Actress Loretta Swit, best known for her Emmy winning role as head nurse Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan on the iconic television series M*A*S*H*, has died at the age of 87.
Swit’s publicist, Harlan Boll, confirmed to the Associated Press that the actress died of natural causes at her New York City home on Friday (May 30). Swit’s role on M*A*S*H*, a show revolving around the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War based on a 1970 film, which itself was based on a Richard Hooker novel, won her two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1980 and 1982 and earned her 10 total nominations.
Swit and Alan Alda, who played main character Captain Benjamin Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce, were the two longest-serving cast members of M*A*S*H*, which ran on CBS from 1972 to 1983.
“Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins,” Alda wrote on his X account Friday. “But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person — with real feelings and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script came out listing her character not as Hot Lips, but as Margaret. Loretta made the most of her time here.”
Swit’s other roles included the films The Best Christmas Ever, S.O.B., Race With the Devil, Beer, Whoops Apocalypse and Forest Warrior, as well as the television shows Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, The Love Boat, Mannix, Bonanza and Batman: The Animated Series.
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