You’ve seen them hundreds of times—a group of nurses running to the helicopter pad during the opening credits of MASH. One of the most popular questions about MASH is who these running women are in this iconic shot. With the revolving door nature of the nurse characters on MASH, it was not always clear who these actresses were! Did they appear again in the show?
Well, for decades, some of their names were a mystery, but intrepid internet sleuths finally figured it out! The identity of the woman running in the opening credits of MASH is no longer a mystery. It’s also erroneously reported that none of them ever appeared again in MASH.
I want to start this post off with a huge hat tip to MASH4077TV.com for getting the ball rolling and for some top-notch sleuthing. My purpose here is to just add in some details and flesh out anything that seems worth it. I’m not trying to outdo anyone who’s already done great work! Using the image above, I’ll discuss the women in the shot from left to right, but first, some background.
Even people who are not giant MASH fans don’t need me to describe this, but I’ll do so for the sake of completeness. The opening credits of MASH changed slightly over the years.
During the first seven seasons, we see the back of Radar’s head as he looks up at arriving helicopters, framed against the rugged mountains. That changed after Gary Burghoff departed. We see an aerial view of the MASH 4077, centered on the hospital, obviously filmed from a helicopter. We see the helicopters landing, and Hawkeye and whoever is the second lead, Trapper or B.J., run toward the wounded on the choppers, look serious, nod, etc. Then we see an aerial view of the patients being taken down to the compound by jeep as the names of the cast appear on the screen. There were other minor changes to some of the sequences, especially of the teams running up to the helicopters.
But perhaps the most recognizable element of the opening credits, that never changed, is this group of nurses running as if their lives depended on it toward the chopper pad. They are a picture of grim determination and devotion. It’s the only shot of the entire show that truly captures the nurses of the Korean War as they should be captured. Perhaps that’s why it’s so iconic. Even after that first image of Radar was removed, those nurses always remained, whether or not the individuals remained on the show.
However, there is an extended opening sequence in the pilot episode where a group of nurses respond to an announcement about incoming casualties, run out of their tent, and then sprint to the chopper pad. The original group of running nurses had to be changed because Lt. Dish was present in the shot. She also could be seen over Hawkeye’s shoulder at the helicopter pad, and this too was removed since the character was pulled after the first season.
Original Running Nurses – MASH Pilot
Let’s talk more about how the running nurses changed. You may have never seen the original footage, as it was cut from most syndicated airings. An extended segment of these original running nurses only occurred during the pilot. Right now, I no longer have MASH available through streaming, so I am relying on my DVD collection. This scene is present on the DVD version of the pilot I own.
Originally, a group of at least 9 nurses was shown running out of a tent after an announcement of incoming casualties came over the loudspeakers. I say at least 9, but I believe there may be up to ten nurses coming out of the tent. The group is led by Lt. Dish (Maria “Dish” Schneider, sometimes Maggie), played by Karen Phillips. Dish may have been intended as a regular character, but was removed after only two episodes. Lt. Leslie Scorch, played by Linda Meiklejohn, can be seen just behind her, moving from Dish’s left to her right as they run.
Leslie Scorch had a longer run than Lt. Dish, even though Dish was more prominent in the extended opening credits of the pilot. Leslie (Meikejohn) appeared on eight episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 and will mainly be remembered as Col. Henry Blake’s main love interest. She’s the one he gave the fishing reel to!
As the opening credits in the pilot continue, a group of nurses is seen running up the steps on the hill leading to the upper chopper pad. I’m almost certain Lt. Dish is still present in this group, but she is not in the lead. Later, as a chopper lands on the pad, a group led by Hawkeye runs up to the chopper, and Lt. Dish can be seen over Hawkeye’s shoulder. She was later removed, and Hawkeye was shown from a different angle. The nurses are not shown sprinting in the way they are in later regular opening credits.
Not to take anything away from the running nurses in the pilot, but these are not the classic and iconic running nurses from MASH. As far as I can tell, the shot of the nurses running up the hill, and the “running nurses” shot, were all done around the same time, early on, before the original broadcast. Most of the nurses depicted were union extras brought in for just this occasion.
Regular Opening Credits – The Running Nurses
In the second episode, To Market, To Market, we see the classic running nurses shot. It’s a brief, but more impactful shot. We don’t see the nurses running up the hill, only approaching it. Only a group of men is shown running up the steps. But before this, the group of five nurses is seen running toward the camera, in an all-out sprint. This is not the same group of nurses shown running up out of the tent or up the hill in the extended pilot credits. Or, at least it is not all the same women.
The next time you watch MASH, pay attention to the faces of these women. Notice that the nurse up front, leading the group, is running with an easy style and her mouth is open. The nurses behind her are gritting their teeth and look as if they are having a hard time in a competitive race. It appears that this is just what happened. They were racing against quite a fast runner, and she just so happens to be gorgeous, so for years, people wondered who she was. She was perhaps the most difficult to identify.
The Sticky Wicket Scene Featuring the Classic Group of Nurses
In the linked article, The Episode Sticky Wicket is mentioned as the only time you see the iconic running nurses running out of a tent. This is one of several episodes at the end of Season 2 where a new, and quite awful, arrangement for the MASH opening theme is tried (not the only time different arrangements were tried). However, the opening credits still show as usual.
Then, at the beginning of the episode, Hawkeye, Trapper John, Radar, and Ugly John are playing poker. Ugly John has fallen asleep, as was not unusual for the extra characters in the first season when the writers didn’t want to give them anything to do. Radar hears choppers coming and we see the choppers high up in the distance.
Then a group of nurses runs out of a tent, similar to the scene in the pilot, except at a different angle. This group appears to be the classic running nurses from the opening credits, although a few of them are missing from the running shot. More of them have hats in the beginning, and we see them removing their hats while running out of the tent (it was blazing hot). The shot is very quick! But, now, we see the origin of the iconic nurses in the credits, and it’s clear that this is a different group than the one led by Lt. Dish in the pilot episode. But who are the running nurses?
I’ll list the running nurses from left to right, based on the image above, and provide whatever information I have been able to find, including the other episodes they appeared in, if any.
Gwen Farrell aka Gwen Adair
Gwen Farrell, who also worked under the name Gwen Adair, is the black nurse seen running on the far left. She appeared in many episodes of MASH. She was a fixture, in fact! Larry Gelbart said that he didn’t think she ever “spoke a scrap of dialogue” (see links in the above-linked MASH4077TV article). He was incorrect, however. She did speak a scrap of dialogue, in Season 3, Episode 6, titled Springtime. Radar refers to her as Lt. Baker. He is just making an excuse to be near a group of nurses because his nurse crush is there.
Radar asks her, “Have you ever had cholera, diphtheria, bubonic plague, jungle rot, or not?” Gwen, as Baker, answers, “Not.”
However, Gwen Farrell was, in all other regards, a nurse extra, and she was never assigned an official character on the show. I’m quite sure she appeared in over 30 episodes. She was only officially credited in eleven, that I know of.
Her first appearance was as a running nurse in the opening credits of the second episode of the series, To Market to Market. Her next five appearances in season one go uncredited. When she is given a credit and a name, the name only serves to mark her credit, not as a sign that she was given an official character. She always played a nurse. In one Season 5 episode, she is serving as an anesthetist in the O.R. and is credited as such. Nurses often served as “gas passers” in MASH units during the Korean War.
Below is a partial list of her appearances. I believe she also appeared in several other episodes, but I haven’t found her yet. If I spot her, I’ll update the list. Larry Gelbart shared that Gwen was often seen walking in the background, which I can certainly confirm. However, this can make her hard to spot, so it’s possible she appeared in more episodes than I can say. There are several episodes in which I’m pretty sure I spotted her walking in the compound outside a tent, such as the mess hall, but it is very hard to be sure, as the background resolution is too low. I believe, however, that she was often seen walking in the distance and probably appears in many other episodes.
- Season 1, Episode 2, To Market, To Market, Opening Credits (Running Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 4, Chief Surgeon, Who? (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 6, Yankee Doodle Doctor (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 12, Dear Dad (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 13, Edwina (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 14, Love Story (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 16, The Ringbanger (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 17, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 18, Dear Dad…Again (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 19, The Longjohn Flap (Nuse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 20, The Army-Navy Game (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 21, Sticky Wicket (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 22, Major Fred C. Dobbs (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 24, Showtime (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 2, 5 O’clock Charlie (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 4, For the Good of the Outfit (Nurse Butler)
- Season 2, Episode 5, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 7, L.I.P. (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 8, The Trial of Henry Blake (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 9, Dear Dad, Three (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 10, The Sniper (Nurse)
- Season 2, Episode 11, Carry On, Hawkeye (Nurse Wilson)
- Season 2, Episode 13, Deal Me Out (Nurse)
- Season 2, Episode 15, Officers Only (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 16, Henry in Love (Nurse)
- Season 2, Episode 18, Operation Noselift (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 28, For the Good of the Outfit (Nurse Butler)
- Season 2, Episode 29, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 30, Kim (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 3, Episode 6, Springtime (Lt. Baker, uncredited, speaks one word, “Not.”)
- Season 3, Episode 24, Abyssinia, Henry (Henry refers to her as Gwen, saying goodbye, uncredited)
- Season 4, Episode 16, Dear Ma (Nurse Able, rare appearance working in O.R)
- Season 5, Episode 15, 38 Across (Anesthetist)
- Season 8, Episode 6, Period of Adjustment (Nurse)
- Season 9, Episode 20, The Life You Save (Gwen)
- Season 11, Episode 16 Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen (Nurse)
Gwen Adair (Farrell) also appeared as an extra or background character in Soylent Green (1973), Coffy (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974). These appearances all went uncredited. Her credited roles include Starsky and Hutch (1975). She also appeared as a reporter in Billy Jack Goes to Washington. As an actor, she was a professional extra.
Don’t feel bad for her. She didn’t need the work; she obviously did it for fun and out of interest. She lived in Beverly Hills and was married to a wealthy man. According to Larry Gelbart, she drove to the studio every day in a Cadillac. She seems like a very interesting person!
In fact, adding to that interest, Gwen has also been a licensed boxing referee and boxing judge in California since 1980. She has refereed over 700 bouts and has the distinction of being the first woman to referee a world title fight.
Kathy Denny Fradella (Baker)
Kathy Denny Fradella is the nurse out front, second from left to right. Her identity was the hardest to confirm for years, as not even studio execs could identify her. All the nurses in the running scene were union extras who had been brought in for just that occasion. They were paid on the spot and sent on their way, so precise records were not kept. Only when these “extras” appeared again were they able to be identified easily.
However, thanks to some excellent detective work and a little luck, MASH4077TV.com was able to confirm this leading lady by unearthing a message she had sent to “TV Talkback” in the Los Angeles Times from 1978. Someone was asking after her identity and she wrote in to identify herself. According to Kathy in her letter, producer Gene Reynolds “lined up about twenty girls” and had them race for the job. They were competing for who would appear in the opening credits. Obviously, only a handful “got the job.”
Later on, to clear up some confusion about the runner in front being Michelle Lee (Knot’s Landing), Kathy Fradella wrote to MASH4077TV.com to once again confirm that it was she in the opening credits, and not Michelle Lee. She explained further that she went on to appear in other episodes in the first season.
Gene Reynolds, later, in 2002, explained that when they were working on this shot, the same girl would invariably end up in front. That was Kathy. She was a great runner. And that athleticism wasn’t wasted!
Watching that opening sequence, you can see her easy and natural running stride and relaxed jaw, compared to the women behind her, who are all gritting their teeth. They must have been working hard to keep up! Kathy had run in high school and, as she said, “I was eager to compete.”
Again, according to Kathy, she did appear in some other episodes, but I don’t know which ones they are. I think we can take her word for it. She probably had some quick background appearances as an extra and could be very difficult to spot. Although there are no online records of her other TV appearances, she revealed in her message that she appeared in Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, and other shows. She also revealed that she worked in stunts. I would be quite interested in knowing more about her stunt work!
Sheila Lauritsen
Sheila Lauritsen is the blonde nurse who is just over the left shoulder of Kathy Fradella in the image above, third from the left. Like Gwenn Farrel, she is a fixture and appears on many episodes of Season 1 and 2. She also appears once in Season 3. Lauritsen told the story of her experience shooting the iconic running scene:
I’m the blond girl running up the hill in the opening credits. Gene (Reynolds) took us to the Malibu Ranch and said, “OK girls, run.” And we did and then we did it again and then again. We were tired and sweaty. Then he tells us, “I want you to think that’s your brother coming in on that helicopter and whether he lives or dies is up to you. You’ve got to get up to that helicopter.” It completely turned us around. We just sprinted up that hill and got it in one take.
Here are the appearances of Sheila Lauritsen that I’ve been able to confirm. She credited herself as “Nurse Sheila,” but it’s doubtful she was assigned a specific character. Most of her appearances were uncredited. As I’ve explained before, nurse names often appear for credited appearances, but these names can be quite random.
- Season 1, Episode 2, To Market, To Market, Opening Credits (running nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 5, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 12, Dear Dad (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 13, Edwina (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 18, Dear Dad, Again (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 20, The Army-Navy Game (Nurse Hardy)
- Season 1, Episode 21, Sticky Wicket (Nurse)
- Season 2, Episode 4 For the Good of the Outfit (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 7, L.I.P (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 9, Dear Dad… Three (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 10, The Sniper (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 11, Carry On, Hawkeye (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 12, The Incubator (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 18, Operation Noselift (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 3, Episode 6, Springtime (Nurse, Uncredited)
Marcia Gelman
The actor wearing a hat to the right (your left) of the nurse holding her hat, fourth from the left, is thought to be Marcia Gelman. She appeared twice more in Season One and then appeared in seven episodes of Season 2, five of which were uncredited. There is the usual confusion about her name, with most sources referring to her as Nurse Jacobs or Lt. Jacobs in uncredited episodes. However, this is based on her name as it was assigned in her last credited episode, causing authors to assume her name was always supposed to be Jacobs, an erroneous assumption.
- Season 1, Episode 2, To Market, To Market, Opening Credits (Running nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 4, Chief Surgeon, Who? (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 13, Edwina (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 21, Sticky Wicket (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 1, Episode 22, Major Fred C. Dobbs (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 2, 5 O’clock Charlie (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 5, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde (Nurse, Uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 7, L.I.P. (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 9, Dear Dad, Three (Nurse, uncredited)
- Season 2, Episode 10, The Sniper (Nurse, speaking role)
- Season 2, Episode 11, Carry On, Hawkeye (Nurse Jacobs)
- Season 2, Episode 29, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde (Nurse, uncredited)
Marcia Gelman’s first line of dialogue comes in Season 2, Episode 5 tilted The Sniper. When much of the camp is sheltering in the hospital, Frank brings up the fact that Henry Blake is missing. Gelman, as Nurse Jacobs, informs him, “He’s trapped in the shower with Radar.” She is credited only as “nurse.”
Her only other line is in Season 2, Episode 11, titled Carry On, Hawkeye. A flu epidemic has hit the camp, and many are down with it in post-op. Gelman, as Nurse Jacobs, comes out of post-op, rubbing her forehead and looking exhausted. Henry asks her, “You okay, Jacobs?” She responds, “I’ll be alright, doctor.” Henry replies, “That’s good. Because I’m deathly ill.” She is credited as Nurse Jacobs; the only time she is officially assigned a name. I was unable to find any other acting credits for Marcia Gelman.
Lori Noel
The nurse with the dark hair and hat on the far right, running somewhat behind the other girls, is Lori Noel, also known as Lori Noel Brokamp. In 2013, Noel described how the director had them run up the hill towards the helicopter that wasn’t actually there. She ran her hardest but always ended up last. They shot the sequence five or six times, and none of the extras received residuals for this shot that was aired thousands and thousands of times. Who knew the opening credits would change so little?
According to Lori, the showrunners brought in a surgeon as technical adviser, and he trained the extras to handle surgical instruments. For whatever reason, Lori was really good at that and she ended up being an O.R. nurse passing instruments to “all the TV doctors” like Marcus Welby, Bold Ones, Emergency, and Medical Center.
I would also assume this to mean that she was used as an extra in MASH O.R. scenes, but I am unaware of what specific episodes she may have appeared in.
