Whatever Happened To The Real-Life Twins From The Shining?
Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film "The Shining," based on the popular book by Stephen King, saw struggling author Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) hired to be the caretaker of a remote, mountainside resort called the Overlook Hotel. During the winter months, snow prevents visitors from coming and going, and someone merely has to keep the furnaces burning. Jack is told that one of the hotel's previous caretakers, Mr. Grady, was infected by a severe case of cabin fever and slaughtered his family. Jack brushes off the violence as a mere horror story, and takes the job nonetheless.
While there, Jack and his family learn that the Overlook is deeply, deeply haunted. The hotel is almost a massive, unconscious mind, which manifests ghosts as a way to flex its memories. In one of the film's more terrifying scenes — and it has many — the young Danny (Danny Lloyd) is idly riding his Big Wheel through the hotel's labyrinthine hallways when he happens upon the ghosts of the Grady daughters, the young girls who had been recently murdered at the Overlook. They stand stock still, wearing matching blue dresses, holding hands. "Come play with us," they implore. "Forever, and ever, and ever." Danny, having psychic powers, can also briefly see the bloody violence that befell them.
The Grady girls were played by real-life twin sisters Lisa and Louise Burns, who were 12 years old during the filming of "The Shining." In 2019, the Burns sisters talked to Cosmopolitan about their experiences filming and what they remembered growing up as unwitting horror icons.
The Shining girls' escort
Firstly, the Burns sisters recall being treated very well on the set of "The Shining." Because they were only 12, the production staff was sensitive to their working hours and if they were being looked after, so they were accompanied at all times by an escort. "[O]ur parents were never worried," they said, "or thought that we should stop shooting the film. They were and are very supportive of us."
When it came to their ghostly performances, the Burns sisters said they practiced their speaking in unison, and tapped into what they considered to be their natural scariness. "We're naturally spooky!" they said. "But we did practice our timing — saying things in unison — and we worked on saying our lines in a hollow, other-worldly kind of way a number of times." In order to take the curse off of their murder scene, the special effects technicians on "The Shining" went to great lengths to make sure the Burns sisters weren't frightened. Makeup artist Tom Smith walked them through how fake blood was made, and told repeatedly that this was a fictional piece of playacting. They said:
"They were very concerned that we would be frightened of the fake blood in the scene where we've been murdered. So Tom showed us how he made his 'blood' and it really looked just like the real thing. He even let us each keep a bottle, which we still have!"
One hopes the Burns sisters have made sure the blood hasn't dried out.
Where are they now?
Lisa and Louise Burns had no aspirations to be professional actresses, and they don't have extensive filmographies. Prior to "The Shining," both Lisa and Louise appeared in an episode of the short-lived 1979 TV series "Kids," a drama based on real-life cases of children put into Child Protective Services. They played characters named Lisa and Louise Webber in the episode "David." According to a 2015 article in the Daily Mail, Lisa and Louise wanted to continue acting, but their roles in "The Shining" were too iconic for their own good; they were turned away from London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art because they were technically already professionals. Louise said:
"When I was younger, it was a huge dream of mine to be a movie star like Judy Garland or Greta Garbo, real movie stars. I went to an audition for RADA and they said they couldn't accept me because I'd been in the movie, that made me a professional actress and they didn't accept professionals. The woman wouldn't even audition me and that was a huge knock for me, so I decided to be a scientist instead."
Lisa noted, "We would probably have had more luck if we'd just lied."
Apart from "Kids" and "The Shining," the Burns sisters have only appeared as themselves for interviews and documentaries. As Louise mentioned, she is a published scientist, while Lisa currently works as a lawyer. They also are clearly happy to be associated with "The Shining," as their mutual Instagram handle is "the_shining_twins." They still make public appearances to this day, and will even record a spooky message for you on Cameo.