Legendary actress Sally Kirkland has died. She was 84.
Kirkland passed away early Tuesday her rep, Michael Greene, confirmed to TMZ.
Greene said Kirkland “will be deeply missed.”
Sally Kirkland Getty Images for AFI
Kirkland at the 1999 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Jane Caine/ZUMA Press Wire / ShutterstockThe Post has reached out to Kirkland’s rep for comment.
Kirkland entered hospice care in Palm Springs, California, amid her battle with dementia shortly before her death.
Greene said the actress had her close friend and former student, Cody Galloway, by her side.
A GoFundMe page for Kirkland was created in November 2024 to help the Oscar nominee deal with her “significant health crisis” by covering her medical costs.
“Sally is on hospice now and is resting comfortably. Please hold and send the light for Sally,” a Nov. 7 message on the page reads.
Kirkland and Paulina Porizkova in “Anna.” ©Vestron Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Kirkland at the Beverly Hills Film Festival Opening Night Gala in 2018. Getty Images
Kirkland in 2010. Getty ImagesThe organizers of the page gave insight into Kirkland’s health struggles.
“This past year Sally fractured her four bones in her neck, right wrist and her left hip,” the organizers wrote on the GoFundMe. “While recovering she developed two separate life-threatening infections.”
Kirkland in the ABC TV movie “The Kansas City Massacre.” ABC
Kirkland during the Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images“The combination of these injuries and infections have required extensive hospitalizations and rehab beyond the 100 days insurance will cover,” the message added.
On Oct. 2, the organizers said Kirkland had “a challenging few months as her health continues to struggle.”
Kirkland in Los Angeles in 2020. GC ImagesNew York native Kirkland appeared in over 250 film and television projects in her 60-year career.
She initially trained with Lee Strasberg and worked in off-Broadway productions, which led to her joining Andy Warhol’s Factory. She appeared in Warhol’s “The 13 Most Beautiful Women” in 1964, and went on to star in the Western “Blue” and in “Coming Apart.”
She was perhaps best known for playing the titular character in the 1987 comedy drama “Anna.” The film tells the story of an aspiring actress and Czech immigrant (Paulina Porizkova) who travels to NYC to meet her hero, Anna, a once-famous actor from her homeland.
Porizkova and Kirkland in “Anna.” ©Vestron Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Robert Fields, Kirkland and Porizkova in “Anna.” ©Vestron Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Kirkland and Porizkova in “Anna.” ©Vestron Pictures/Courtesy Everett CollectionKirkland’s performance earned her an Academy Award nomination and won her a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award.
In a 2012 interview with the Huffington Post, Kirkland, who ran a grassroots Oscar campaign, reflected on being nominated against Cher, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Meryl Streep.
“At the Oscars, there were all these movie stars emerging from their limos, and then there was me. I felt like Cinderella,” she said. “The greatest part was the feeling to be in the same Oscar category of these women that I was a huge fan of — Meryl, Glenn, Holly Hunter and Cher, who I used to rollerskate with in the ’70s.
“If you’re in independent films, and worked hard for years, and you don’t happen to be part of the mega-billion dollar system, and you’ve got the chutzpah to stand up and say this is who I am, it takes all the humanity out of Hollywood not to appreciate that,” she added.
Kirkland and Porizkova in “Anna.” ©Vestron Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Kirkland in Los Angeles in 2022. GC Images
Kirkland in the ABC TV movie “Willow B: Women in Prison.” ABCKirkland also appeared in the films “Bruce Almighty,” “Cold Feet,” “Best of the Best” and “JFK,” and the TV shows “Charlie’s Angels,” “Roseanne,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Nanny,” “Felicity” and “Days of Our Lives.”
Kirkland was married to Michael R. Jarrett, and then to actor Mark Hebert. Both relationships ended in divorce.
“It’s hard to find a man who can handle my intensity,” she told People in 1988.






