Lieutenant Laurie was a nurse who made three credited appearances from Season 7 to Season 9 of M*A*S*H TV series. She also appeared uncredited in several episodes beginning from Season 6. The part of Lieutenant Laurie was played by Laurie Bates.
About Nurse Laurie[]
By the later seasons, it had become a common pattern for the names of recurring minor characters to be taken from the actual first names of the actors/actresses who played them. Nurse Laurie was part of this pattern, along with other familiar recurring characters such as Nurses Kellye (Kellye Nakahara), Gwen (Gwen Farrell), Jo Ann (Jo Ann Thompson) and Shari (Shari Saba). In all three credited episodes, the character of Lieutenant Laurie is only ever billed as "nurse" or "surgical nurse". Her name is never given and is inferred from scenes in various episodes when the character is addressed by name.
Although first credited in Season 7 Dear Comrade, Lieutenant Laurie actually appears uncredited in several episodes before that, and, ironically, the better shots of her all come from the uncredited episodes. She can be seen as early as Season 6 in "Last Laugh" where she actually has a line. She is in post-op when Hawkeye asks how a patient is doing and she replies that his vital signs are still unstable. Next, in "Your Hit Parade", where she is a duty nurse in the mess tent which is being used as a temporary post-op. In Season 7 Commander Pierce, she can be seen again assisting Hawkeye with a patient in pre-op. Later in the season, in Our Finest Hour she can be seen pushing a trolley past the interviewer Clete Roberts at the beginning of the episode. Here Hawkeye can be heard calling her "Laurie" and asking her to take the temperature of a patient. In None Like It Hot, she can be seen in a striped yellow top in the chow line with Hawkeye at the mess tent. Later, she is among the nurses who ambush Radar in the bath tub. A few episodes later, in Baby, It's Cold Outside she can be seen in pre-op, taking instructions from Potter.
It is only in the mid Season 7 episode Dear Comrade that the Nurse Laurie character is first credited, this time as "Surgical Nurse". She is actually quite difficult to find but it is presumed that she is the nurse with the only speaking role, reminding Winchester to go easy on hemostats because they are running short.
Following this, Laurie is not seen again until Season 9 A War for All Seasons where she is credited as "Nurse". Here she is a circulating nurse in the O.R. Hawkeye addresses her as "Laurie" again and asks her to prepare two more units of blood for a patient. Later in Season 9, in Bottoms Up, the character makes her last credited appearance. There are many nurses in this episode and it is presumed she must be among the large group in the O.R. but they are all gowned and under surgical masks. There is a better shot of her later when she is among the crowd gather outside the nurses' tent watching B.J. get his payback for the practical jokes he has been playing on Winchester and Hawkeye.
