11 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Also Nurses

Bonnie Hunt

Illinois native Bonnie Hunt, best known for her roles in feature films including Jerry Maguire and Cheaper by the Dozen, started as a teenage candy striper before enrolling in nursing school at her father’s suggestion, according to the Chicago Tribune. She initially didn’t plan on continuing her studies because her heart wasn’t in it, but after her dad passed away, she worked with a patient who had a special connection to her family, and that encouraged her to stick with nursing.

“One day, Mr. O’Brien was talking about this man as I was reading his chart. I noticed that he worked for the city, and I told him that my father worked for the city and I wondered if he knew him. I told him my father’s name was Bob Hunt, and his jaw dropped,” Hunt told the newspaper. “He said, ‘That’s the man I’ve been talking about.'” The actress then went on to work for Northwestern University Hospital for five years, making her one of several surprising celebrity nurses with a heartwarming story who balanced caregiving with creative ambition.

Tina Turner

Before she became a musical icon, Tina Turner (whose birth name is Anna Mae Bullock) held a very different job. After graduating from high school, the “What’s Love Got to Do with It” singer worked as a nurse’s aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She had recently given birth to her first child and was trying to make ends meet, though she’d always had a passion for singing. “I was planning on going to school to be a practical nurse because the club thing was still a bit shaky,” Turner said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Then Ike [Turner, her ex-husband] lost his singer and asked me if I would sing.” Though her music career took center stage, her time as a nurse’s aide earns her a spot among these inspiring celebrity nurses.

Robin Quivers

It takes a strong person to work with shock jock Howard Stern, so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that his radio sidekick Robin Quivers once worked as a nurse. Not only that, but Quivers was a nurse in the U.S. Air Force, where she eventually held the rank of captain. The Baltimore native received her nursing degree from the University of Maryland. But, according to an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Quivers didn’t feel completely fulfilled by the job and longed for a career change. That’s when she began taking courses at the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland, paving the way for her work in radio. Her impressive shift from military nurse to media personality makes her one of the most accomplished celebrity nurses on this list.

Luann de Lesseps

If you think Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps only turns up the drama for the cameras, think again. The reality TV personality has a pretty fascinating past, including a short career as a nurse. “I became a nurse because I fell in love with the elderly,” de Lesseps told Woman’s Day. “Then I became a model, moved to Italy and worked for Italian television. I have a whole past.” She points to the time in her life spent as a nurse to prove to people that she’s more than someone who married a French aristocrat and became a Countess. “I think people think, oh, the Countess, and they have these preconceived notions that I’m this stuck-up countess—it’s so not true,” she says.

Kate Gosselin

When America first met Kate Gosselin, she was chasing after eight kids on the reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8. Before that, however, she was a nurse. Specifically, Gosselin worked as a labor and delivery room nurse after finishing nursing school at Pennsylvania’s Reading Hospital and Medical Center. She left the job when she and then-husband Jon Gosselin started their family with twins Cara and Mady. While she renewed her nursing license, according to the Daily News, Gosselin hasn’t returned to hospital work. Even though she stepped away from the field, her background as a labor and delivery nurse earns her a place among these celebrity nurses.

Julie Walters

Dame Julie Walters has captured the hearts of moviegoers and television viewers for decades through roles in the iconic Harry Potter film franchise (as Mrs. Weasley), Mamma Mia! and Billy Elliot. However, Walters wasn’t always an actress (though she pretty much always aspired to be). According to the Los Angeles Times, she enrolled in nursing school at her mother’s request. But midway through her coursework, she realized she couldn’t see herself being a nurse forever. “I was working on a ward where a sister [a nurse] was 67,” recalls Walters. “She still lived in the nurses’ home. I said, ‘Oh, my God, that could be me.'” She applied for a drama program at university in Manchester, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sonya Eddy

Soap opera fans know actress Sonya Eddy as fictional nurse Epiphany Johnson on General Hospital. But once upon a time, Eddy was a nurse in real life as well. A graduate of the University of California, Davis, she also became a licensed vocational nurse (LVN). According to Nursing.org, an LVN can provide “basic medical care to the sick, injured and disabled under the supervision of doctors and/or registered nurses (RNs).” Eddy scored her first acting credit on The Drew Carey Show. Interestingly, she has played a nurse on television more than once. Aside from her General Hospital role, she also portrayed a nurse on Beverly Hills, 90210, High School High and Arli$$.

Kim Zolciak-Biermann

Today, she’s a reality star and mom to six kids, but back in the day, Kim Zolciak-Biermann was a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in both Georgia, where she resides now, and Connecticut. “The day I graduated nursing school I was so damn proud of myself,” she wrote on social media. The former Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member even once put her medical knowledge to use on the Bravo series, when she set out to prove that costar Phaedra Parks was lying about when she got pregnant and how far along she was. The storyline revolved around Parks insisting that her ob-gyn was getting ready to induce her before her eighth month of pregnancy. Zolciak-Biermann stated a doctor wouldn’t induce a woman that early because an important protein has yet to develop in the child’s lungs. Who knew?

Adrian Holmes

You’ve seen him on television shows like Arrow, Supernatural and Continuum, but Adrian Holmes is more than a busy working actor. Following in the footsteps of his nurse mother, Holmes initially pursued medicine as a fallback career. He studied nursing at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and while doing so, worked in several different health care areas, including obstetrics, pediatrics and the spine unit, according to the Vancouver Courier. He found the spine unit to be the most difficult. “I saw so many young people coming in with these recreational injuries,” says Holmes. “However, what it does is it humbles you and it really makes you appreciate every little thing that you have. I catch myself when I complain now.”

Jennifer Stone

Jennifer Stone won over fans when she starred for five years as Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place. Today, Stone continues to act, but she’s added something very rewarding to her resume: real-life registered nurse. She took to Instagram to share the news of her new profession. “A very good friend of mine … pointed out to me that today is #worldhealthday,” she wrote in her post. “It is also the day I went from a volunteer, then a student nurse, and now an RN resident. I just hope to live up to all of the amazing health care providers on the front lines now as I get ready to join them.”

Calamity Jane

Finally, a historical figure who was also a nurse: Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane. Although this famous American frontierswoman didn’t receive schooling or a nurse’s license, WorkingNurse.com reports that Calamity Jane took care of the sick during typhoid and black diphtheria outbreaks. She also allegedly cared for eight gold miners in Deadwood, South Dakota, during a smallpox outbreak in 1878; five of the eight survived, and the town’s doctor said that likely wouldn’t have been possible without her help. In Deadwood, she was supposedly referred to as “a perfect angel sent from heaven when any of the boys was sick.”

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Sources:

• Chicago Tribune: “Hunt takes unusual path to Hollywood”
• Ebony: “Tina Turner: The Shocking Story of a Battered Wife Who Escaped to Fame and Fortune”
• Rolling Stone: “Tina Turner: Queen of Rock & Roll”
• Department of the Air Force: “Quivers, Robin Ophelia, Capt”
• Baltimore Sun: “This DJ Is OK: Baltimore Native Robin Quivers Talks Abuse, Illness and Survival”
• Women’s Day: “‘Real Housewives of New York’ Star Luann D’Agostino Reveals What She’s Really Like Off-Camera”
• NY Daily News: “Paging Nurse Kate! Kate Gosselin renews nursing license as possible fallback career”
• Los Angeles Times: “Classic Hollywood: Julie Walters keeps her ears perked in ‘Indian Summers’”
• Soap Opera Digest: “5 Facts About GH’s Sonya Eddy (Epiphany)”
• Nurse Journal: “Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) Program Overview”
• Starcasm.net: “Is Kim Zolciak really a nurse? Photo of her LPN nursing license”
• Vancouver Is Awesome: “Adrian Holmes only believes in ‘falling forward'”
• Deadline: “Coping With COVID-19 Crisis: Actress-Turned-Nurse Jennifer Stone Talks About Going From ‘Wizards Of Waverly Place’ To The Frontline Of The Pandemic”
• Instagram: Jennifer Stone
• Working Nurse: “Nursing in the Wild West: The true tales of Calamity Jane and Nellie Cashman”