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 ...
The first Colonel was Henry Blake.
Aaash yesssss!! Nurse Dish was a hottie. Too bad she wasn’t anything more than an extra.
Her, like Hot Lips hairstyle wasn’t era appropriate but the seventies was a good time for the “natural look”
Yeah her character went downhill when Burns left it.
Being just one of the characters who orbited around Hawkeye deminished her.
That’s why when “Justified” ended it’s run after five seasons I was good with
Theres just many stories you can pull out of a marshall with unfinished business with family and foes(sometimes at the same time) back in a small mining town in Kentucky.
I think they tried to revive it but I haven’t seen any episodes.
Respect and honor for your father.
Yes, the Cold War counts. Very few served in three ‘hot’ wars, fewer still after three in the fourth cold one. Truly a generation of Warriors! Happenstance of birth, and committed Patriots throughout.
God bless him. Wow.
RIP Loretta Swit. I don’t recall her ever issuing her opinion on any political issue.
R.I.P., Margaret.
Not many went from the movie to the show. “Radar” and “Spearchucker” are the notables.
The show was riding anti Vietnam war sentiment. After a while that well ran dry and they started getting into personal issues. The show started featuring more indoor sets, and the difficulties of wars was just a backdrop.
I have read the original book of which the movie and TV show was based. Much different from both movie and show..
Now I look at the show as a preachy one sided look at war as a terrible thing. And to them, the U.S. military was the root cause of the problems of war. The whole entertainment business is protected by the military and all those ingrates kept on attacking the US military.
It morphed from the Korean War into the one in Vietnam.
RIP. I also like watching her in game shows like Password Plus and the $25000 Pyramid as she was a very good player.
I think The Omega Man probably sits at the apex of the B-movie horror genre, but Race with the Devil is quite good.
Oh, so sad about this. I love MASH.
Most of the later seasons suffered from Alda's increased creative control and preachy monologues. Good thing there were talented and appealing supporting cast members and guests, that was what diluted the Alan Alda - Mike Farrell drivel.
“Yes it was funny, but a kid I was too naive to see it however as an adult I realized it was actually insulting the military.”
The author of the book, Richard Hooker (under the pen name of H. Richard Hornberger Jr.) was a surgeon in a MASH unit during the Korean war. He was politically conservative, and he hated the series, what they did to his novel, which wasn’t an anti-war book. He had issues with the movie too, but he preferred it over the TV series.
“Not to mention Alan Alda has always been a flaming lib.”
He was a flaming lib, but not obnoxiously so. Mike Farrel (BJ) was far more leftist than Alda cared for. One time while being interviewed on the set of MASH by TV Guide magazine, Farrell happened to stroll by. Alda called out to him, “Hey! I hear you’re running for the politburo”
Rest in peace, Loretta.
****
I admit, I like the movie better than the show but I watched them all.
With some irony, my first enlistment at age 17 was in the Army Reserve 313th M.A.S.H. in Vancouver, Washington. It no longer exists. I was a truck driver and fuel handler down in the motor pool with Sgt. Rizzo.
Yes, it was just like the TV show. The docs and surgeons were boozers. The nurses were floozies. The commander turned a blind eye to everything because he was a colonel surrounded by colonels.
Everyone in between (us minions) just tried to do our jobs.
The book, written by pen name Richard Hooker is mostly just truth. He just called out a lot of silliness in the Army. If Soldiers don’t complain, they’re not happy, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hooker_(author)
He wasn’t necessarily anti-Army. He just exposed. All Soldiers are generally anti-war, if war is for no good purpose.
The writers must've loved Harry, he got some of the best lines.
IIRC, Farrell was one of the early voices of the climate change "message". So yeah, Communist leanings.
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