Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Major Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the hit TV series MASH, has died. She was 87.
Publicist Harlan Boll says Swit died Friday at her home in New York City, likely from natural causes.
Swit and Alan Alda were the longest-serving cast members on MASH, which was based on Robert Altman’s 1970 film, that was itself based on a novel by Richard Hooker, the pseudonym of H. Richard Hornberger.
The CBS show aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, revolving around life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which gave the show its name. Over 100 milion viewers tuned in for the two-and-a-half-hour finale on Feb. 28, 1983, making it the most-watched episode of any scripted series ever.
Rolling Stone magazine put MASH at No. 25 of the best TV shows of all time, while Time Out put it at No. 34. It won a Peabody Award in 1975 “for the depth of its humour and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war.”
Creating ‘a real person’ on screen
In Altman’s 1970 film, Houlihan was a one-dimensional character — a prickly, rules-bound head nurse who was regularly tormented by male colleagues, who gave her the nickname “Hot Lips.” In the movie, her intimate moments were broadcast to the entire camp after somebody planted a microphone under her bed.
Sally Kellerman played Houlihan in the movie version and Swit took it over for TV, eventually deepening and creating her into a much fuller character. Her sexuality was played down and she wasn’t called “Hot Lips” in the show’s later years.
The growing awareness of feminism in the ’70s spurred Houlihan’s transformation from caricature to real person, but a lot of the changes were due to Swit’s influence on the scriptwriters.
“Around the second or third year I decided to try to play her as a real person, in an intelligent fashion, even if it meant hurting the jokes,” Swit told Suzy Kalter, author of The Complete Book of MASH.
“To oversimplify it, I took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it. I didn’t go into the next episode as if it were a different character in a different play. She was a character in constant flux; she never stopped developing.”
Swit a mainstay on long-running series
MASH wasn’t an instant hit. It finished its first season in 46th place, out of 75 network TV series, but it nabbed nine Emmy nominations. It was rewarded with a better time slot for its sophomore season, paired on Saturday nights with All in the Family, then TV’s highest-rated show. At the 1974 Emmys, it was crowned best comedy, with Alda winning as best comedy actor.
The series also survived despite cast churn. In addition to Swit and Alda, the first season featured Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff. Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell and David Ogden Stiers would later be added, while Jamie Farr and William Christopher had expanded roles.
“Loretta Swit’s portrayal of Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan was groundbreaking — bringing heart, humour, and strength to one of television comedy’s most enduring roles. Her talent extended well beyond that iconic character, with acclaimed work on both stage and screen that showcased her intelligence, versatility, and passion,” National Comedy Center executive director Journey Gunderson said in a statement.
Swit appeared in all but 11 episodes of the series, which lasted nearly four times longer than the Korean War itself, exploring issues like PTSD, sexism and racism. Swit pushed for a better representation for women.
Wrote key speech for series finale
The series ended on a happy note for Houlihan, who spends much of the finale debating whether she wants to head to Tokyo or Belgium for her next overseas post. Ultimately she opts to return to America to work at a hospital, citing her father — a career Army man.
Swit didn’t personally agree that was the best decision for a military-minded official. “I didn’t think that was correct for my Margaret,” she told Yahoo Entertainment in 2023. “I think her next move was Vietnam. So I didn’t agree with that, but that’s what they wanted her to do.”
But the actor did get to write the speech that Houlihan delivers to her fellow nurses on their final night together, in which she says: “It’s been an honour and privilege to have worked with you. And I’m very, very proud to have known you.”
“I was consumed with writing that. And I still get letters from women all over the world who became nurses because of Margaret Houlihan. To have contributed to someone’s life like that is remarkable,” she told Yahoo Entertainment.
After the TV series, Swit became a vocal animal welfare activist, selling SwitHeart perfume and her memoir through her official website, with proceeds benefiting various animal-related nonprofit groups.
In 1983, she married actor Dennis Holahan, whom she’d met when he was a guest star on MASH. They divorced in 1995.
Swit was born in New Jersey Born in Passaic, N.J., the daughter of Polish immigrants. She enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then paid her dues for years in touring productions.
In 1969, she arrived in Hollywood and was soon seen in series such as Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible and Bonanza. Then in 1972, she got her big break when she was asked to audition for MASH.
“I did major roles on television for about a year and then there was this pilot they were going to do, based on [the movie] MASH, which I’d never seen,” Swit told CBC’s First Edition in 1997. “Suddenly, I was in a series.”
She would regularly return to theatre, starring on Broadway in 1975 in Same Time, Next Year and The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1986. She was in Amorous Crossing, a romantic comedy, at Alhambra Theatre & Dining in 2010 and in North Carolina Theatre’s production of Mame in 2003.
