Building an eclectic career with over sixty years in film, television, music and theatre, Sally Kellerman is fondly remembered by a whole generation as the original Hotlips Houlihan in the film adaption of MASH. Her part in the world of Star Trek helped introduce the world to the little sci fi show that began it’s own franchise of entertainment.
Starting her acting career in the late 50’s after turning down a contract with Verve Records, Kellerman was a familiar face on television by the time Star Trek came around. With appearances on Bonanza, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and the Twilight Zone among others, Kellerman was able to gain a wide range of experience that helped establish an adaptability that would carry her career forward in playing anything from a glamorous and sophisticated character, to intense and eccentric parts.
Kellerman’s appearance in Star Trek came at a crucial moment in television history. After The Cage pilot was rejected, and Star Trek was given a second chance, ahe appeared in the second pilot ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before,’ the episode that effectively established the version of Star Trek that audiences would come to know. Even though it technically wasn’t the first episode aired, as a reshuffle of episodes before the show put the pilot as third in broadcast order, Where No Man Has Gone Before was the show that sold the series.
Dehner’s role was considerably more important than that of a conventional guest character. After the Enterprise passes through a mysterious energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy, Dehner and fellow crewmate Gary Mitchell develop extraordinary psychic abilities. Mitchell’s powers grow increasingly dangerous, while Dehner struggles with the moral implications of what is happening to them.
With her speciality being to study the effects of long term space travel, Dehner initially views Mitchell’s transformation with fascination. As his abilities become more dangerous, however, she begins to understand the threat he represents. Kellerman’s performance helps make Dehner more than simply the scientist or psychiatrist explaining the plot; she becomes the emotional and ethical counterweight to Mitchell.
Only a few years after Star Trek, Kellerman reached the role that would define her mainstream career. In Robert Altman’s 1970 film adaption of MASH – which also featured future Star Trek star René Auberjonois – she played Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan, an Army nurse serving at a mobile surgical hospital during the Korean War. The performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress while the film itself received five Oscar nominations.
Kellerman later described the experience as freeing as director Robert that Altman encouraged her to explore and take risks with every take which brought out something in her that previous directors hadn’t tapped into.
Her performance made her a major Hollywood name, and she subsequently appeared in several other Altman-related projects, including Brewster McCloud, The Player and Ready to Wear. Though she refused to let the iconic role define her to a typecast and worked with a wide range of film makers in the following years. Among her notable films were Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, Slither, A Little Romance and Foxes. In 1986, she appeared opposite Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School, playing literature professor Diane Turner, the object of Dangerfield’s romantic interest.
She also continued to act on television. In later years, she appeared in programs including Maron and The Young and the Restless, receiving a Daytime Emmy nomination and would continue in various roles with her final on screen appearance being in comedy Difficult People in 2017.
Music remained another part of her life. Although she had abandoned the idea of becoming a professional jazz singer in her youth, Kellerman eventually recorded albums, beginning with Roll With the Feelin’ in 1972 and later releasing Sally. She also wrote about her experiences in Hollywood in her 2013 memoir, Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life.
Sally Kellerman died on February 24, 2022, aged 84. By then, she had spent more than 60 years working in film and television. She was remembered principally for MASH, but her place in Star Trek history remained an important part of her legacy.
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