Remembering Loretta Swit

Emmy-winning actress Loretta Swit, best known for the role of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on classic TV series M*A*S*H, died shortly after midnight, Friday, May 30 from natural causes. Swit was 87.

New Jersey native Swit, born Loretta Jane Szwed, began performing on stage at the age of 7 and went on to train as a singer at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and studied acting in Manhattan with Gene Frankel. Swit's first TV appearances came in 1969 with the first of many appearances on Hawaii Five-O, followed by guest roles on Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, Bonanza and Young Doctor Kildare. Swit's first film appearance was a small role in Deadhead Miles in 1972, followed by a more substantial role in Stand Up and Be Counted.

1972 marked a major year in her career as she was cast in the TV adaptation of the 1970 dark comedy M*A*S*H, taking over the role of "Hot Lips" from Sally Kellerman, who played the character in the film. Over the course of eleven seasons, Swit was nominated for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series ten times -- every season but the first -- winning twice, with audiences watching the character evolve from the cartoonish villain of the early seasons to a real human with real feelings as demonstrated in several stand-out episodes including Season 4's "Mail Call", Season 5's "Bug Out" and "The Nurses" (where she gives a riveting monologue explaining how she feels ostracized by the other nurses), and a Season 6 episodes in which she and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) are trapped in a hut amid shelling and end up sleeping together, which changed the course of their relationship for the rest of the series, although she still had to be the 'bad guy' as that was the structure of the show.

During her time on M*A*S*H, she still made appearances on other TV shows and TV movies including Ironside, Love, American Style, Police Woman, Petrocelli, The Last Day, It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman!, Rickles (as "Hot Lips"), Good Heavens, The Hostage Heart, Supertrain, Mirror, Mirror, Friendships, Secrets and Lies, Valentine, The Kid from Nowhere and Games Mother Never Taught You. She also had roles in the films Freebie and the Bean and Blake Edwards' S.O.B.

In 1981, two years before M*A*S*H ended, Swit starred as Detective Christine Cagney in the TV movie Cagney and Lacey, but was unable to continue when it was picked up to series due to her commitment to M*A*S*H. The role was taken over by Sharon Gless.

Following M*A*S*H, Swit did not appear in a regular role on any TV series, but she did continue to make guest appearances on series including The Love Boat, Dolly, Murder, She Wrote, Burke's Law, and Diagnosis Murder. TV movie credits include First Affair, Emmy nominated The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Execution, Miracle at Moreaux, Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story, 14 Going on 30, A Matter of Principal, Hell Hath No Fury, A Killer Among Friends, and The Big Battalions. Feature film credits include Beer, Whoops Apocalypse, Forest Warrior, Beach Movie and Play the Flute.

Swit was also a theatre actress, touring in the 1967 production of Any Wednesday, and playing one of the Pigeon Sisters in a Los Angeles production of The Odd Couple, starring Don Rickles and Ernest Borgnine. She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in Same Time, Next Year opposite That Girl star Ted Bessell, and returned to the stage in the mid-80s in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Swit appeared in a Las Vegas prodution of Mame as Agnes Gooch, first opposite Susan Hayward then Celeste Holm, and played the title character in a 2003 North Carolina Theatre production. She also toured with The Vagina Monologues.

Swit was married to actor Dennis Holahan from 1983 to 1995, and was heavily involved with animal rights organizations, founding the SwitHeart Animal Alliance, and earned the Betty White Award from Actors and Others for Animals. Donations in Swit's honor can be made to SwitHeart Animal Alliance and Actors and Others for Animals.