Adrienne Shelly, a writer, director and actress who appeared recently in a movie with Matt Dillon, was found dead in her office by her husband, her agent said Thursday.
Shelly, whose birth name was Adrienne Levine, was found Wednesday at about 6 p.m. An autopsy was performed Thursday, but the medical examiner's office did not yet have a cause of death.
Shelly, 40, recently appeared in the role of Jerry in "Factotum,'' a film based on a novel by Charles Bukowski that starred Dillon, and had written and directed a film called "Waitress,'' starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion.
She was married to Andy Ostroy and had a 3-year-old named Sophie, according to her agent of about a decade, Rachel Sheedy. She made her screen debut in two films by Hal Hartley, "The Unbelievable Truth'' (1989) and "Trust'' (1990).
Originally from the New York area, Shelly lived in the Tribeca district in lower Manhattan with her family and had been focusing more on writing and directing lately and caring for her daughter, Sheedy said.
"She was so psyched about the film,'' Sheedy said, referring to "Waitress.'' "She gathered an amazing cast, and she was really happy and excited to hear back from Sundance about it.''
Sheedy described Shelly as a warm and giving friend.
"She was incredibly creative and a tremendously prolific writer, and I don't know, she was the girl you'd go to if you were sad,'' Sheedy said. "She was an incredibly beautiful woman.''(AP)
(Image-Getty)