Rest in peace, Nurse Kellye
February 18, 2020 5:23 PM Subscribe
Actress and artist Kellye Nakahara, best known for playing nurse Lt. Kellye Yamato on the long-running series M*A*S*H, has passed away at the age of 72. Coverage from CNN, Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Time.
Aside from always bringing warmth and kindness to her role as a nurse, she was also an Asian-American icon who starred in 167 episodes at a time when Asian characters were sparse or only included to be the butt of the joke. In the ground-breaking episode “Hey, Look Me Over” which centers on Nurse Kellye, she scolds perennial ladies’ man Hawkeye for having eyes for every other nurse but never really seeing her as a possibility:
Aside from always bringing warmth and kindness to her role as a nurse, she was also an Asian-American icon who starred in 167 episodes at a time when Asian characters were sparse or only included to be the butt of the joke. In the ground-breaking episode “Hey, Look Me Over” which centers on Nurse Kellye, she scolds perennial ladies’ man Hawkeye for having eyes for every other nurse but never really seeing her as a possibility:
“For your information, I happen to have a fantastic sense of humor, a bubbly personality and I am warm and sensitive like you wouldn’t believe. I also sing and play the guitar and I’m learning to tap dance. And on top of all that, I happen to be cute as hell!”In 2016, after a blog post went viral praising her breakthrough role, she spoke to NPR shortly thereafter:
NAKAHARA: First of all, I don't think of myself as short.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
NAKAHARA: Number one. Number two, I don't think of myself as chubby. I think of myself as just a person with soft corners. What she was to me was a genuine person who wasn't being looked at in the same way as the glamorous girls that were coming through the compound.
And when she just stood up to Hawkeye and told him off, she made it clear that there's so much more to me than you think there is. And I got mail. I still get mail. I have people coming up to me that say, as far as being Asian, you're the first role model that I had of an Asian that wasn't portrayed as an Asian, just as a person.
And I think that was - it took a long time, I think, for that to come around. I hope that it's starting to change now. But I think it's taken a long time.
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posted by Joey Michaels at 5:27 PM on February 18, 2020
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:27 PM on February 18, 2020
Appeared in every episode of the series...
Wow.
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posted by Windopaene at 5:31 PM on February 18, 2020 [7 favorites]
Wow.
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posted by Windopaene at 5:31 PM on February 18, 2020 [7 favorites]
Nurse Kellye was such a great character and I always wished she'd gotten more screentime. Alan Alda has said that his one big regret about MASH was that there weren't more and bigger roles for women in it. I don't know why that didn't occur to anyone at the time. I mean.... they had all those nurses right there, and aside from Major Margaret Houlihan (who was treated in a pretty demeaning way a lot of the time, i.e., "Hot Lips"), and Nurse Kellye, they were pretty much all nameless nonentities, there to say, "Yes, doctor," and for Hawkeye to date/hit on.
posted by orange swan at 5:33 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by orange swan at 5:33 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
She brought so much humanity to that show.
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posted by allthinky at 5:37 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by allthinky at 5:37 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by praemunire at 5:38 PM on February 18, 2020
posted by praemunire at 5:38 PM on February 18, 2020
I remember watching MASH and seeing Nurse Kellye move from being a background character to something a lot bigger. It was maybe the first time I was aware of how television shows could do that with characters.
MASH ended in 1983 when I was 15... so it had been on television basically my entire aware life. It was sort of part of the air one breathed, back when there were three networks and then UHF so everyone had limited choices. Everyone I knew watched MASH. It was a different time.
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posted by hippybear at 5:38 PM on February 18, 2020 [13 favorites]
MASH ended in 1983 when I was 15... so it had been on television basically my entire aware life. It was sort of part of the air one breathed, back when there were three networks and then UHF so everyone had limited choices. Everyone I knew watched MASH. It was a different time.
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posted by hippybear at 5:38 PM on February 18, 2020 [13 favorites]
Nurse Kellye was, honestly, one of my very first TV crushes.
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posted by hanov3r at 5:50 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by hanov3r at 5:50 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
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Gene Reynolds died just a couple of weeks ago, too.
they were pretty much all nameless nonentities, there to say, "Yes, doctor," and for Hawkeye to date/hit on
I think the show evolved in a big way regarding the depiction of women and Hawkeye's attitudes toward them. There's all sorts of stuff in the early seasons that would set off loud klaxons when looked at from the perspective of 2020, but Alda was pushing feminism in a big way back when that was just baffling and annoying to much of America (Alan Alda is pretty much always awesome,) and that resulted in stuff like Margaret becoming a much deeper, richer character and Nurse Kellye emerging from the background to become a very feisty, endearing presence. The show lost some of its satirical edge in the transition, there was some real juice in Frank and Hot Lips being such hypocritical conservative ninnies, but what it lost in laughs it made up for in nuanced, empathetic storytelling. The show grew up. We can't ask for a network series made in the seventies to always be progressive in the same we'd demand of a show made today, but they sure tried their best and in so many ways it was decades ahead of its time.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [23 favorites]
Gene Reynolds died just a couple of weeks ago, too.
they were pretty much all nameless nonentities, there to say, "Yes, doctor," and for Hawkeye to date/hit on
I think the show evolved in a big way regarding the depiction of women and Hawkeye's attitudes toward them. There's all sorts of stuff in the early seasons that would set off loud klaxons when looked at from the perspective of 2020, but Alda was pushing feminism in a big way back when that was just baffling and annoying to much of America (Alan Alda is pretty much always awesome,) and that resulted in stuff like Margaret becoming a much deeper, richer character and Nurse Kellye emerging from the background to become a very feisty, endearing presence. The show lost some of its satirical edge in the transition, there was some real juice in Frank and Hot Lips being such hypocritical conservative ninnies, but what it lost in laughs it made up for in nuanced, empathetic storytelling. The show grew up. We can't ask for a network series made in the seventies to always be progressive in the same we'd demand of a show made today, but they sure tried their best and in so many ways it was decades ahead of its time.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [23 favorites]
I recently re-watched the movie Clue on cable teevee. She played the cook, and I was thinking she looked familiar.
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posted by SoberHighland at 5:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by SoberHighland at 5:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
Koi, by Kellye Nakahara Wallet; more of her art if you scroll down here.
[And wth, Time Mag, captioning that photo "Kellye Nakahara Wallet dressed in a maids uniform while smoking a cigarette in a scene from the film Clue, 1985" -- she's wearing a toque, because she played a cook.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:57 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
[And wth, Time Mag, captioning that photo "Kellye Nakahara Wallet dressed in a maids uniform while smoking a cigarette in a scene from the film Clue, 1985" -- she's wearing a toque, because she played a cook.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:57 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by oneswellfoop at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2020
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2020
True story: my college pal Lee is — or, I guess was — her son-in-law. He loved her very much. She was by all accounts an exceptional and wonderful woman.
posted by uberchet at 7:37 PM on February 18, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by uberchet at 7:37 PM on February 18, 2020 [8 favorites]
Nurse Kellye was such an unusual role and her character was woefully underutilized. Aside from main character Major Houlihan, no other nurse on the show was memorable at all the way Nurse Kellye was. They were all literally interchangeable cookie cutter nurses with a rare line. Nurse Kellye was different. An always recognizable, stabilizing and comforting presence on screen. And that one episode! How glorious was that declaration of her own dignity!
The show is as familiar as an old shoe, and yet Nurse Kellye still draws my attention for the few moments when she appears on screen. Thanks, Ms Nakahara. In my mind, you'll always be remembered for that.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:47 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]
The show is as familiar as an old shoe, and yet Nurse Kellye still draws my attention for the few moments when she appears on screen. Thanks, Ms Nakahara. In my mind, you'll always be remembered for that.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:47 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]
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posted by pazazygeek at 2:00 AM on February 19, 2020
posted by pazazygeek at 2:00 AM on February 19, 2020
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posted by young_simba at 3:53 AM on February 19, 2020
posted by young_simba at 3:53 AM on February 19, 2020
Much respect and love.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:15 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:15 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
She was a solid part of the show for me too. I dunno, between her and Radar it really created an endearing appeal for the underappreciated people. Sure the show is about surgeons but between Klinger, Radar, and Nurse Kellye as characters worthy of respect and even, as mentioned above in the OP's post, episodes that focused on their situation/status. I don't recall seeing that executed very often. M*A*S*H really was exemplary.
Alan Alda is pretty much always awesome
He's pretty far up on my list of awesome. I never neglect to mention that his role as a voice actor in the audiobook of World War Z is really worth a listen.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:19 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
Alan Alda is pretty much always awesome
He's pretty far up on my list of awesome. I never neglect to mention that his role as a voice actor in the audiobook of World War Z is really worth a listen.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:19 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by ChuraChura at 6:53 AM on February 19, 2020
posted by ChuraChura at 6:53 AM on February 19, 2020
I watched M*A*S*H in endless re-runs when I was a kid and that scene of hers mentioned above is one of a handful which really stuck with me.
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posted by jquinby at 8:29 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by jquinby at 8:29 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by LobsterMitten at 8:29 AM on February 19, 2020
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:29 AM on February 19, 2020
In the ground-breaking episode “Hey, Look Me Over” which centers on Nurse Kellye, she scolds perennial ladies’ man Hawkeye for having eyes for every other nurse but never really seeing her as a possibility
That episode in particular was memorable, but it wasn't until many years later that I considered how bold it was for the writers (and Alan Alda himself, who was a creative consultant) to give a long-time minor character not only an episode in the spotlight but one in which she tells off the main character for being a jerk.
posted by Gelatin at 8:34 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
That episode in particular was memorable, but it wasn't until many years later that I considered how bold it was for the writers (and Alan Alda himself, who was a creative consultant) to give a long-time minor character not only an episode in the spotlight but one in which she tells off the main character for being a jerk.
posted by Gelatin at 8:34 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
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posted by Silverstone at 9:11 AM on February 19, 2020
posted by Silverstone at 9:11 AM on February 19, 2020
One of my favorite M*A*S*H stories was one I just read recently. It may be in one of the links here. It was about how the cast would frequently go to Kellye's house for dinner.
posted by freakazoid at 9:30 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by freakazoid at 9:30 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
there were 255 episodes of mash, so she appeared in just over half of them. as a fat girl who thought hawkeye was dreamy, the episode of her standing up to him and saying she was cute was important.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
I always had a crush on Nurse Kellye and thought that episode was just great. Randomly looked her up sometime last year and was pleasantly surprised to see that she had branched out into art.
posted by tommasz at 1:02 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tommasz at 1:02 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
MeTV Presents The Best of Kellye Nakahara
posted by lharmon at 3:42 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by lharmon at 3:42 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 5:47 PM on February 19, 2020
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 5:47 PM on February 19, 2020
I used to watch M*A*S*H every day after school while eating my goldfish but before starting my homework. I don't remember seeing Hey, Look Me Over in syndication, but it's on youtube!
posted by ChuraChura at 6:44 PM on February 19, 2020
posted by ChuraChura at 6:44 PM on February 19, 2020
every day after school while eating my goldfish
hol up
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
hol up
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:08 AM on February 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
I assume ChuraChura means these, of which I also have vaguely fond memories.
(I'd probably have fonder memories except that the crackers are just... okay.)
posted by chrominance at 1:54 PM on February 24, 2020
(I'd probably have fonder memories except that the crackers are just... okay.)
posted by chrominance at 1:54 PM on February 24, 2020
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