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Sally Kirkland, the Oscar-nominated actor and one-time member of Andy Warhol’s the Factory, has died at 84.
The star of films including Anna, JFK and Bruce Almighty had entered hospice care two days before her death after a period of ill health. Last year, a GoFundMe page had been set up to help her in the wake of “life-threatening infections” and a number of falls. She had also been diagnosed with dementia.
Kirkland had started her career as a model before studying acting with classmates including Dustin Hoffman, Robert de Niro and Al Pacino. After acting off-Broadway in the early 1960s, she also became part of Andy Warhol’s The Factory and the artist put her in 1964 drama The 13 Most Beautiful Women where she appeared nude and tied to a chair.
She went on to star in the western Blue with Terence Stamp and underground sexually explicit thriller Coming Apart in the 60s while also appearing on stage in Terrence McNally’s Sweet Eros as a kidnapped woman where she spent the entirety of the production without any clothes.
“I think I’m more European in personality,” she once said in an interview. “My attitude is always one of sensuality, aggressive enthusiasm and a kind of outrageousness in my expression. I suppose if I wanted to be the girl next door, I could have been. I think America is confused by someone who appears to be sexual and spiritual at the same time.”
The 1970s saw her take on small roles in The Way We Were, A Star is Born and The Sting on the big screen while she also appeared on the small screen in Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels and Kojak.
After the 80s saw her feature alongside Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, she received an Oscar nomination for her fact-based comedy drama Anna after a grassroots campaign. She also won a Golden Globe for the role. “At the Oscars, there were all these movie stars emerging from their limos, and then there was me,” she said. “I felt like Cinderella.”
She played a stripper in 1989’s High Stakes and had cosmetic surgery for the film which she later regretted as she “almost died from them”. She later removed them and founded the Kirkland Institute for Implant Survival Syndrome.
The 1990s saw her play herself in Robert Altman’s The Player and also appear in JFK, Excess Baggage and EdTV while later credits included Bruce Almighty, Factory Girl and 80 for Brady. Television roles also included Felicity, Roseanne and Murder, She Wrote.
Kirkland also worked as a teacher of acting, with students including Sandra Bullock, Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli.
“My life is not about acting,” she once said. “It’s about expressing my vision of life. No matter what, everyone deserves a fair shot.”
