Loretta Swit: 'M*A*S*H*' Star & Emmy Award Winner Dead at 87
Loretta Swit, the Emmy Award-winning actress who portrayed Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the groundbreaking television series "M*A*S*H*," died Friday at her New York City home at 87 years old.
Harlan Boll, the star's publicist, confirmed Swit passed away from natural causes in the early morning hours of May 30, shortly after midnight.
Swit earned widespread recognition for her role as the demanding head nurse of a mobile Army surgical hospital during the Korean War on the CBS series that aired from 1972 to 1983. She won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1980 and 1982, along with ten consecutive nominations throughout the show's run.
The actress appeared in 240 of the show's 251 episodes during its 11-season run. Along with Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce, Swit was one of only two actors to appear in both the pilot and series finale. The latter of which attracted more than 100 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode of any scripted series in television history.
Swit transformed the character of Major Houlihan from Sally Kellerman's one-dimensional portrayal in Robert Altman's 1970 film into a complex, evolving character on television. The growing feminist movement of the 1970s influenced her decision, but much of the change stemmed from the actress' own input with the show's writers.
"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 author Suzy Kalter. She emphasized treating the character's development as continuous rather than episodic, saying she "took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it."
Born Loretta Jane Szwed in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1937 to Polish immigrants, Swit studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before moving to Hollywood in 1969. Beyond "M*A*S*H*," she appeared in numerous television shows including "Gunsmoke," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission: Impossible," and "Bonanza."
Swit also maintained an active theater career, starring on Broadway in "Same Time, Next Year" in 1975 and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" in 1986. She was a passionate animal rights advocate, establishing the SwitHeart Animal Alliance in 2016 and serving as a spokesperson for Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, as per the Hollywood Reporter.
