Sally Kirkland should have written a book.
Beloved and kooky, Kirkland reportedly died overnight at age 84 in Palm Springs, California. She was in hospice for dementia after a fall.
Sally was one of a kind. She’d been in Hollywood for decades when she nabbed a part in a 1987 indie movie called “Anna.” She knew she was good, and that there was no studio money, so she conducted her own warrior Oscar campaign and got a much deserved nomination.
“At the Oscars, there were all these movie stars emerging from their limos, and then there was me. I felt like Cinderella. 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,” she told the Huffington Post in 2012.
Google her and find interviews in many venues. She was a longtime girlfriend of Bob Dylan — she admits to “stalking” him. She loved Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Barry Primus and that crowd. They loved her, too, and supported her during the “Anna” campaign.
Sally’s mother was also named Sally Kirkland. She was fashion editor of Vogue and then Life Magazine for years. They lived on the Upper East Side in apartment next to my great uncle Walter, a charming curmudgeon. He told me, “Little Sally left her bicycle in front of our door and I’d trip over it every morning. I was always asking her mother to move it.”
She never stopped working. Sally Kirkland has 270 credits on the imdb. Of those 32 are producer credits. She was incredibly smart and knew how tough it was in Hollywood for a woman. But she had an unflagging optimism and faith in herself. She was a survivor, and will be missed terribly by everyone who knew her.
Viva Sally Kirkland!
