Sally Kirkland, a former model who transitioned into a stalwart figure on stage, in film, and on television, has passed away at the age of 84. She gained widespread recognition for her performances alongside Hollywood legends Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “The Sting” and was celebrated for her Oscar-nominated role in the 1987 film “Anna.”
Kirkland’s representative, Michael Greene, confirmed that she passed away on Tuesday morning at a hospice facility in Palm Springs.
Earlier this year, friends set up a GoFundMe campaign to assist with her medical expenses. Kirkland had suffered from several injuries, including fractures in her neck, right wrist, and left hip. During her recovery, she faced additional health challenges, including infections that necessitated hospitalization and rehabilitation.
Throughout her career, Kirkland appeared in a multitude of films. Her credits include “The Way We Were,” where she shared the screen with Barbra Streisand, “Revenge” alongside Kevin Costner, and “Cold Feet” with Keith Carradine and Tom Waits. She also took part in Ron Howard’s “EDtv,” Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” and starred with Cicely Tyson in “Heatwave,” with Kathy Bates in “High Stakes,” and with Jim Carrey in “Bruce Almighty.” She even made a memorable cameo in Mel Brooks’ classic “Blazing Saddles.” In television, she was noted for her role in the 1991 TV movie “The Haunted,” which explored the experiences of a family dealing with paranormal occurrences.
Kirkland’s most prominent role came with 1987’s “Anna,” where she portrayed a once-famous Czech actress rebuilding her life in America while mentoring a younger performer, played by Paulina Porizkova. This role garnered her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, placing her alongside powerhouse performers such as Cher in “Moonstruck,” Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction,” Holly Hunter in “Broadcast News,” and Meryl Streep in “Ironweed.”
A Los Angeles critic once noted, “Kirkland is one of those performers whose talent has been an open secret to her fellow actors but something of a mystery to the general public. There should be no confusion about her identity after this blazing comet of a performance.”
Kirkland’s small-screen acting credits include stints on “Criminal Minds,” “Roseanne,” “Head Case” and she was a series regular on the TV shows “Valley of the Dolls” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
Born in New York City, Kirkland’s mother was a fashion editor at Vogue and Life magazine who encouraged her daughter to start modeling at age 5. Kirkland graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with Philip Burton, Richard Burton’s mentor, and Lee Strasberg, the master of the Method school of acting. An early breakout was appearing in Andy Warhol’s “13 Most Beautiful Women” in 1964. She appeared naked as a kidnapped rape victim in Terrence McNally’s off-Broadway “Sweet Eros.”
Some of her early roles were Shakespeare, including the lovesick Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for New York Shakespeare Festival producer Joseph Papp and Miranda in an off-Broadway production of “The Tempest.”
“I don’t think any actor can really call him or herself an actor unless he or she puts in time with Shakespeare,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “It shows up, it always shows up in the work, at some point, whether it’s just not being able to have breath control, or not being able to appreciate language as poetry and music, or not having the power that Shakespeare automatically instills you with when you take on one of his characters.”
Kirkland was a member of several New Age groups, taught Insight Transformational Seminars and was a longtime member of the affiliated Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, whose followers believe in soul transcendence.
She reached a career nadir while riding nude on a pig in the 1969 film “Futz,” which a Guardian reviewer dubbed the worst film he had ever seen. “It was about a man who fell in love with a pig, and even by the dismal standards of the era, it was dismal,” he wrote.
Kirkland was also known for disrobing for so many other roles and social causes that Time magazine dubbed her “the latter-day Isadora Duncan of nudothespianism.”
Kirkland volunteered for people who had AIDS, cancer and heart disease, fed homeless people via the American Red Cross, participated in telethons for hospices and was an advocate for prisoners, especially young people.
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