Judy Carne, ‘sock it to me’ girl on ‘Laugh-In,’ dies at 76

Judy Carne, the British actress who remains best known for playing the “Sock-It-To-Me” Girl on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, has died. She was 76.

Carne died on Sept. 3 in Northampton, England. Jon Barrett, a friend, confirmed to The New York Times that the cause was likely pneumonia. She had recently been in the hospital and her official death certificate wasn’t immediately available.

Carne’s career on television began in England, where she also appeared on stage before moving to the U.S. According to Variety, her first British TV role came in The First Day Of Spring in 1956. In the U.S., she would go on to make appearances in Bonanza, Gunsmoke, 12 O’Clock High, Gidget and The Patty Duke Show.

In 1968, Laugh-In started on NBC, with Carne settling in as the “Sock-It-To-Me” girl. Whenever she said that phrase, she wound up with water dumped on her. She was a regular for the first two seasons. The show ended in 1973.

While she tried to act after that, she struggled with drug addiction during the 1970s. She was also married to Burt Reynolds from 1963-1965. She was briefly married to Robert Bergmann in 1970. In 1978, she was in a deadly car accident, breaking her neck.

She wrote about her struggles in the 1985 autobiography Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside: The Bittersweet Saga of the Sock-It-To-Me Girl.

screenshot from YouTube video