Loretta Swit’s M*A*S*H costars are paying tribute to her following her demise at age 87.
“Loretta was a supremely proficient actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins,” Alan Alda wrote via X on Friday, Could 30. “However greater than performing her half, she created it.”
Alda, now 89, starred Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce on M*A*S*H, whereas Swit performed Margaret “Sizzling Lips” Houlihan. The pair have been the one two actors to seem in each the pilot and finale of the conflict collection, which aired for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983. In his tribute put up, Alda recalled how Swit put her all into the function.
“She labored arduous in exhibiting the writing workers how they might flip the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into an actual individual – with actual emotions and ambitions,” he continued. “We celebrated the day the script got here out itemizing her character not as Sizzling Lips, however as Margaret. Loretta made probably the most of her time right here.”
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Mike Farrell, who joined the solid in season 4 as B.J. Hunnicutt, additionally paid his respects to Swit.
“Loretta … 1937-2025 🖤,” Farrell, 86. wrote via Instagram alongside a black and white photograph of Swit.
Along with Alda and Farrell, the one remaining M*A*S*H solid members nonetheless alive are Jamie Farr and Gary Burghoff.
Information broke on Friday that Swit handed away. Swit’s publicist advised The Hollywood Reporter that Swit’s explanation for demise seems to be resulting from pure causes.
Swit’s function on M*A*S*H received her two Emmys. In 1989, she obtained a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame.
“I imply, sure issues needed to stay the identical. She needed to stay one of many antagonists as a result of that was the construction of the present,” Swit stated of her character on the beloved present. “Within the second season, we noticed for the primary time that she was sad with Frank and needed extra from her life. Then across the third or fourth 12 months, in an episode referred to as The Nurses,’ Sizzling Lips gave the nurses a speech telling them how lonely she was as a result of she was in cost and that’s the way in which it was, so she couldn’t actually have any pals. Her marriage and her divorce modified her. Her affair with Hawkeye in ‘Comrades in Arms’ modified each characters, in order that they have been by no means actually rivals once more.”
Following her time on M*A*S*H, Swit appeared on a number of TV motion pictures and sport reveals together with Match Sport, Pyramid and Hollywood Squares. Her final function on display was within the 2019 movie Play the Flute.