Take You There, in which she appeared along with Ally Sheedy. She won a U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Film Discovery Jury Award in 2000 for direction of the film, and Prize of the City of Setúbal: Special Mention, at the Festróia (Tróia International Film Festival) held in Setúbal, Portugal for best director.[9] [7]

She also guest-starred in a number of television series including Law & Order, Oz, and Homicide: Life on the Street. She played major roles in over two dozen Off Broadway plays, often at Manhattan's Workhouse Theater.[1] In 2005 she co-starred in the film Factotum with Matt Dillon. Her last known work was writing and directing the unreleased film Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, [10] which will premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. [11]

Shelly, who took her professional surname after her late father Shelly M. Levine's given name,[3] was married to Andrew Ostroy, the chairman and CEO of the marketing firm Belardi/Ostroy ALC.[12] They had a daughter, Sophie, who was two years old at the time of Shelly's death.[13]

[edit] Death

At about 5:45 p.m on November 1, 2006, Shelly's husband found her hanging by a bedsheet[14] from a shower rod in the bathtub [12] of an Abingdon Square apartment in the West Village section of Manhattan's Greenwich Village, in what appeared to be a suicide.[14] Shelly, who lived in Tribeca,[12] used the apartment as an office.[12] Ostroy had dropped her off at 9:30a.m. that day, and as the building's doorman told journalists, "He hadn't heard from her and he said it was odd not to hear from her, so he was nervous. And he asked me to go up to the apartment with him, so we went to the front door, and it was unlocked".[12]

An autopsy was performed the following day. The New York City Police Department were suspicious of sneaker prints in the bathtub that did not match Shelly's shoes, who was found wearing only socks. Shelly's husband also indicated that there was money missing from Shelly's wallet. He also vigorously denied allegations that she could have committed suicide.[15]

Press reports on November 6, 2006 stated that police had arrested construction worker Diego Pillco, a 19-year-old, who allegedly confessed to killing Shelly after she complained about the noise he was making in the apartment below hers. Police said Pillco had made videos implicating himself in the murder, and as of November 7 was being held without bail for her murder.[16][17] Saying he "was having a bad day," Pillco confessed to the murder. [18]

[edit] Post death

Following his wife's death, Ostroy established the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a non-profit organization that will award film school scholarships and grants to women filmmakers.[19] [20]

Her murder inspired an episode of the US television network NBC crime drama Law & Order. Originally broadcast on 16 February 2007, the Season 17 episode entitled Melting Pot is a thinly-veiled and admitted dramatization of Shelly's murder.[21][22] As noted previously, Shelly herself guest starred in a Season 10 episode of Law & Order entitled High & Low (17 May 2000), in which she portrayed the character Wendy Alston.[23]

[edit] Partial filmography (acting)

[edit] Filmography (writing and directing)

  • Urban Legend (1994)
  • Lois Lives a Little (1997)
  • Sudden Manhattan (1997)
  • I'll Take You There (1999)
  • The Shadows of Bob and Zelda (1999)
  • Waitress (2007)

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c The New York Times (November 4, 2006): "Adrienne Shelly, 40, an Actress, Film Director and Screenwriter, Is Dead", by Dennis Hevesi
  2. ^ Hollywood.com, Inc. (1999-2006). Hollywood.com: Adrienne Shelly. Retrieved November 5, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c AOL LLC (2006). AOL Moviefone biography. Retrieved November 6, 2006.
  4. ^ MovieMaker Magazine (2006). Moviemaker interview with Shelly: "Suddenly Adrienne Shelly" by Tim Rhys, August 1996. Retrieved November 6, 2006.
  5. ^ Newsday Inc. (2006)."Remembering Talents of a Local Star". By Steven Snyder, with contribution from Rocco Parascandol. Retrieved November 5, 2006.
  6. ^ The International Herald Tribune (2006). Actress Adrienne Shelly found dead in New York City office. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  7. ^ a b Internet Movie Database Inc. (1990-2006). Adrienne Shelly. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  8. ^ Internet Movie Database Inc. (1990-2006). Awards for Trust. Retrieved November 5, 2006.
  9. ^ Internet Movie Database Inc. (1990-2006). Awards for I'll Take You There. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  10. ^ CBC (2006). Actress Adrienne Shelly found dead. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  11. ^ Sundance Film Festival 07 (2006). Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in the Premiers, Spectrum, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight and From the Sundance Collection Series (pdf). Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  12. ^ a b c d e New York Post  (November 3, 2006): "Indie-Film Star 'Suicide' Stunner" by Philip Messing, Mark Bulliet and Dan Mangan. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  13. ^ Daily News (November 6, 2006): "Killer Staged Her 'Suicide'" by Alison Gendar, John Lauinger, Barbara Ross and Corky Siemaszko. Retrieved November 8, 2006.
  14. ^ a b Daily News (November 2, 2006): "Actress Found Hanged in Village Apartment" by Alison Gendar and Michael White. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
  15. ^ ABC Inc., WABC-TV New York (2006). "Husband: Actress-wife's death suspicious". Retrieved November 5, 2006.
  16. ^ Newsday (date n.a.): "NYPD questions a person in death of actress Adrienne Shelly"
  17. ^ CBS Broadcasting Inc. (2006). WCBS-TV/Associated Press. "Brooklyn Man Charged With Murder Of Actress". Retrieved November 7, 2006.
  18. ^ New York Post (November 7, 2006): "Star's Suicide was Killer Cover-up", by Larry Celona, Murray Weiss and Dan Mangan. Retrieved November 13, 2006.
  19. ^ Adrienne Shelly Foundation.
  20. ^ Multichannel Merchant (November 14, 2006): "Adrienne Shelly Foundation Established". Retrieved November 29, 2006.
  21. ^ New York Times Company (February 11, 2007). Murder, They Wrote by John Freeman Gill. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  22. ^ TV Guide Online, Inc. (2007). Episode Detail: Melting Pot. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  23. ^ CNET Networks, Inc. (2007). tv.com summary for Adrienne Shelly. Retrieved February 17, 2007.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/d/r/Adrienne_Shelly_e44b.html"