Sally Kellerman, hot lip Houlihan died in 'M*A*S*H' at the age of 84

The Oscar-nominated actress and singer also starred opposite Rodney Dangefeld in "Back to School" and "Malone."

Sally Kellerman, a husky actress who was best known for her Oscar nomination for playing U.S. Army Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Hollyhan in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, has died. She is 84 years old.

Kellerman also sang for her and wrote a Grand Funk Railroad tune for her, and her son Jack Klein told the Hollywood Reporter she died Thursday morning at an assisted care facility in Woodland Hills after battling dementia.

A native of Californians, Kellerman played a memorable role in the third episode of Star Trek, "A Place NoBody Ever Been To," in which she played Dr. Elizabeth Dana, a human Starfleet officer aboard the USS Enterprise. When Dehner sacrifices her life, her last words to Captain Kirk (William Shatner) are: "I'm sorry... You don't know...... Almost what God feels like. ”

In the comedy Back to School (1986), Kellerman plays Diane Turner, a free-spirited college literature professor who is the beloved of Thornton Melon, a self-made businessman whom Rodney Dangerfield hates.

"It was a bragging in my life: The director [Alan Mett] said he felt I helped Rodney become human, credible in a relationship. Because I just have to love him and be genuine about it," Kellerman said on a 2016 WTF podcast in Marc Maron. (She plays Maron's quirky mom in ifc comedies.) ）

Kellerman also noted that when fans meet her in public, they either yell "Hey, hot lips!" Or recite the classic Dangerfield line from Back to School: "Call me when there's no class." ”

Kellerman made cameo appearances in many television shows of the 1960s, including Outside Limits, 12 O'Clock High, Ben Casey, The Girl, and Mannix, when she was at M*A*S*H, based on Richard Hooke's 1968 novel about Army surgeons saving lives during the Korean War.

One of her most famous scenes in the film is when she is awkwardly pranked while in the shower. She said Kellerman had never been naked on screen, so Ultraman designed something distracting for the shot.

"When I looked up, [actor] Gary Burghoff stood naked in front of me," she recalled in 2016. "The next shot, [Altman] has Tamara Horrocks — she's a more gifted nurse — not wearing a shirt. ...... So I credited my Oscar nominations to the people who made me open my mouth. ”

Regarding the humiliation suffered by her character, Kellerman said: "I love Bob, but he's a true macho, probably the worst. I'm kidding. Kind of kidding. But I think [the torture] did save Hot Lips. After that she grew up. She had always been nervous, rigid, and had no sense of humor – and after all that was over, she started to have really good times, to live a real life. ”

In a 2013 interview, Kellerman remembers that when the M*A*S*H crew was watching the demos, Ultraman told her, "Sally, you're going to be nominated for an Oscar." That year, she lost to her sad darling, Helen Hayes at the airport.

She also collaborated with Ultraman on Brewster McCloud (1970), The Player (1992), and Pret-a-Porter (1994), as well as in a 1997 episode of Gun, an ABC anthology series he produced. However, Kellerman wasted another opportunity to work with the famous director.

In Gene Saks' Neil Simon comedy The Last Of The Red Lovers (1972), after her ill-fated date with Alan Arkin, "Bob called me at home one day," she recalled in her 2013 memoir Read Me: The Story of Life in Hollywood. "'Sally, do you want to be in my picture after the next one?' he asked. "As long as it's a good part," I said.

"He hung up my phone. Bob was as stubborn and arrogant as I was at the time, but sadly, I deceived myself and didn't work with someone I loved very much, who made the acting both fun and lighthearted, and who trusted his actor. Stars would line up to work for Bob Ultraman White. ”

She added, "Oh, I rejected the Ultraman movie? Nashville. I could have sung in that part. Bad choice. ”

Sally Claire Kellerman was born on June 2, 1937 in Long Beach, California. Her mother was a piano teacher and her father was an executive at Shell Oil. "I came out of the womb singing and performing," she said.

While attending Hollywood High School, Kellerman starred in the production of Meet Me in St. Louis and presented a demo to jazz manager Norman Glantz. He offered her a recording contract at Verve, but at just 18 she declined.

"I was young and scared," she said. "I don't have any self-esteem, I've already started taking this acting class. This course Taught by Jeff Corey really gave me the opportunity to grow. (Classmates include Jack Nicholson, James Coburn, and Robert Blake.) ）

In 1957, Kellerman made his debut in the Samuel Z. Arkoff crime drama The Girl Who Reformed the School, and then appeared regularly on television and in several plays, including The Marriage Cycle and Call Me By My RightFul Name.

She had a role in Truman Capote's 1966 stage play Tiffany's Breakfast, starring Richard Chamberlain and Mary Taylor Moore, but the show was shut down before it made broadway, when producer David Merrick said he didn't want to be "subject to an extremely boring night out of theater critics and the public." ”

Still, all of her experiences made her feel more confident when she auditioned for Ultraman.

"Before M*A*S*H, I'm ready to take any chance," Kellerman said. "I went to the lieutenant dish section, which was bigger. But I happened to put on lipstick, and as I spoke a mile every minute, producer Ingo Preminger kept muttering in his German accent, "Hot lips!" ” ...... [Ultraman] also shouted 'hot lips'. ”

Of course, the film and Hooke's novel also inspired CBS's series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to '83. Nearly all of the film's characters have been reimagined, including Hot Lips, portrayed on television by Loretta Swit, who won two Emmys and was nominated for her work in 10 of the show's 11 seasons. (Burghoff did reprise walter "Radar" O'Reilly.) ）

Ultraman said he didn't like the show because [it] was the opposite of the main reason I made the film — it was talking about a foreign war that was going on at the time, an Asian war." In order to keep this state every Sunday night — no matter what clichés they say about their own little messages and everything — the basic image and message is that the narrow-eyed brown race is the enemy. So I think that series is a pretty racist thing. ”

Kellerman's film resume also includes The Boston Strangler (1968), April Fool's Day (1969), Slither (1973) opposite James Caan, Charles Jarrott's Lost Horizon (1973), and Welcome to Los Angeles with Harvey Keitel and Sissy Spacek ( 1976), Big Bus (1976), Fox (1980), Black Edwards' This is Life! (1986), All's Fair (1989) and Boynton Beach Club (2005).

In the CBS soap opera Young And Restless, she played Constance Bingham, an elderly woman in a wheelchair, who was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2015.

Kellerman eventually did pursue a career in singing, releasing her first album Roll With the Feelin' in 1972.

"I love acting... But my dream is to have a few kids and then make an album a year, maybe a picture a year," she said in 1973. ”

Around that time, Kellerman dated Grand Funk Railroad singer and guitarist Mark Farner, who wrote the 1976 pop song "Sally" for her. Her second album, Sally, was released in 2009.

Kellerman also did dubbing work in commercials — most notably Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing — as well as animated films such as The Mouse and His Child (1977), Happily Ever After (1990), and Delgo (2008).

Kellerman married screenwriter and director Starsky & Hutch in December 1970, but the marriage was bogged down from the start. "We've been arguing every day since we met," she said years ago, "and sometimes I wonder if my wedding dress would be black with red spots on it." They divorced in 1972.

In 1980, she married the late producer Jonathan D. Krane (see who's talking, Face/Off), and they adopted twins, Jack and Hannah, who died in 2016.