Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film and television actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Anna (1987).
Kirkland was born in New York City. She was named after her mother, Sally Kirkland (born Sarah Phinney), who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Oklahoma. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap metal business.
Kirkland began acting Off-Broadway in 1963. After a few uncredited and bit parts in film and television, she appeared in the underground film Coming Apart (1969). In the 1970s, she had small roles in popular films such as The Sting, The Way We Were, A Star Is Born and Private Benjamin. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Anna (1987), and she won a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture. Her performance received widespread critical praise, in a performance that Rita Kempley writing for the Washington Post deemed "superb".