Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Major Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the pioneering hit TV series M.A.S.H., has died. She was 87.
Publicist Harlan Boll says Swit died on Friday at her home in New York City, likely from natural causes.
M.A.S.H.,” which was based on Robert Altman’s 1970 film, which was itself based on a novel by Richard Hooker.
Loretta Swit with her M.A.S.H co-stars at the People’s Choice Awards in 1982. (Photo: Doug Pizac/AP)The show aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, revolving around life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which gave the show its name.
The two-and-a-half-hour finale on February 28, 1983, had over 100 million viewers, the most-watched episode of any scripted series ever.
Rolling Stone magazine put M.A.S.H. at number 25 on its list of the best TV shows of all time.
Sally Kellerman played Houlihan, nicknamed “Hot Lips” in the movie version and Swit took it over for TV, eventually deepening and creating her into a much fuller character.
Her sexuality was played down and she wasn’t even called “Hot Lips” in the later years.
The growing awareness of feminism in the ’70s spurred Houlihan’s transformation from caricature to real person, but a lot of the change was due to Swit’s influence on the scriptwriters.
“Around the second or third year I decided to try to play her as a real person, in an intelligent fashion, even if it meant hurting the jokes,” Swit told Suzy Kalter, author of The Complete Book of M.A.S.H.
“Loretta Swit’s portrayal of Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan was groundbreaking — bringing heart, humor, and strength to one of television comedy’s most enduring roles. Her talent extended well beyond that iconic character, with acclaimed work on both stage and screen that showcased her intelligence, versatility, and passion,” National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson said in a statement.
Swit appeared in all but 11 episodes of the series, which lasted nearly four times longer than the Korean War itself.
It explored issues like PTSD, sexism and racism.
“One of the things I liked, with Loretta’s prodding, was every time I had a chance to write for her character, we’d get away from the Hot Lips angle and find out more about who Margaret was. She became more of a real person,” co-star Alan Alda told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018.
After the TV series, Swit became a vocal animal welfare activist.
In 1983, she married actor Dennis Holahan, whom she’d met when he was a guest star on M.A.S.H. They divorced in 1995.
With AP
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