The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
MASH actor who lit up the screen for 60 years
Sally Kellerman, the Oscar and Emmynominated actor who played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in director Robert Altman’s 1970 film MASH, has died aged 84.
Kellerman died of heart failure at her home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles on Thursday, according to her manager and publicist Alan Eichler.
She enjoyed a career spanning more than 60 years in film and television.
She was a regular in Altman’s films, appearing in 1970’s Brewster Mccloud, 1992’s The Player and 1994’s Ready to Wear. Perhaps her most famous role was Major Houlihan, a straightlaced, by-the-book army nurse who is tormented by rowdy doctors during the Korean War in the army comedy film MASH.
In the film’s key scene, and its peak moment of misogyny, a tent where Houlihan is showering is pulled open and she is exposed to an audience of cheering men.
“This isn’t a hospital, this is an insane asylum!” she screams at her commanding officer.
She said the role of Major Houlihan brought out the best in her.
“It was a very freeing, positive experience,” she said in a 1970 TV interview.
“For the first time in my life I took chances, I didn’t suck in my cheeks, or worry about anything.”
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, with Kellerman’s best supporting actress providing its only nod despite a cast that included Robert Duvall and Donald Sutherland.
The movie would be turned into a TV series with Loretta Swit in Kellerman’s role.
Kellerman was born in 1937 in California, the daughter of a piano teacher and an oil executive, moving to Los Angeles as a child and attending Hollywood High School.
She took an acting class at Los Angeles City College and appeared in a stage production of “Look Back in Anger” with classmate Jack Nicholson and several other future stars.
She worked mostly in television early in her career, with a lead role in 1962’s Cheyenne and guest appearances on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
Her appearance in the original Star Trek pilot as Dr Elizabeth Dehner won her cult status among fans.
She would continue working into her 80s.
Kellerman was married to television producer Rick Edelstein from 1970 to 1972 and to film producer Jonathan D Krane from 1980 until his death in 2016. She is survived by her son Jack and daughter Claire.