Loretta Swit, who brought Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan to life on the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H, has died at 87.
Swit passed away Friday at her home in New York City, her publicist Harlan Boll told CBS News. She is believed to have died of natural causes.
The New Jersey-born actress appeared on M*A*S*H for all 11 seasons and earned 10 Emmy nominations, and won two, for her portrayal of the sharp-witted Army nurse. She was also nominated for four Golden Globes.
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The hit series, which aired from 1972 to 1983 and followed the staff of an Army hospital during the Korean War, propelled Swit to stardom, and her role helped pave the way for more women to portray empowered characters on TV, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Swit and Alan Alda—who starred as the surgeon Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce—were the only two cast members to appear in both the show’s September 1972 pilot and the February 1983 finale, which drew a record 106 million total viewers. The two-and-a-half hour episode, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, included a 35-second kiss between Swit and Alda, and was watched in over 60 percent of U.S. homes, according to CNN. It is still the most-watched television broadcast (not including Super Bowls) in U.S. history. The cast remained friends long after the series ended.
“We might as well be joined at the hip!” Swit told Fox News in 2017. “We see each other quite frequently.”
Born in 1937, Swit dreamed of becoming an actor from a young age and earned a degree from New York City’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She enjoyed a vibrant stage career, making her Broadway debut in 1975’s Same Time, Next Year and later stepping into the role originally played by Cleo Laine in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Swit guest-starred on various TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, The Love Boat, Mannix, Bonanza and Batman: The Animated Series, according to People.
She also appeared in films and TV movies, including S.O.B., The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Race With the Devil, Beer, Whoops Apocalypse, and Forest Warrior.
Swit met actor Dennis Holahan on the set of M*A*S*H in 1983. They married later that year but divorced in 1995.
Swit was a passionate animal welfare advocate, serving on the boards of Actors and Others for Animals and The Wildlife Waystation, as well as acting as a spokesperson for the Humane Society.
After a 21-year absence from the screen, Swit appeared in 2021’s Play the Flute, a religious drama focused on a church youth group, which became her final acting credit.
