Who Is Sally Kellerman And Why Is She Writing These Weird Things About Herself?

I just finished Sally Kellerman's memoir Read My Lips.  When you think about it, it's almost surprising she wrote the book at all, since her fame rests almost entirely on one supporting role.  Still, she has some nice stories to tell.

She was born in Long Beach and has always lived in and around Los Angeles.  As a young woman, she waited tables at a place on the Sunset Strip, where she met many stars, including her heartthrob, Marlon Brando--who asked her out--as well as a pre-fame Warren Beatty--who also asked her out.

She took acting classes and went out for roles.  Tall, blonde and beautiful (and reasonably talented), eventually parts came her way.  She appeared in numerous TV shows throughout the 60s--most notably as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in the Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before." She still drops in on the occasional Trek convention, and the fans love her.

But as she hit 30 she felt her career was going nowhere. She wanted to break into movies.  Then came a small service comedy set in a medical unit during the Korean War called MASH.  She was offered the lead female role, a character known as Hot Lips--finally, the break she was looking for.  She excitedly read the script to find the character had very few lines and disappeared halfway through.  She complained to director Robert Altman and suggested she should stick around for the rest of the story.

Kellerman decided to play the character as someone who sees the Army as where she lives, and who views the new, unruly doctors as people messing up her home. She could have been a mere comic villain, but this gave her character a backbone that made a difference.

Early on they filmed the big scene where the tent flap would go up while she was taking a shower.  She hit the deck so fast that she was down before anything happened. (And next to the camera was co-star Gary Burghoff completely nude, trying to help her keep things in perspective).  Altman got the shot he wanted on a later take and then Kellerman had the scene where she goes to commanding officer Henry Blake to complain.  Her attitude when she threatens to resign her commission impressed Altman, who felt the character now was vulnerable and so could continue on. (Compare this to her lover Frank Burns, played by Robert Duvall, who exits the film in a straitjacket.) 

So her character (and some critics see it as a baffling and even misogynistic turnabout, though I think it fits into the story) goes on to have a secret love affair with one of the new doctors, and then--fulfilling an old dream of Kellerman's--becomes a cheerleader at the climactic football game.  The small film went on to be a blockbuster, and Kellerman was so impressive she got the film's only Academy Award acting nomination.

(She also takes part in my favorite joke in the film, which has a punchline that someone came up with on the set.

Hot Lips: (After being insulted by Hawkeye) I wonder how a degenerated person like that could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps.

Fauther Mulcahy: (Looking up from his Bible) He was drafted.)

So Sally Kellerman is in her early 30s and her career is red hot.  What does she do?  She picks some bad roles, such as Rafferty And The Gold Dust Twins, The Big Bus and the musical version of Lost Horizon, and also turns down a lot of other roles to take time off and establish her singing career.

Since then, she's continued to work regularly in films and TV, occasionally getting a decent role and even appearing in some big hits, such as Rodney Dangerfield's love interest in Back To School, but she never recovered the heat she had after MASH.

The book has plenty of her Hollywood stories--people she worked with, good and bad, and people she knows in general (Harrison Ford was her carpenter just before he got Star Wars), but just as much is about her private life, which includes a disastrous first marriage, a shaky second marriage, adopted kids in her fifties, and lots of therapy.

Now in her mid-70s, she seems to have a acquired a decent perspective.  She may not have made it as big as she could have, but she's done well, and had a good time along the way.