Emmy-winning 'M.A.S.H.' star Loretta Swit dies at 87
- By Web Desk -
- May 31, 2025
American TV actor 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 pioneering hit TV series ‘M.A.S.H.’, has died at the age of 87.
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Publicist Harlan Boll says Loretta Swit died Friday at her home in New York City, likely from natural causes.
Swit, with Alan Alda, was the longest-serving cast members on ‘M.A.S.H.’, which was based on Robert Altman’s 1970 film, which 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. The two-and-a-half-hour finale on Feb. 28, 1983, lured over 100 million viewers, the most-watched episode of any scripted series ever.
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, the daughter of Polish immigrants, Swit 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 the role of ‘Hot Lips’.
She would regularly return to the 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.