Judy Nugent(1940-2023)

American child actress of the 1950s, on screen from the age of three. Judy Nugent was the daughter of MGM prop man Carl Nugent and his wife Lucille Jane Redd (1916-2004), also a former child actress (in early Our Gang comedies) who later worked as a theatrical agent and was stage mother to her daughters (Carol Nugent, Judy's older sister, who also in pictures).

Judy was barely glimpsed in tiny movie bit parts until she made her breakthrough in the role of Donna in The Ruggles (1949). The first family sitcom to air on television was broadcast live on ABC. After the show had run its course, Judy appeared in episodes of The Lone Ranger (1949) and (as a blind girl) in Adventures of Superman (1952). She played another blind girl in Annie Oakley (1954), was one of the kids of Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) and rode donkeys in episodes of Sugarfoot (1957) and Rawhide (1959). Her personal favorite role was in the romantic melodrama Magnificent Obsession (1954) (as a teen named Judy), which starred Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. A chance encounter with Cary Grant on the Universal lot prompted the actor to use his famous line "Judy, Judy, Judy".

Later roles included Annette Funicello's outsider Jet Maypen in Annette (1958) and The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) and guest spots in 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959). She had a lengthy hiatus from acting after 1962 (following her marriage to western actor Buck Taylor) but made a brief return to the screen as a stunt rider and body double for Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980), shot on location in Durango, Mexico.

A self-confessed country girl and tomboy, Judy Nugent lived on her Montana ranch until her death on October 26 at the age of 83.