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In the world of pro wrestling it’s called a “face turn.” It’s where a performer known as a bad guy (“heel”) and booed by the fans does something dramatic that turns them into an audience favorite (“babyface”). A wrestling face turn generally happens in a single moment, but one of the best examples from television took place over several seasons. Viewers of the hit ’70s sitcom M*A*S*H watched as head nurse Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, played by Loretta Swit, evolved from a strident, one-note martinet to a caring and sympathetic figure. It was a fine example of a character adjusting to the world around them, and a testament to the talent of the two-time Emmy winner, who passed away last week at 87.
Born Loretta Jane Szwed in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1937, she was active in theatre in high school, where she was also a cheerleader and co-captained the girls’ basketball squad. After graduating from the Catherine Gibbs secretarial school she worked at various office jobs in the New York metro area, but felt the pull of a showbiz career. Changing her surname to Swit (“Dawn” in Polish), she appeared in various early ’60s off-Broadway shows, from Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People to Genet’s The Balcony. In the decade’s second half she co-starred with Gardner McKay in the touring company of Any Wednesday and played one of the Pigeon Sisters alongside Ernest Borgnine and Don Rickles in an L.A. production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.
Staying in Hollywood to pursue film and TV work, Swit made her small-screen debut in a 1969 episode of Hawaii Five-O, and quickly racked up guest spots on such shows as Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Bonanza. Her first feature film role came in a feminist-themed indie comedy, Stand Up and Be Counted, in 1972. This also happened to be the year that Loretta was chosen to play Hot Lips in CBS’s M*A*S*H adaptation (following Sally Kellerman in Robert Altman’s 1970 military comedy).
Over the show’s acclaimed 11-year run, Swit made the role her own, going beyond Maj. Houlihan’s original depiction as an unfeeling foil for doctors “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) and “Trapper John” McIntyre (Wayne Rogers). She still was a by-the-book Army brat, but she learned to befriend her fellow officers and share with the nurses under her. Swit was in 245 of the show’s 256 episodes, and she and Alda were the only cast members to appear in both the pilot episode and the record-setting 1983 series finale.
In between her M*A*S*H duties Loretta guest starred on various games shows as well as Ironside, The Love Boat, The Muppet Show, and more. She was featured in a 1975 TV staging of the Broadway musical It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman as well as the small-screen movies The Hostage Heat and Friendships, Secrets, and Lies. Moviegoers saw her as a mobster’s wife in 1974’s “buddy cop” comedy Freebie and the Bean. The following year she was a suburban spouse who, along with her husband and another couple, are pursued by a Satanic cult while on a camping vacation in the action shocker Race with the Devil. In 1981 Swit played a scandal-sniffing gossip columnist in Blake Edwards’ scathing Hollywood satire S.O.B.
1981 was almost the year that Loretta left M*A*S*H before its finale. The actress had co-starred as detective Christine Cagney in the pilot film for the police drama Cagney & Lacey and was eager to continue in the role when CBS picked it up as a series, but 20th Century-Fox refused to let Swit out of her M*A*S*H contract (Cagney would be played by Meg Foster and later Sharon Gless).
After M*A*S*H ended in 1983 Swit stayed active in stage, film, and TV. She appeared on Broadway in the 1980s in an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood and co-starred in Agnes Gooch in a Las Vegas production of Mame. One of her most popular performances came as a teacher tasked with putting on her community’s annual Yuletide show in the 1983 made-for-TV movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Swit’s later movie roles included an ad executive in the 1985 comedy Beer; the President of the United States in the British doomsday spoof Whoops Apocalypse in 1986; and alongside Chuck Norris in 1996’s eco-themed actioner Forest Warrior (the actress herself was a dedicated animal rights activist and a longtime vegan).
When news of her passing from natural causes at her New York City home came out last week, Loretta’s former M*A*S*H costars-in-arms–Alda, Mike Farrell, Gary Burghoff, and Jamie Farr–offered online tributes to the actress. And about her TV comrades-in-arms, Swit said in a 2017 interview “We might as well be joined at the hip. We see each other quite frequently. Every time we lose a comrade, it’s a body blow. We feel it harshly, badly. People always ask me, ‘Do you ever see them?’ When do I not see them? These aren’t casual acquaintances from years ago. This is my family.”