She was ubiquitous, like a female Eric Roberts, and was still working in the past two years. Good films, bad films, everything from blockbusters to indies on the cheap, she was in everything. She was in some of the shoddiest films you’ll ever see, but she also had an Oscar nomination, one of the most unlikely in history.
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.
Nudography, Part 1, 1969-1987 ages 27-45
Sally did her first three nude scenes at ages 27-32 with her natural hair and breasts. After a nine-year nudity hiatus, she dyed her hair blonde, but kept her natural breasts to do two more nude scenes. Those five films comprise today’s portion of her nudography.
Following her Oscar nomination for Anna (1987), she got implants to play a stripper in 1989’s High Stakes. She was already 47 years old at the time. Thus began the era for which most of us remember her, 1989-1997 (ages 47-55), as a middle-aged bleach blonde with an inflated chest.
She had the implants removed in 1998, moving on, after another long hiatus, to the final stage of her nudity career: sexy granny (2007-2019, ages 65-77).
1969 – Futz
1969 – Coming Apart
1974 – Big, Bad Mama
1983 – Double Exposure
1987 – Anna
Also Sally Kirkland, Sherrie Rose – Double Threat (1992)
And Sally Kirkland – Amnesia (1993)
I remember her most from an early 3’s Company in which she played a nude model who tried to convince Jack that being nude is wonderful. She was strategically nude, but knowing her, probably was really naked behind that door. She wasn’t that great an actress, but she always did an acceptable job, and became an experienced pro who obviously loved to work. Kinda sad to see how many sites buried her death in the middle of the page, with 60 years of steady acting under her belt. She deserves extra credit for taking over for Angie Dickinson in Big Bad Mama 2. Angie’s nude body was a tough act to follow, but Sally had the courage to do it, saggy ass and all.
She wasn’t in Big Bad Mama 2. Angie Dickinson returned for the sequel but Monique Gabrielle stepped in for her nude scene. As mentioned in Sally’s obituary, and as she mentioned several times during her lifetime, she was the first actress to appear nude in the legitimate stage in the play Sweet Eros. She was naked and tied up for 45 minutes. There’s a picture of it in the book which you can borrow in archive.org. It’s on page 87. It’s a pretty tame shot though.
I conflated a couple of things into one wrong thing. Thx for the correction. I guess she still gets credit for being nude in *the same movie* as Angie.
I loved her openness in interviews on talk shows. She could pretty much make any host blush. Boisterous comes to mind.
R.I.P. crazy lady.