Judy Carne Dies: 'Laugh In' 'Sock It to Me' Comedienne Was 76

Judy Carne, who became a household name as the "Sock It to Me" girl on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died after a bout with pneumonia. She was at 76.

The British-born comedian and actress was a member of "Laugh-In's" wacky and edgy comedy troupe that became a pop culture phenomenon when it premiered on NBC in 1968, reported The New York Times. Her career, though, later went into a tailspin because of drug arrests and a serious auto accident.

"A fairly successful television actress when she joined the cast of 'Laugh-In' in 1968, as the Sock It To Me girl, Judy Carne became the most popular person on the show for her zany, daffy, mini-skirted comic persona, continually getting doused with a bucket of water, or subjected to some other humiliation, every time she uttered the words 'Sock it to me,'" said The Telegraph.

"Judy Carne remained with the show for two years but left in the middle of the third series complaining that it had become 'a big, bloody bore,' though it was noted that her disenchantment coincided with the emergence of Goldie Hawn as the show's female star."

Carne had a rocky marriage to actor Burt Reynolds from 1963 to 1965, and in her book "Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside: The Bittersweet Saga of the Sock-It-To-Me Girl," she admitted to several affairs along with her fight with drug addiction, said People magazine.

Born Joyce Audrey Botterill in Kingsthorpe, England in 1939, Carne started acting as a child and appeared in the comedy "a Pair of Briefs" in 1961, noted The Telegraph. She went on to build a television career before "Laugh-In" and after the comedy variety show, she did television, movies and theater appearance in England.

Carne told People magazine earlier that a 1978 auto accident in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that nearly took her life caused her to view things differently, noted the New York Times.

"I lost sight of myself in the last few years," Carne told People after the accident in which she broke her neck. "My whole life has been extremes. It took me near death to see the light at the end of the tunnel. … I guess this is the ultimate sock-it-to-me."

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