Loretta Swit

By Joe Lombardi From Daily Voice

Loretta Swit, who starred on one of the most popular shows in television history, has died.

Swit, who played the charming and colorful head nurse Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the CBS smash hit M*A*S*H, was age 87 and resided in New York City, where she died early Friday afternoon, May 30. She was a native of Passaic, New Jersey.

A cause of death has not been announced.

After performing in theatrical productions, including on Broadway, Swit moved to Hollywood in 1969 and appeared on several successful TV series, including Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, and Mannix.

Her big break then came in 1972, when she was cast in one of the key roles on the comedy/drama series centered on the Korean War, M*A*S*H, an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The show had an 11-year run on CBS.

Other M*A*S*H stars included Alan Alda (as Hawkeye Pierce), Gary Burghoff (as Radar Reilly), Jamie Farr (as Maxwell Klinger), Mike Farrell (as B.J. Hunnicutt), and Larry Linville (as Frank Burns).

The final episode of M*A*S*H, titled Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, aired in February 1983, and with approximately 106 million viewers (about 60 percent of American households) remains the most-watched scripted TV episode in US history.

During the show's run, Swit won two Emmy awards and was nominated for outstanding performance by a supporting actress in a comedy each year from 1974 to 1983.