Beloved Sitcom Star, 81, Unrecognizable in Rare Public Appearance originally appeared on Parade.
An iconic star from the 1960s through the 1990s made a rare public appearance over the weekend for a good cause.
Shelley Fabares, 81, and her husband, Mike Farrell, 86, were out and about over the weekend to support a cause that is important to them.
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A post shared by Mike Farrell (@mike_farrell_official)
In the photo Farrell posted to Instagram, they are posing with Tracy Rice, the Vice President, Development, for Public Counsel for Death Penalty Focus, a group that is “committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots and political organizing, media outreach, and domestic and international coalition building,” according to the DPF website.
Farrell has been president of the DPF board of directors for over 20 years, traveling the country “speaking, writing and lobbying against the death penalty for over three decades.”
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Farrell is a two-time Emmy-nominated M*A*S*H alum, starring as Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt for eight of its 11 years on the air. Fabares is best known for starring on The Donna Reed Show as a teenager in the 1950s and 1960s and later on Coach in the 1990s, for which she also earned two Emmy nominations. She also sang the 1962 No. 1 hit “Johnny Angel.”
The pair met in 1970 but reconnected many years later and married in 1984. In a 1991 interview with People, Fabares said that “expanded [her] whole world” in terms of his humanitarian work all over the world, while Farrell said that Fabares made him “much more fun.”
“There is a light inside her that is just magical. I find her a constant source of rejuvenation,” Farrell added, to which Fabares replied, “Mike grounds me, and I think I pull him out sometimes. It’s a nice mix.”
As for them as a couple, Fabares’ on-screen Coach husband Craig T. Nelson had this to say of Farrell and Fabares, “The typical show-business rules do not apply to them. They have a superior intellect, and they really are nice people.”
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Beloved Sitcom Star, 81, Unrecognizable in Rare Public Appearance first appeared on Parade on Jun 9, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
