To celebrate International Nurses Day, The Daily Beast rounds up our favorite nurses from the movies and TV. From the delusional Nurse Betty to the sometimes unethical Nurse Jackie, see our list.
Clockwise from top right: Universal; Everett Collection (3)
The always mild-tempered Poppy Pomfrey was an immediate ally to Harry Potter and friends, seeing them through the worst of their adolescence. In Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, Pomfrey was essential in helping grow Harry’s bones back after a spell gone awry. “Madam Pomfrey, the matron, was a nice woman, but very strict,” writes Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling of her character.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Arguably one of Ben Stiller’s funniest roles, Gaylord Focker, or Greg, as he prefers to be called, is a nurse who seeks the approval of his would-be father-in-law, Jack (played to perfection by Robert De Niro). Unfortunately, the fact that Greg is a nurse—culturally a female profession—is the first trait that would define Jack’s disapproval. Jack consistently introduces Greg as “the male nurse,” and when Greg finally asks him to please stop, Jack answers: “Could you at least try, maybe, to consider another profession?”
Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection
Betty Sizemore, the sweet Kansas waitress played by Renee Zellweger in Neil LaBute’s 2000 film, is on an unconventional quest. After watching the murder of her husband, Betty has a nervous breakdown and starts obsessively following an actor from her favorite soap opera, A Reason to Love. Because the actor, played by Greg Kinnear, is a doctor on the show, Betty assumes the identity of a nurse, believing she is a character on the soap. We love Betty and her delusional fantasies, her naïve nature, and her steady persistence. Zellweger won the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical for her role.
USA Films / Courtesy Everett Collection
Indisputably the most evil nurse on our list, Nurse Ratched is the epitome of the cold and heartless Battleaxe Nurse. Lousie Fletcher, who won an Academy Award for the role, played Ratched in the 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey’s famed novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. A symbol of corrupting influence of power, Nurse Ratched is the head nurse at a mental institution where she exercises complete power over patients’ access to medications, food, bathroom usage, etc. She is the sole antagonist to each hospital patient, and even leads one to suicide. The character of Nurse Ratched was voted the fifth greatest villain in film history by the American Film Institute and might forever reign as cinema’s naughtiest medical attendant.
Everett Collection
In typical Hemingway fashion, A Farewell to Arms’ leading lady nurse, Catherine Barkley, is neither dynamic nor independent. She is the constant object of desire for our protagonist, and a token of domesticity of the time: “I’m having a child and that makes me contented not to do anything,” she says. Helen Hays played the role in the 1932 film adaptation, the first time the classic tale of an ambulance driver and his love of an army nurse appeared on the screen.
Everett Collection
The character of M*A*S*H’s “Hotlips” Houlihan was inspired by a real life Korean War head nurse—also an attractive blonde. “Hotlips” was a by-the-books stereotype for a portion of the series, using her looks and romantic relationships to further her career and get her way. But she evolved into a more sensitive character, tempering her authoritative nature with humanity. Loretta Swit portrayed the naughty and nice nurse on the decade-long TV series. The nickname “Hotlips” originated from the M*A*S*H movie, in which Houlihan’s character is sleeping with Frank Burns, another M*A*S*H member, and their rendezvous—including Houlihan saying “kiss my hot lips”—is surreptitiously being broadcast to the entire camp.
20thCentFox / Courtesy Everett Collection
On TV’s Nurse Jackie, New York nurse Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) is an emergency room attendant who juggles the pressures of the hospital and her own bad behavior. The Showtime series was met with generally positive reviews, but the New York State Nurses Association condemned the unethical behavior of the protagonist, saying, “In the first episode, Nurse Jackie is introduced as a substance abuser who trades sex with a pharmacist for prescription drugs...She has no qualms about repeatedly violating the nursing Code of Ethics.”
Showtime
Carol Hathaway, longtime love of womanizer Doug Ross (George Clooney, was a fixture on television’s premiere medical drama, ER, from 1994-2000. Portrayed by Julianna Margulies, Nurse Hathaway was assertive and believed her position as a nurse in the emergency room was taken for granted. “Haleh [a staff nurse] may not be able to cross clamp an aorta, but she has over 20 years experience in emergency medicine and if you would step off your pedestal maybe you would realize it’s the nurses that make this place run and not you,” she once said.
NBC
Real-life nurse Florence Nightingale was one of the most celebrated nurses in the history of medicine. She served as a nurse during the Crimean War, in which she pioneered new nursing procedures and was dubbed “The Lady with the Lamp,” as she was known for making her rounds at night. Jaclyn Smith portrayed the legendary medical woman in the 1985 TV movie Florence Nightingale, which received favorable reviews.
Courtesy Everett Collection
