Sally Kirkland, US actress who earned Oscar nomination in Anna, dies aged 84

Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died on Tuesday morning at a Palm Springs hospice

Tue, 11 Nov, 2025 - 15:22

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press

American actress Sally Kirkland, 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 aged 84.

Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died on Tuesday morning at a Palm Springs hospice.

Friends established a GoFundMe account this autumn for her medical care.

Michael Douglas and Sally Kirkland appear with their awards for best actor for Wall Street and best actress for Anna at the 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Reed Saxon/AP)

They said she had fractured four bones in her neck, right wrist and left hip.

While recovering, she also developed infections, requiring a hospital stay and rehab.

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 US 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 critic wrote in her review.

“There should be no confusion about her identity after this blazing comet of a performance.”

Sally Kirkland arrives at the Multicultural Motion Picture Association annual Oscar week luncheon in Beverly Hills, California in 2008 (Matt Sayles/AP)

Kirkland’s small-screen acting credits include stints on Criminal Minds, Roseanne and 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 modelling at age five.

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.

Kirkland was a member of several New Age groups, taught Insight Transformational Seminars and was a long-time 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.