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Sally Kellerman, The Exceptional ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan, Dead At 84

Sally Kellerman, the one and only Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan from the 1970 Robert Altman film, “M*A*S*H*,” passed away on Thursday from a heart failure, according to her manager and publicist, Alan Eichler. The famed actress was 84 when she died.

The actress passed on in her sleep, lodged in her Woodland Hills, California home, from what her manager revealed. Kellerman earned an Oscar nom for best-supporting actress for her outstanding Houlihan role in the army comedy that also featured Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould.

In the “M*A*S*H*” film, she played a nurse who does her job by the book but also keeps up with a torrid affair with the equally uptight Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), who demanded that he kiss her “hot lips” in a moment secretly captured over the camp’s public address speakers, quickly earning her the widely acclaimed nickname.

The “Hot Lips” role had a long-lasting influence on Kellerman’s acting career. The actress informed The Desert Sun back in 2013 that she feared she might be perceived as “a one-trick pony.”

But that was far from the case, as her career spanned over 60 solid, long years, including attaining cult status for her memorable role in an early 1996 episode of “Star Trek” titled “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

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