M*A*S*H star Loretta Swit dead at 87
Loretta Swit, who was best known for playing Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan on the classic sitcom M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87.
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Loretta Swit, who was best known for playing Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the classic sitcom M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87.
The beloved actor’ publicist, Harlan Boll, confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Post reported.
Swit died of suspected natural causes early Friday morning at her home in New York City, according to Boll.
Besides starring in M*A*S*H from its pilot episode in September 1972 to its finale in February 1983, Swit also appeared alongside Tyne Daly, 79, on the pilot episode of the police drama Cagney & Lacey in 1981.
However, due to contractual obligations that she had to the Korean War sitcom, Swit was forced to depart Cagney & Lacey when it was picked up by CBS one year later.
Born on Nov. 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey, Swit studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York before moving to Los Angeles in 1970.
She landed small gigs on classic TV shows like Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O and Cade’s County.
Swit thanked her appearance on Cade’s County in 1971 for providing her the opportunity to star in M*A*S*H one year later.
“I had done a guest-starring role on Glenn Ford’s CBS series, ‘Cade’s County,’ which was short-lived, but it was a wonderful role,” the actor said during an interview in 2004. “The network people, as well as Fox, knew about me, and when the part came up, they thought of me.”
She landed small gigs on classic TV shows like Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O and Cade’s County.
Swit thanked her appearance on Cade’s County in 1971 for providing her the opportunity to star in M*A*S*H one year later.
“I had done a guest-starring role on Glenn Ford’s CBS series, ‘Cade’s County,’ which was short-lived, but it was a wonderful role,” the actor said during an interview in 2004. “The network people, as well as Fox, knew about me, and when the part came up, they thought of me.”
M*A*S*H, which also starred Alan Alda (Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce), Jamie Farr (Maxwell Q. Klinger), Wayne Rogers (Trapper John McIntyre) and Harry Morgan (Sherman T. Potter), followed key personnel in the US Army’s Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.
The CBS series ran for an impressive 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983, and Swit was awarded two Emmys for her performance.
She also appeared in 240 of the show’s 251 episodes, which was the most of any character besides Alda’s “Hawkeye” Pierce, who appeared in every episode.
The series was based on the movie of the same name, which came out in 1970.
Sally Kellerman, who played the original Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the 1970 movie, died in 2022 at the age of 84.
Once, when asked about the impact that M*A*S*H had on American audiences, Swit mentioned a telegram she had received from a fan.
“It said, ‘Dear M*A*S*H folk: You made me laugh. You made me cry. You made me feel. Thank you.’ I’ve never forgotten that,” she recalled years before her passing. “That’s one hell of a legacy.”
This story was originally published in The New York Post
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