Sally Kirkland, Beloved Star of Stage and Screen, Dies at 84

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 Palm Springs hospice.​

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.​

Kirkland, left, had a role in the beloved 1973 caper classic "The Sting" with Robert Redford.

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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 also 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 a younger actor, Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination. ​

“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.”​

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 magazines 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.​

Later in life, Kirkland volunteered for many causes, including efforts to fight AIDS, cancer, heart disease and homelessness.

2014 photo by Brian To/Getty Images

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 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.