Judy Farrell (née Hayden; May 11, 1938) is an American actress most noted for her role as Nurse Able on the television comedy series ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (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 Richard Hooker. The ...

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

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

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 pl ...

''.

Life

Farrell was born Judy Hayden and raised in

Quapaw, Oklahoma Quapaw is a town in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 906 at the 2010 census, a 7.9 percent decline from the figure of 984 recorded in 2000. Quapaw is part of the Joplin, Missouri metropolitan area. History In 1891 Kan ...

. She graduated from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

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. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

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 List of M*A*S*H characters#B.J. Hunnicutt, Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series ''M*A*S*H (TV series), M*A*S*H'' (1975–83). Farrell ...

. 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 seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservat ...

. In August 1963, she married Farrell with whom she subsequently had two children, Erin and Michael. In the 1960s, she and Farrell 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, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel ''MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 MASH (film), film adaptation of the novel, and t ...

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 his real life daughter.

References

External links

* American soap opera writers American television actresses 1938 births Living people American women television writers 20th-century American actresses Women soap opera writers 21st-century American women {{US-tv-actor-1930s-stub