{"id":6854,"date":"2025-06-03T07:55:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6854"},"modified":"2025-06-03T07:55:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:55:02","slug":"loretta-swit-aka-hot-lips-houlihan-on-mash-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6854","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Swit AKA \u201cHot Lips\u201d Houlihan on \u2018M*A*S*H\u2019 dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"

She came into our living rooms as \u201cHot Lips\u201d \u2014 but she left a legacy as Margaret.<\/p>\n

Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actress who brought heart, fire, and unforgettable humanity to Major Margaret Houlihan on MASH*, has passed away at age 87.<\/p>\n

Her publicist, Harlan Boll, confirmed she died Friday at her home in New York City, likely of natural causes.<\/p>\n

Swit and Alan Alda were the longest-serving cast members on the legendary CBS sitcom MASH, which aired from 1972 to 1983 and was based on Robert Altman\u2019s 1970 film \u2014 itself an adaptation of a novel by Richard Hooker, the pen name of Dr. H. Richard Hornberger.<\/p>\n

Over 11 years and all but 11 episodes, Swit helped guide MASH through stories far deeper than its comedic surface, tackling themes like PTSD, racism, and sexism \u2014 and in the process, fighting for something bigger than just laughs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I liked, with Loretta\u2019s prodding, was every time I had a chance to write for her character, we\u2019d get away from the Hot Lips angle and find out more about who Margaret was. She became more of a real person,\u201d Alan Alda told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s finale on February 28, 1983, still stands as a TV milestone \u2014 a two-and-a-half-hour goodbye watched by more than 100 million people, the most ever for a scripted series episode.<\/p>\n

Born i New Jersey
\nSwit was born in Passaic, New Jersey, the daughter of Polish immigrants. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and spent years touring in stage productions before arriving in Hollywood in 1969. Bit parts in shows like Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza, and Mission: Impossible followed \u2014 and then came 1972, when she was asked to audition for the role that would define her.<\/p>\n

But Swit wasn\u2019t satisfied with how that role was originally written.<\/p>\n

In the original MASH* film, the character of Houlihan was flat \u2014 a cold, rule-obsessed nurse whose most intimate moment was broadcast to the whole camp as a cruel joke. The men called her \u201cHot Lips,\u201d a nickname Swit came to despise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get that nicknames come from affection, but to me, it felt like an insult,\u201d she told Fox News Digital. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t just a body part; she was a major in the U.S. Army, and she deserved respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushed the writers
\nSwit began actively working to evolve the character \u2014 and succeeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my perseverance probably became very annoying,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I felt it was important for the women out there who were supporting our country. I kept telling the writers, \u2018She\u2019s so much more than this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s movement of the 1970s helped pave the way for change on-screen, but much of Houlihan\u2019s transformation came directly from Swit herself.<\/p>\n

She pushed the writers to move away from the \u201cone-joke\u201d version of her character and instead build someone real \u2014 a layered, vulnerable, and strong military woman who grew from her experiences.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 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,\u201d she told Suzy Kalter, author of The Complete Book of \u2018MASH\u2019*.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo oversimplify it, I took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it. I didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her love for acting never faded. Swit returned to theater regularly, starring on Broadway in Same Time, Next Year in 1975 and The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1986. She later appeared in Mame with the North Carolina Theatre in 2003, and even in 2010, at age 72, she was still commanding the stage in the romantic comedy Amorous Crossing. Her final film role came in 2019, when she appeared in the faith-based drama Play the Flute.<\/p>\n

Married once
\nSwit was once romantically linked to musician Bill Hudson. In 1983, she married actor Dennis Holahan, who later appeared on MASH as Per Johannsen \u2014 a Swedish diplomat who shared a brief on-screen romance with her character. The couple divorced in 1995.<\/p>\n

A devoted animal rights advocate, Swit was also passionate voice for animal welfare. She became a vegetarian early in life and transitioned to a vegan lifestyle in 1981, long before it became mainstream.<\/p>\n

Now, she is mourned by countless fans \u2014 as well as by the many cast and crew members who came to know and love her during the unforgettable years of MASH.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alan Alda took to X (formerly Twitter) to remember his longtime co-star:<\/p>\n

\u201cShe worked hard in showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one-joke sexist stereotype into a real person \u2014 with real feelings and ambitions,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for fans who grew up watching MASH*, Margaret Houlihan \u2014 not \u201cHot Lips\u201d \u2014 is the name that will live on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She came into our living rooms as \u201cHot Lips\u201d \u2014 but she left a legacy as Margaret. Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actress who brought heart, fire, and unforgettable humanity to Major Margaret Houlihan on MASH*, has passed away at age 87. Her publicist, Harlan Boll, confirmed she died Friday at her home in New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6855,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854\/revisions\/6855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}