Sally Kirkland’s Last Instagram Post Before Her Death Is Heartbreaking

The ‘Anna’ alum’s last Insta­gram post was a sweet plea for help from fans.

Gold­en Globe win­ner Sal­ly Kirk­land has died at the age of 84. Sad­ly, the Anna alum had been in poor health for quite some time. In her last Insta­gram post before her death, she sig­naled that she was doing her best to keep push­ing for­ward despite the dif­fi­cul­ties she was nav­i­gat­ing.

On Octo­ber 4, Kirk­land post­ed a self­ie on her Insta­gram page. In the cap­tion, she wrote, “I’m near­ly there. We’re at 75% of the goal. Can you please help me reach it?”

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A post shared by Sal­ly Kirk­land (@sallykirklandactor)

Hol­ly­wood is mourn­ing the loss of Sal­ly Kirk­land — the lumi­nous, Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed actress whose career stretched across six remark­able decades. Known for her unfor­get­table per­for­mances in The Sting and her Acad­e­my Award-nom­i­nat­ed role in Anna, Kirk­land embod­ied the spir­it of old Hol­ly­wood with the heart of a true artist.

In her final Insta­gram post, Kirk­land offered a glimpse into her pri­vate strug­gles. The pho­to showed her rest­ing in bed, wear­ing a bright­ly col­ored shirt, her hand lift­ed gen­tly as if wav­ing to fans. Her smile, though faint, still car­ried the warmth and grace that defined her life.

Trag­i­cal­ly, the cap­tion beneath that pho­to revealed the heavy bur­den she had been car­ry­ing. Refer­ring to her ongo­ing health bat­tle and mount­ing bills, she wrote heart­break­ing­ly:

“These med­ical expens­es are killing me.”

Friends had launched a GoFundMe cam­paign in Octo­ber 2024 to help cov­er her over­whelm­ing med­ical costs. By the time of her pass­ing, the fund had raised more than $60,000 toward its $65,000 goal — a tes­ta­ment to the deep affec­tion and admi­ra­tion fans and col­leagues felt for her. Even after her death, con­tri­bu­tions con­tin­ued to pour in, with dona­tions rang­ing from $5 to $100 — proof that Sal­ly Kirkland’s light reached hearts from every walk of life.

On Novem­ber 7, just days before her pass­ing, an update appeared on the cam­paign page that read:

“Thank you for all your love and sup­port. Sal­ly is grate­ful for your kind­ness and love. Sal­ly is on hos­pice now and is rest­ing com­fort­ably. Please hold and send the light for Sal­ly.”

Even in her final days, she was sur­round­ed by love.

Over her decades-long career, Kirk­land appeared in more than 300 projects — from major motion pic­tures to inde­pen­dent films that show­cased her emo­tion­al depth and fear­less artistry. Despite her dete­ri­o­rat­ing health, her IMDb page list­ed sev­er­al projects still in post-pro­duc­tion, includ­ing Kallie (2025) and Sal­ly­wood (2024). Her pas­sion for sto­ry­telling nev­er waned; she was, to the very end, an artist devot­ed to the work.

Her defin­ing moment came with Anna (1987), a raw and emo­tion­al por­tray­al of a dis­placed actress fight­ing for dig­ni­ty in a new world. The per­for­mance earned her a Gold­en Globe and an Acad­e­my Award nom­i­na­tion, cement­ing her as one of Hollywood’s most com­pelling and coura­geous per­form­ers.

But beyond the spot­light, Kirk­land was known for her heart. She was a spir­i­tu­al guide, men­tor, and friend to many — a woman whose empa­thy and fire inspired gen­er­a­tions of artists.

As fans remem­ber her, that final wave from her hos­pi­tal bed feels like a farewell not just from a per­former, but from a woman who lived and loved with inten­si­ty. Sal­ly Kirk­land gave the world her truth, her soul, and her bound­less artistry.

She once said, “If my work has helped some­one feel seen, I’ve done what I came here to do.”

And she did — beau­ti­ful­ly.

Rest peace­ful­ly, Sal­ly Kirk­land. Your art, your courage, and your light will nev­er fade.