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Loretta Swit who won two Emmy Awards playing Major Margaret Houlihan the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the pioneering hit TV series M A S H has died She was Publicist Harlan Boll says Swit died Friday at her home in New York City likely from natural causes Swit and Alan Alda were the longest-serving cast members on M A S H which was based on Robert Altman s film which was itself based on a novel by Richard Hooker the pseudonym of H Richard Hornberger The CBS show aired for years from to revolving around life at the th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital which gave the show its name The two-and-a-half-hour finale on Feb lured over million viewers the most-watched episode of any scripted series ever Rolling Stone magazine put M A S H at No of the best TV shows of all time while Time Out put it at No It won the Impact Award at the TV Land annual awards It won a Peabody Award in for the depth of its humor and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and as well to offer a profound comment on the nature of war In Altman s film Houlihan was a one-dimensional character a sex-crazed bimbo who earned the nickname Hot Lips Her intimate moments were broadcast to the entire camp after somebody planted a microphone under her bed Sally Kellerman played Houlihan in the movie version and Swit took it over for TV eventually deepening and creating her into a much fuller character The sexual appetite was played down and she wasn t even called Hot Lips in the later years The growing awareness of feminism in the s spurred Houlihan s transformation from caricature to real person but a lot of the change was due to Swit s influence on the scriptwriters Around the second or third year I decided to try to play her as a real person in an intelligent fashion even if it meant hurting the jokes Swit recounted Suzy Kalter author of The Complete Book of M A S H To oversimplify it I took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it I didn t go into the next episode as if it were a different character in a different play She was a character in constant flux she never stopped evolving M A S H wasn t an instant hit It finished its first season in th place out of setup TV series but it nabbed nine Emmy nominations It was rewarded with a better time slot for its sophomore season paired on Saturday nights with All in the Family then TV s highest-rated show At the Emmys it was crowned best comedy with Alda winning as best comedy actor The series also survived despite cast churn In addition to Swit and Alda the first season featured Wayne Rogers McLean Stevenson Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff Harry Morgan Mike Farrell and David Ogden Stiers would later be added while Jamie Farr and William Christopher had expanded roles Swit appeared in all but episodes of the series nearly four times longer than the Korean War itself exploring issues like PTSD sexism and racism Swit pushed for a better representation for women One of the things I liked with Loretta s prodding was every time I had a chance to write for her character we d get away from the Hot Lips angle and find out more about who Margaret was She became more of a real person Alda described The Hollywood Reporter in The series ended on a happy note for Houlihan who spends much of the finale debating whether she wants to head to Tokyo or Belgium for her next overseas post Ultimately she opts to return to America and work at a hospital citing her father a career Army man
