Posted on 05/30/2025 12:50:21 PM PDT by DFG
Loretta Swit, the actress and animal activist forever known for her pioneering turn as the disciplined Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the acclaimed CBS sitcom M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87.
According to a police report, Swit died just after midnight Friday of suspected natural causes at her home in New York City, her publicist, Harlan Boll, announced.
Swit won two Emmys for her portrayal of the Army nurse — she was nominated 10 times, every year the show was on the air except the first — and appeared on 240 of the series’ 251 episodes during its sensational 11-season run.
Adapting the character from Sally Kellerman‘s film portrayal of the lusty powerhouse, Swit was one of only two actors (along with Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce) to have a role in both the pilot and series finale of M*A*S*H.
That finale, which aired Feb. 28, 1983, attracted a record of nearly 106 million viewers, and a 35-second kiss between Swit and Alda during that episode has been called the most expensive in television history, based on its length and the ad revenue per minute.
As a tough, by-the-book major, Swit’s Houlihan was a rare strong woman on television. “She was [unique] at the time and in her time, which was the ’50s, when [the Korean War] was happening,” Swit said in a 2004 discussion for the TV Academy Foundation website The Interviews: An Oral History of Television.
“And she became even more unique, I think, because we allowed her to continue to grow — we watched her evolve. I don’t think that’s ever been done in quite that way.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Right!
Yup—> nailed it!!!
When Swit arrived in Hollywood in 1969, she performed guest roles in various television series, including Hawaii Five-O (her first TV credit), Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, and Mannix.
Amazingly, her husband’s name (1983-1995) was Dennis Holahan!
I know what the difference is.
Barbara Stanwick played a strong female character that was not trying to be a man. The later female characters had chips on their shoulder due to feminism and were trying to be a man, or “better” than a man.
Men want strong women in their natural female roles. Its where they excel.
Men want strong women in their natural female roles. Its where they excel.
The late Phyllis Schlafly was a perfect example of this. She accomplished a heck of lot more in her life than the feminists who mocked her.
“My dad never missed it and he served in France during the Korean War”
My dad as well....he did a tour of Korea and two in Vietnam and he watched Mash religiously and laughed his butt off....which is why in part as a kid I didn’t see the left slant.
Agreed....Col. Flagg was arguably the best reoccurring character the show ever had.
The movie was surprisingly like the book.🤔
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