Loretta Swit, star of “M*A*S*H,” dies at 87

Loret­ta Swit, the Emmy-win­ning actress renowned for her por­tray­al of Major Mar­garet “Hot Lips” Houli­han on the icon­ic tele­vi­sion series MASH*, has died at the age of 87. She passed away on May 30, 2025, at her home in New York City, like­ly from nat­ur­al caus­es, as con­firmed by her pub­li­cist, Har­lan Boll .Cade­na SER+14The Times+14People.com+14CBS News+5People.com+5KHBS+5

Born Loret­ta Jane Szwed on Novem­ber 4, 1937, in Pas­sa­ic, New Jer­sey, to Pol­ish immi­grant par­ents, Swit pur­sued act­ing from a young age. She stud­ied at the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Dra­mat­ic Arts and began her career in the­ater before tran­si­tion­ing to tele­vi­sion and film .AP News+3Wikipedia+3The Wash­ing­ton Post+3The Wash­ing­ton Post+1The Times+1

Swit’s most cel­e­brat­ed role was as Major Houli­han on MASH*, which aired from 1972 to 1983. Her per­for­mance earned her two Emmy Awards and ten nom­i­na­tions. She was instru­men­tal in evolv­ing her char­ac­ter from a one-dimen­sion­al fig­ure into a com­plex, pro­fes­sion­al woman, reflect­ing the show’s shift from com­e­dy to a more nuanced dram­e­dy .AP News+1The Times+1The Times+3BILD+3Wikipedia+3

Beyond MASH*, Swit had a pro­lif­ic career in tele­vi­sion and the­ater, with notable per­for­mances in pro­duc­tions like Shirley Valen­tine and The Vagi­na Mono­logues. She was also a ded­i­cat­ed ani­mal rights activist, found­ing the Swit­H­eart Ani­mal Alliance in 2016 to advo­cate for ani­mal wel­fare .The Times+1Wikipedia+1BILD

Swit was mar­ried to actor Den­nis Hola­han from 1983 until their divorce in 1995. She did not have chil­dren. Her lega­cy endures through her ground­break­ing work on MASH*, her con­tri­bu­tions to the­ater, and her pas­sion­ate advo­ca­cy for ani­mal rights.