Actress Adrienne Shelly was found dead in her office Wednesday night by her husband, her agent reported. According to Newsday, police have not announced the cause of her death, still deciding whether to investigate the case as foul play. She is survived by her husband, business executive Andy Ostroy and her three-year-old daughter Sophie.

Shelly came to fame with the rise of independent film in this country. She glowed in her starring roles in the early Hal Hartley films The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). None of Hartley's later films received the same kind of attention. Shelly's enormous appeal made both films. The often cryptic, circular dialogue sparked with Shelly's flat delivery, and her blond, big eyed, protuding-lip prettiness lit the dull landscape of suburban Long Island. Shelly sported a long pony tail and clunky glasses in both roles: Audry, a disaffected model, and Maria, a pregnant high school drop-out. These performances continue to disarm me. Her early death at age forty, as all early deaths, comes as a shock.

Shelly worked continuously since her debut as Hartley's ingenue. She can be seen in a small role in Bent Hamer's Factotum. She directed Sudden, Manhattan (1997) and I'll Take You There (1999) and recently submitted her new film Waitress, starring Keri Russell, to the Sundance selection committee. [posted by Marcy]

UPDATE: The already tragic news of Adrienne Shelley's death has gotten even more tragic. Police originally suspected Shelly's death to be suicide. Further investigation, however, proved that the actress/director was murdered by a construction worker in the building. After an altercation about noise, nineteen-year-old Diego Pillco struck Shelly a fatal blow and then carried Shelly's body upstairs to her apartment, where he attempted to disguise her death as a hanging. More at the NY Times.