More Than Hot Lips
Sally Kellerman's smoky voice, unconventional beauty, and eccentric presence made her impossible to confuse with anyone else. Her Oscar-nominated performance as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H (1970) made her famous, but her six-decade career stretched from Star Trek to Robert Altman, music, comedy, and voice acting.
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A California Childhood
Sally Clare Kellerman was born June 2, 1937, in Long Beach, California. Her mother, Edith, taught piano, while her father, John "Jack" Kellerman, worked as a Shell Oil executive. The family later moved to the San Fernando Valley and eventually Los Angeles.
A Shy Future Star
At Hollywood High School, the tall, striking Kellerman was surprisingly shy and struggled academically outside choir and physical education. Performing provided an outlet, including an appearance in the school production Meet Me In St. Louis. Music initially seemed more likely than acting to become her profession.
Verve Came Calling
At just 18, Kellerman submitted a demo to legendary producer Norman Granz and landed a recording contract with Verve Records. Yet the opportunity intimidated her, and she walked away rather than immediately pursuing a singing career. Music, however, would repeatedly resurface throughout her life.
William P. Gottlieb, Wikimedia Commons
Learning Her Craft
Kellerman studied at Los Angeles City College before joining acting teacher Jeff Corey's class. Her classmates included future stars Jack Nicholson, Shirley Knight, Dean Stockwell, and Robert Blake. She subsequently joined Actors Studio West and made her movie debut in Reform School Girl (1957).
Television Opened The Door
Early television work included an appearance on the Western Cheyenne and a part as a waitress on John Forsythe's Bachelor Father. Parts remained difficult to secure, so Kellerman supplemented television with theater, gradually building the experience necessary to survive Hollywood's fiercely competitive acting world.
Screenshot from Cheyenne, ABC (1955–1962), Modified
Strange Television Worlds
Science fiction gave Kellerman some particularly memorable opportunities. She appeared twice on The Outer Limits, including "The Bellero Shield" opposite Martin Landau, while other 1960s television credits ranged from My Three Sons to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Bonanza, and The Invaders.
Screenshot from The Outer Limits, ABC (1963–1965)
A Darker Movie Role
Kellerman gained a substantial film opportunity in The Third Day (1965), directed by Jack Smight and starring George Peppard, Elizabeth Ashley, and Roddy McDowall. Playing Holly Mitchell demonstrated that the statuesque actress could bring an unsettling intensity to more psychologically complicated big-screen material.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
Going Where None Had
Trekkies remember Kellerman as psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in the Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Acting opposite William Shatner and Gary Lockwood, Kellerman played a Starfleet officer transformed by extraordinary psychic abilities in the influential episode that introduced viewers to Captain Kirk.
Screenshot from Star Trek, NBC (1966–1969)
The April Fools
Kellerman appeared opposite Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve in Stuart Rosenberg's romantic comedy The April Fools (1969). She played Phyllis Brubaker, the materialistic wife of Lemmon's character, adding another notable feature-film credit just before the role that would permanently change her career arrived.
Screenshot from The April Fools, Paramount Pictures (1969)
The Role She Refused
Before her breakthrough, Kellerman turned down a part in Paul Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). The countercultural comedy became a major success and earned several Academy Award nominations, making the decision potentially painful. Fortunately, another defining opportunity was almost immediately around the corner.
Screenshot from Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Columbia Pictures (1969)
Television Had Frustrated Her
Kellerman later summarized her pre-fame television career with characteristic wit, complaining that she was repeatedly cast as damaged, frigid, alcoholic, or victimized women. After years struggling through such assignments, she wanted roles offering humor and personality. Robert Altman's next film finally provided exactly that opportunity.
Becoming Hot Lips
Robert Altman cast Kellerman as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H (1970), alongside Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall, and Roger Bowen. Her tightly wound Army nurse became both a comic target and one of the movie's most memorable personalities.
Screenshot of Sally Kellerman from 'M*A*S*H
An Oscar Nomination
M*A*S*H (1970) became a cultural phenomenon, and Kellerman's performance earned nominations for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. After more than a decade of struggling for recognition, the 33-year-old actress had suddenly become one of Hollywood's most distinctive new stars.
Screenshot of Sally Kellerman from 'M*A*S*H
Altman Called Again
Kellerman quickly reunited with Altman for the surreal Brewster McCloud (1970), starring Bud Cort, Shelley Duvall, Michael Murphy, and René Auberjonois. As Louise, Brewster's mysterious guardian angel, Kellerman occupied exactly the kind of strange, elusive role that suited both her unusual screen presence and Altman's filmmaking.
Screenshot from Brewster McCloud, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (1970)
Singing Never Disappeared
Kellerman finally returned seriously to the musical ambition she had abandoned as a teenager. Her debut album, Roll With The Feelin', arrived in 1972 on Decca Records. She also sang on several movie soundtracks, including Brewster McCloud (1970), Lost Horizon (1973), and Rafferty And The Gold Dust Twins (1975).
Screenshot from Brewster McCloud, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (1970)
Seventies Film Success
Kellerman continued landing colorful movie roles, playing opposite Alan Arkin in Gene Saks' Last Of The Red Hot Lovers (1972). Later credits included Slither (1973) with James Caan, Lost Horizon (1973), Rafferty And The Gold Dust Twins (1975), and disaster-movie spoof The Big Bus (1976).
Screenshot from Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Paramount Pictures (1972)
Singing In The Village
Acting never extinguished Kellerman's desire to perform music before a live audience. During the 1970s she developed a parallel nightclub career, performing in venues including Reno Sweeney in New York's Greenwich Village. Her distinctive husky singing voice became another expression of the individuality audiences already recognized onscreen.
Nashville Got Away
Kellerman was offered a role in Altman's sprawling country-music masterpiece Nashville (1975), but turned it down. It was a consequential decision given the film's subsequent acclaim, yet her connection with Altman survived. Their unusual creative partnership would ultimately stretch across more than two decades.
Giulio Marcocchi, Getty Images
Mothers And Teenagers
In Adrian Lyne's Foxes (1980), Kellerman played Mary, mother of Jodie Foster's teenage character, alongside Cherie Currie, Scott Baio, and Randy Quaid. The drama's darker portrait of troubled Los Angeles teenagers demonstrated Kellerman's natural transition from unconventional leading woman to memorable character actress.
Screenshot from Foxes, United Artists (1980)
Going Back To School
A new generation discovered Kellerman through Alan Metter's hit comedy Back To School (1986). She played college professor Diane Turner opposite Rodney Dangerfield, with a cast including Keith Gordon, Burt Young, Adrienne Barbeau, Robert Downey Jr., and William Zabka. The movie became one of her best-remembered post-M*A*S*H roles.
Screenshot from Back to School, Orion Pictures (1986)
Altman Reunited His Players
Kellerman joined a remarkable parade of Hollywood personalities in Altman's acclaimed satire The Player (1992), starring Tim Robbins and Greta Scacchi. Two years later she worked with Altman yet again in the fashion-industry ensemble Prêt-à-Porter (1994), continuing one of her career's most enduring professional relationships.
Screenshot from Pret-a-Porter, Miramax Films (1994)
That Unmistakable Voice
Kellerman's famously husky voice created another career entirely. She voiced Miss Finch in Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985) and worked on projects including The Mouse And His Child (1977), Happily Ever After (1990), Dinosaurs, Unsupervised, and The High Fructose Adventures Of Annoying Orange.
Screenshot from Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, Warner Bros. (1985)
She Never Really Stopped
Later television appearances included The Minor Accomplishments Of Jackie Woodman, 90210, Chemistry, and Maron. Kellerman also returned to recording with the 2009 album Sally and published her candid memoir Read My Lips: Stories Of A Hollywood Life in 2013, looking back on her unconventional Hollywood journey.
Love And Family
Kellerman married television producer Rick Edelstein in 1970, though they divorced in 1972. She later married producer Jonathan D. Krane in 1980 and remained with him until his death in 2016. Kellerman was the mother of three children, balancing family life with her unusually varied career.
Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images
An Unmistakable Original
Sally Kellerman died in Los Angeles on February 24, 2022, at 84. M*A*S*H ensured that "Hot Lips" would remain her defining role, but Kellerman left something richer behind: six decades of idiosyncratic performances, a remarkable voice, musical ambitions, and a refusal to become an easily categorized Hollywood star.
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