<\/p>\n
Sally Kirkland, the effervescent blonde actress who was Oscar-nominated for the independent film \u201cAnna\u201d in 1987, has died. She was 84.<\/p>\n
Her representative, Michael Greene, confirmed to Variety<\/em> that Kirkland died early Tuesday morning in Palm Springs, Calif. She was put on hospice last week after suffering a fall in the shower in October that resulted in injuries to her ribs and foot, according to her GoFundMe page<\/a>. She had previously been diagnosed with a bone infection that had also spread to her bloodstream, as well as dementia.<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Beyond her work in film, Kirkland also held recurring roles on TV series like \u201cFelicity,\u201d \u201cRoseanne,\u201d \u201cValley of the Dolls\u201d and \u201cDays of Our Lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirkland surprised Oscar-watchers when her grass-roots campaign led to a best actress nomination in the 1987 modest independent comedy \u201cAnna,\u201d in which she portrayed a Czech actress who mentors a younger actress, played by Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland also won the Golden Globe and L.A. Film Critics award for best actress.<\/p>\n Many years before Andrea Riseborough gained attention for her role in \u201cTo Leslie,\u201d Kirkland advocated tirelessly for herself in a time before social media, writing letters to the L.A. Film Critics members and calling in a favor with Andy Warhol, who had a talk show at the time. After running into Rex Reed in a Cannes Film Festival elevator, the critic gave her the quote \u201cSally Kirkland devours \u2018Anna\u2019 like a raw steak and emerges a major star.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the Oscars, there were all these movie stars emerging from their limos, and then there was me. I felt like Cinderella. The greatest part was the feeling to be in the same Oscar category of these women that I was a huge fan of \u2014 Meryl, Glenn, Holly Hunter and Cher, who I used to rollerskate with in the \u201970s,\u201d she told the Huffington Post<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in independent films, and worked hard for years, and you don\u2019t happen to be part of the mega-billion dollar system, and you\u2019ve got the chutzpah to stand up and say this is who I am, it takes all the humanity out of Hollywood not to appreciate that,\u201d she said in the interview.<\/p>\n Born in New York City, she trained with Lee Strasberg and started her career in off-Broadway productions and avant-garde theater, which led to her joining Andy Warhol\u2019s Factory. Her first film appearance came in Warhol\u2019s \u201cThe 13 Most Beautiful Women\u201d in 1964. She went on to appear in the Western \u201cBlue\u201d and in \u201cComing Apart.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 1970s, she guested on shows including \u201cKojak,\u201d \u201cBaretta\u201d and \u201cThree\u2019s Company,\u201d and had small roles in major films such as \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d \u201cCinderella Liberty,\u201d \u201cThe Sting\u201d and \u201cA Star Is Born.\u201d<\/p>\n Her first lead role came in the 1984 horror film \u201cFatal Games.\u201d After \u201cAnna,\u201d Kirkland continued to work in dozens of films including \u201cJFK,\u201d \u201cBruce Almighty,\u201d and \u201cHope for the Holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, Kirkland starred as herself in \u201cSallywood,\u201d an indie film about a writer who gets hired as Kirkland\u2019s personal assistant. Director Xaque Gruber \u2014 who also wrote the Huffington Post interview with her \u2014 based the film on his own story.<\/p>\n Kirkland is survived by her godson Coty Galloway (Bailey); close friends Paige Dylan, Mel England, Leigh Taylor Young, Xaque Gruber and Maggie Wagner; manager Valerie McCaffery and agent Greene; and cousins Brookie, Katherine and Tina Kirkland.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sally Kirkland, the effervescent blonde actress who was Oscar-nominated for the independent film \u201cAnna\u201d in 1987, has died. She was 84. Her representative, Michael Greene, confirmed to Variety that Kirkland died early Tuesday morning in Palm Springs, Calif. She was put on hospice last week after suffering a fall in the shower in October that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2148935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[410175,364436,104457,327454,360127,410895,378994,338929,389084],"class_list":["post-2148934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-andrea-riseborough","tag-andy-warhol","tag-anna","tag-film-critics","tag-michael-greene","tag-oscar-category","tag-oscar-nominated","tag-paulina-porizkova","tag-sally-kirkland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sally-Kirkland-Oscar-Nominee-for-\u2018Anna-Dies-at-84.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148936,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148934\/revisions\/2148936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2148935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}