Sally Kellerman

Sally Clare Kellerman (June 2, 1937 – February 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer.

Kellerman's acting career spanned over 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's film M*A*S*H (1970) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. After M*A*S*H, she appeared in a number of the director's projects, namely the films Brewster McCloud (1970), Welcome to L.A. (1976) (produced by Altman, directed by his protégé, Alan Rudolph), The Player (1992), and Prêt-à-Porter (1994), and the short-lived anthology TV series Gun (1997). In addition to her work with Altman, Kellerman appeared in films such as Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972), Back to School (1986), plus many television series such as The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1965), Star Trek (1966), Bonanza (1966, 1970) The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman (2006), 90210 (2008), Chemistry (2011), and Maron (2013). She also voiced Miss Finch in Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985).

At age 18, Kellerman signed a recording contract with Verve Records, but her first album (Roll with the Feelin', on the Decca label) was not recorded until 1972. A second album, Sally, was released in 2009.[1] Kellerman also contributed songs to the soundtracks for Brewster McCloud (1970), Lost Horizon (1973), Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975), and Boris and Natasha: The Movie (1992).

Kellerman did commercial voiceover work for Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing, Mercedes-Benz, and Revlon. Kellerman's animation work included The Mouse and His Child (1977), Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985), Happily Ever After (1990), Dinosaurs (1992), Unsupervised (2012), and The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange (2013). In April 2013, she released her memoir Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life, describing her trials and tribulations in the entertainment business.

Early life

Sally Clare Kellerman was born in Long Beach, California, on June 2, 1937, to Edith Baine (née Vaughn), a piano teacher from Portland, Arkansas,  and John "Jack" Helm Kellerman, a Shell Oil executive from St. Louis, Missouri. Sally has an older sister, Diana Dean Kellerman; her younger sister, Victoria Vaughn (Vicky) Kellerman, died in infancy.  Edith was a Christian Scientist and raised her daughters in this faith.

When Kellerman was in fifth grade, the family moved from Long Beach to the San Fernando Valley.  She spent her early life in then-rural Granada Hills in a largely unpopulated area surrounded by orange and eucalyptus groves. During her sophomore year of high school, the Kellermans moved from San Fernando to Park La Brea, Los Angeles, where she attended Hollywood High School. Due to her shyness, Kellerman made few friends and received poor grades (except choir and physical education); however, she acted in a school production of Meet Me in St. Louis.  With the help of a high-school friend, Kellerman submitted a recording demo to Verve Records founder and head Norman Granz. After signing a contract with Verve, however, she was daunted by the task of becoming a recording artist and walked away.

Kellerman attended Los Angeles City College, and also enrolled in Jeff Corey's acting class.  Within a year, she appeared in a production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger staged by Corey and featuring classmates Shirley Knight, Jack Nicholson, Dean Stockwell, and Robert Blake. Towards the end of the 1950s, Kellerman joined the newly opened Actors Studio West and debuted before the camera in the film, Reform School Girl (1957). To pay her tuition, Kellerman worked as a waitress at Chez Paulette.

Personal life

In 1961, Kellerman underwent a botched home abortion, and went to a hospital for the first time (due to her Christian Science upbringing). The relationship that had caused her terminated pregnancy was with actor William Duffy.

After the release of MASH, on December 17, 1970, Kellerman married Starsky & Hutch producer Rick Edelstein. Anjanette Comer, Morgan Ames, Lisabeth Hush, Joanne Linville, and Luana Anders were among her bridesmaids.  On March 6, 1972, Kellerman divorced Edelstein, citing irreconcilable differences.

In 1967, Kellerman's sister, Diana, came out as a lesbian and separated from her husband, Ian Charles Cargill Graham, who took full custody of the couple's daughter, Claire. After Diana Kellerman moved to France with her partner, she didn't communicate with her daughter for eight years. Sally Kellerman adopted Claire on January 30, 1976. On April 10, 1976, Ian Graham died in Edinburgh, Scotland. For a time in the mid-1970s, Kellerman was involved with Mark Farner of the rock group Grand Funk Railroad. He wrote the song "Sally", from the 1976 album Born to Die, as an ode to their relationship. She also dated screenwriters Lawrence Hauben, David Rayfiel, and Charles Shyer, as well as journalist Warren Hoge, producer Jon Peters, and actor Edd Byrnes. In her autobiography, Kellerman claimed her relationship with Byrnes was never consummated.

On May 11, 1980, Kellerman married Jonathan D. Krane in a private ceremony at Jennifer Jones's Malibu home. Claire Anderson Graham, 16, Kellerman's niece/adoptive daughter, was her maid of honor. In May 1987, Krane adopted Claire, and in 1989, Kellerman and Krane adopted newborn twins, Jack Donald and Hannah Vaughan, who were born on June 24 of that year. Jonathan Krane died of a heart attack on August 1, 2016, at the age of 64. Hannah Krane died on October 22, 2016, at the age of 27 from a heroin and methamphetamine overdose. Kellerman and Krane separated twice during their 36-year marriage, first for a few months in 1994, then again during 1997–98 over Krane's public affair with Nastassja Kinski. As Kellerman had dated married men in the past, she forgave her husband for the affair.

Kellerman died from heart failure at a care facility in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, on February 24, 2022, at the age of 84. At the time of her death, she had dementia.