Adrienne Shelly

Shelly was born Adrienne Levine in Queens to Sheldon M. Levine and Elaine Langbaum.[2] She had two brothers, Jeff and Mark, and was raised on Long Island. She began performing when she was about 10[3] at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center. Shelly made her professional debut in a summer stock production of the musical Annie[4] while a student at Jericho High School[2] 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.[5]

Shelly, who took her professional surname from her late father's given name,[4] was married to Andy Ostroy, the chairman and CEO of the marketing firm Belardi/Ostroy.[6] They had a daughter, Sophie (born 2003), who was two years old at the time of her mother's death.[7] Shelly described herself as an "optimistic agnostic."[3]

Shelly's career breakthrough as an actress came when she was cast by independent filmmaker Hal Hartley as the lead in The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990).[8][9] Trust was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, where Hartley's script tied for the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.[10] Shelly also guest-starred in a number of television series including Law & Order, Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street, and played major roles in over two dozen off-Broadway plays, often at Manhattan's Workhouse Theater.[5] In 2005 she appeared in the film Factotum starring Matt Dillon.

During the 1990s, Shelly had segued toward a behind-the-camera career. She wrote and directed 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][11] Her final work was writing, directing, co-set- and costume-designing, and acting in the film Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion,[12][13] which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.[14] Shelly's daughter, Sophie, has a cameo at the end of the film.[13]

Shelly was found dead at approximately 5:45 p.m on November 1, 2006. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, discovered her body in the Abingdon Square apartment in Manhattan's West Village that she used as an office.[15] Ostroy had dropped her off at 9:30 a.m. He had become concerned because Shelly had not been in contact that day and went to the building, asking the doorman to accompany him to the apartment. They found her body hanging from a shower rod in the bathtub with a bed sheet around her neck.[15][16]

Despite the door not having been locked and money reportedly missing from her wallet, New York City Police Department apparently believed Shelly had taken her own life. An autopsy found she had died as a result of neck compression.[17] Ostroy insisted that his wife was happy in her personal and professional life, and in any case would never have committed suicide leaving her two and a half year old daughter motherless. His protests over the following days caused a more careful re-examination of the bathroom, which revealed there was a sneaker print in gypsum dust on the toilet beside where her body had been found. The suspect print was matched to a set of other shoe prints in the building, where construction work had been done the day of Shelly's death.[17][18]

On November 6, 2006, the press reported the arrest of Diego Pillco, a 19-year-old, who according to police had confessed on tape to attacking Shelly, and then staging the fake suicide by hanging her.[19][20][21][22] Pillco's original version of what happened was that when Shelly asked if the noise could be kept down, he threw a hammer and shoved her out of the room where he said she slapped him in retaliation. Afraid she would make a complaint that might result in his deportation, he followed her back to her apartment, when the petite 40-year-old reportedly enraged Pillco by calling him a "son of a bitch", where Pillco said that he then punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground and unconscious.[23][24][25] Believing that he had killed Shelly, he said he then hung Shelly to make it appear as a suicide. This original version of events by Pillco were not supported due to the lack of severe head trauma and neck compression being ruled the cause of Shelly's death.[26]

Subsequently, Pillco gave a completely different account during trial in 2008, which he said while returning to work after a lunch break, he noticed Shelly returning to her apartment in an elevator and decided to follow and rob her.[27] Pillco then said he waited on the upstairs landing of Shelly's apartment floor as she entered her apartment and left the door open which he then intruded to steal from her purse.[28] Pillco then said that after Shelly caught him and threaten to call police, he grabbed the phone and covered her mouth to quiet Shelly's screaming when she saw him reaching after her.[28][29] After rendering her unconscious during the ensuing struggle, Pillco then proceeded to strangle and lash Shelly to death with a nearby bed sheet to stage the suicide. The second version was consistent with the lack of dust on Shelly's shoes (which she was not wearing when found) and seemed to be a confession to murder, but prosecutors reportedly thought if charged with murder Pillco might return to his original account and a jury trial could find him guilty of a lesser charge.[28] Police disclosed that Pillco had obtained noticeable scratch marks on his face that he received from Shelly during the struggle. Conclusively, The medical examiner determined that Shelly was still alive when hanged.[30] Pillco pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole.[31]

At Pillco's sentencing on March 13, 2008, Shelly's husband, along with family members, said that they would never forgive him.[32] Andy Ostroy said of Pillco "...you are nothing more than a cold-blooded killer" and that he hoped he would "rot in jail."[32]

In remembering Shelly, Ostroy said that "Adrienne was the kindest, warmest, most loving, generous person I knew. She was incredibly smart, funny and talented, a bright light with an infectious laugh and huge smile that radiated inner and outer beauty... she was my best friend, and the person with whom I was supposed to grow old."[32]

Shelly in 1992 on the set of Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me

Following his wife's death, Ostroy established the Adrienne Shelly Foundation,[36] a nonprofit organization that awards scholarships, production grants, finishing funds, and living stipends through its partnerships with academic and filmmaking institutions NYU, Columbia University, Women in Film, IFP, AFI, Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, and the Nantucket Film Festival. One of its grant recipients, Cynthia Wade, won an Academy Award in 2008 for Freeheld (2007 film), a short-subject documentary that the Foundation had helped fund. As part of its annual awards, the Women Film Critics Circle gives the Adrienne Shelly Award to the film that "most passionately opposes violence against women."[37]

On February 16, 2007, the NBC crime drama series Law & Order broadcast an episode, "Melting Pot", which was a thinly veiled dramatization of Shelly's murder.[38][39] Shelly herself had guest-starred on the show in the 2000 episode "High & Low."[40] The plot of Melting Pot contains an alteration of the events wherein the murder is committed by the employer of the undocumented worker in an attempt to protect his lucrative business. The day after the episode aired, popular talk show host Laura Schlesinger declared that she would never watch Law & Order again because of what she believed was a deliberate attempt to make the story politically correct.

Shelly's film Waitress had been accepted into the 2007 Sundance Film Festival[41] before her murder. The film, starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith, and Shelly herself, was bought during the festival by Fox Searchlight Pictures for an amount between $4 million and $5 million (news accounts on the actual amount vary), and the film realized a final box-office draw of more than $19 million.[42] Waitress maintains a 90% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[43]

Waitress and its cast have together won five film awards and received other nominations in various categories, including an Audience award for a feature film at the Newport Beach Film Festival, where cast member Nathan Fillion also received a Feature Film award for his role in the film; the Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival for narrative feature; the Wyatt Award by the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards; and nominations for a Humanitas Prize and an Independent Spirit Award for best screenplay.[44]

A commemorative plaque within the Adrienne Shelly Garden at Abingdon Square Park

Ostroy produced Serious Moonlight, a film written by Shelly and directed by Hines. The film stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, and Justin Long. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2009 and was released later that year in December.

Ostroy also spearheaded a move to establish a memorial to his wife. On August 3, 2009, the Adrienne Shelly Garden was dedicated on the Southeast side of Abingdon Square Park at 8th Avenue and West 12th Street. It faces 15 Abingdon Square, the building where Shelly died.[45]

The musical Waitress, based on the motion picture written by Shelly, opened on August 1, 2015, at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University. It was directed by Diane Paulus and featured a book by Jessie Nelson and music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. It starred Jessie Mueller, winner of a Tony Award for her portrayal of Carole King in the musical Beautiful. After a sold-out limited engagement, the show moved to Broadway, starting in previews March 25, 2016, and officially opening April 24, 2016.[46] The production closed on January 5, 2020, after 33 previews and 1,544 performances.

Shelly's murder and police investigation is dramatized in season 4, episode 2 of the Investigation Discovery television series, The Perfect Murder.[47] She is portrayed by actress Emily Stokes.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adrienne Shelly.

• Adrienne Shelly at IMDb
• The Adrienne Shelly Foundation
• Jones, Malcolm; "Murder Victim Was A Great Actress"; Newsweek; November 10, 2006.
• Beyond Belief (TCM Movie Morlocks)