text: 1970s Kellerman received her breakthrough role (Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H) in 1970. Her performance received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, winning the Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KCFCC) Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Laurel for Best Comedy Performance (Female), and a second-place National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) Award for Best Supporting Actress. Kellerman was featured in Life magazine. She again collaborated with Altman in Brewster McCloud as Louise, guardian angel to Bud Cort, and recorded "Rock-a-Bye Baby" for the film's soundtrack.
  Her next role was as a hostile, chain-smoking, sex-addicted woman who was trying to have an afternoon affair with Alan Arkin's character in Gene Saks' film adaptation of Neil Simon's comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972). In Manhattan after the film, Kellerman declined an offer for a ten-page spread in Vogue from the then editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. When she refused the part of Linda Rogo in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Stella Stevens got the role. Shortly afterwards she recorded her first demo with Lou Adler, and Roll with the Feelin for Decca Records with producer-arranger Gene Paige. After filming Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Kellerman passed up a role in another Altman film: