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Loretta Swit, ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan on ‘MASH,’ Dies at 87


Loretta Swit, who played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on seminal TV comedy "MASH," died Friday at her home in New York City. She was 87.

As “MASH” evolved over its 11-year run from a broadly farcical satire into a more contemplative series that embraced drama as much as comedy, the character of Margaret Houlihan and the way Swit performed it changed markedly as well. With the season five episode “Bug Out,” in which most of the personnel evacuate, leaving only Hawkeye, Margaret and Radar to take care of a patient that can’t be moved, viewers began to respect her professionally and a human side came through. Even after being cast in “MASH” Swit continued with other work both in film and TV, appearing in Richard Rush’s 1974 action comedy “Freebie and the Bean,” in which she was third-billed after Alan Arkin and James Caan, and in the 1975 Peter Fonda car chase movie “Race With the Devil.”

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Loretta Swit

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