Sally Kirkland, stage and screen star who earned an Oscar nomination in
'Anna,' dies at age 84
[November 12, 2025]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Sally Kirkland, a one-time model who became a regular on
stage, film and TV, best known for sharing the screen with Paul Newman
and Robert Redford in “The Sting” and her Oscar-nominated title role in
the 1987 movie “Anna,” has died. She was 84.
Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died Tuesday morning
at a hospice in Palm Springs, California.
Friends established a GoFundMe account this fall for her medical care.
They said she had fractured four bones in her neck, right wrist and left
hip. While recovering, she also developed infections, requiring
hospitalization and rehab.
“She was funny, feisty, vulnerable and self deprecating,” actor Jennifer
Tilly, who co-starred with Kirkland in “Sallywood,” wrote on X. “She
never wanted anyone to say she was gone. ‘Don’t say Sally died, say
Sally passed on into the spirits.’ Safe passage beautiful lady.”
Kirkland acted in such films as “The Way We Were” with Barbra Streisand,
“Revenge” with Kevin Costner, “Cold Feet” with Keith Carradine and Tom
Waits, Ron Howard's “EDtv,” Oliver Stone's “JFK,” “Heatwave” with Cicely
Tyson, “High Stakes” with Kathy Bates, “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey
and the 1991 TV movie “The Haunted,” about a family dealing with
paranormal activity. She had a cameo in Mel Brooks' “Blazing Saddles.”
Her biggest role was in 1987's “Anna” as a fading Czech movie star
remaking her life in the United States and mentoring to a younger actor,
Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar
nomination along with Cher in “Moonstruck,” Glenn Close in “Fatal
Attraction, Holly Hunter in “Broadcast News" and Meryl Streep in
“Ironweed.”
“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,” The Los Angeles Times critic wrote in her review. “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.”
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Sally Kirkland arrives at the Multicultural Motion Picture
Association annual Oscar week luncheon in Beverly Hills, Calif., on
Feb. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
 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 with 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.
The actors union SAG-AFTRA called her “a fearless performer whose
artistry and advocacy spanned more than six decades,” adding that as
“a true mentor and champion for actors, her generosity and spirit
will continue to inspire.”
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