R.I.P. original “Hot Lips” Houlihan, Sally Kellerman

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Sally Kellerman, the husky-voiced actress known for her Oscar-nominated portrayal of U.S. Army Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, has died. She was 84.

Kellerman, who also sang and had a Grand Funk Railroad tune written for her, died Thursday morning at an assisted care facility in Woodland Hills after a battle with dementia, her son, Jack Krane, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A native Californian, Kellerman had a memorable role in the third Star Trek episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” in which she portrayed Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, a human Starfleet officer aboard the USS Enterprise. When Dehner sacrifices her life, her dying words to Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) are, “I’m sorry … you can’t know what it’s like to … be almost a god.”

And in the comedy Back to School (1986), Kellerman was wonderful as the free-spirited college literature professor Diane Turner, the love interest of Rodney Dangerfield’s obnoxious rags-to-riches businessman, Thornton Melon.

Kellerman also noted that when fans encountered her in public, they either yelled, “Hey, Hot Lips!” or recited a classic Dangerfield line from Back to School: “Call me sometime when you got no class.”

Kellerman had appeared in guest-starring stints on many TV shows of the 1960s, including The Outer Limits, 12 O’Clock High, Ben Casey, That Girl and Mannix, when she won the role of the by-the-books Houlihan in M*A*S*H, an adaptation of Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel about Army surgeons saving lives during the Korean War.

She and Altman also collaborated on the features Brewster McCloud (1970), The Player (1992) and Pret-a-Porter (1994) and on a 1997 episode of Gun, an ABC anthology series that he executive produced.

Kellerman’s film résumé also included The Boston Strangler (1968), The April Fools (1969), Slither (1973) opposite James Caan, the Charles Jarrott-directed Lost Horizon (1973), Welcome to L.A. (1976) with Harvey Keitel and Sissy Spacek, The Big Bus (1976), Foxes (1980), Blake Edwards’ That’s Life! (1986), All’s Fair (1989) and Boynton Beach Club (2005).

On the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, she played Constance Bingham, an elderly woman confined to a wheelchair, and landed a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2015.

Kellerman eventually did pursue a singing career and in 1972 released her first album, Roll With the Feelin’.

“I love acting … but my fantasy is to have a couple of babies and make an album a year, and maybe a picture a year, too,” she said in 1973. “I don’t want to not do either one.”

Around that time, Kellerman dated Grand Funk Railroad singer-guitarist Mark Farner, who wrote the 1976 pop song “Sally” about her. Her second album, Sally, was released in 2009.

Kellerman also did voiceover work in commercials — most famously for Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing.