Judy Farrell ( Hayden; May 11, 1938 – April 2, 2023) was an American actress most noted for her role as Nurse Able on the television comedy series ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richa ...

''. She performed small roles in several other television series, then later wrote 13 episodes for the

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

Port Charles ''Port Charles'' (commonly abbreviated as ''PC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from June 1, 1997, to October 3, 2003. It was a spin-off of the series ''General Hospital'', which has been running since 1963 and takes p ...

''.

Life and career

Judy Hayden was born and raised in

Quapaw, Oklahoma Quapaw, officially the Town of Quapaw, is a town in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, United States, which serves as the capital of the Quapaw Nation. Located about northeast of Miami, it is part of the Joplin, Missouri metropolitan area. Incorpor ...

. She graduated from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

with a fine arts degree in theater. While studying for a master's degree at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1961, she met actor

Mike Farrell Michael Joseph Farrell Jr. (born February 6, 1939) is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series '' M*A*S*H'' (1975–83). In addition, Farrell was a producer of '' Patch Adams'' (1998) starr ...

. She worked as a high-school English and drama teacher at

Laguna Beach High School Laguna Beach High School is a 4-year public high school located in Laguna Beach, California. It is the only high school in the Laguna Beach Unified School District. It was established in 1934 and is accredited by the Western Association of Schoo ...

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Located in Southern California along the Pacific Ocean, this seaside resort city has a mild year-round climate, scenic c ...

. In August 1963, she married Farrell, with whom she subsequently had two children, Erin and Michael. In the 1960s, Farrell and she performed together at the Laguna Playhouse. They divorced in the early 1980s. The Farrells' marriage was worked into the script of one episode of ''M*A*S*H'': In the episode "The Colonel's Horse," Mike's character

B.J. Hunnicutt This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise created by Richard Hooker, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel '' MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' (1968) and its sequels '' M*A*S*H Goes to Main ...

said his wife Peg (played by Catherine Bergstrom in two onscreen appearances and a few photographs) was from Judy's hometown of Quapaw, and that her father's name was Floyd Hayden. His daughter in the show was also named Erin, as is his real-life daughter.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1938 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American women American soap opera writers American television actresses American women soap opera writers People from Ottawa County, Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-stub