Hugs and condolences to everyone who knew, hired, liked, occasionally fraternized with or loved Sally Kellerman, who’s passed at age 84.

Sally hit it big exactly once in her career when she played Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman‘s M*A*S*H (’70 — snagged a Best Supporting Actress nomination). She also costarred in some other Altman films (Brewster McCloud, Welcome to L.A., The Player, Prêt a Porter) plus an assortment of films and TV shows.

The only other Kellerman performance that really stuck out for me was her real-estate agent in Dan Mirvish‘s Open House, a musical comedy that premiered at Slamdance ’04. Honestly? With all the singing done “live”, the best you could say was “nice try.” Kellerman indicated during a post-screening q & a that the film could have benefitted from the usual practice of post-production scoring.

Over the last 30-plus years I must have run into Kellerman at a minimum of 200 post-screening parties.