New York (AP) – Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards Playing Major Margaret Houlihan, the demanding chief nurse of a surgical unit in the lines during the Korean War on the successful television series “Mash”, died. She was 87 years old.
Publicist Harlan Boll says that Swit died on Friday at her home in New York, probably for natural causes.
Take a step and Alan Alda were the longest actors on “Mash”, which was based on Robert Altman’s film in 1970, which was itself based on a novel by Richard Hooker, the pseudonym of H. Richard Hornberger.
The CBS Show was broadcast for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, revolving around life at 40777th Mobile Army Hospital, which gave its name to the show. The two and a half hour final on February 28, 1983, attracted more than 100 million viewers, the most watched episode of any scripted series of all time.
AP Audio: Loretta Swit, winner of an Emmy who played Major Houlihan on the pioneer series “Mash”, died at 87 years old
The AP correspondent, Ed Donahue, reports the death of an actor of “M * a * s * h” of TV.
Rolling Stone magazine put “Mash” at n ° 25 for the best television programs of all time, while Time Out put it in n ° 34. He won the Impact prize at TV Land Awards 2009. He won a Peabody prize in 1975 “for the depth of his humor and the way in which the comedy is used to lift the spirit and, on the nature of the war. “
Swit transforms Houlihan’s character
In Altman’s film in 1970, Houlihan was a one -dimensional character – a thorny nurse linked to the rules which was regularly tormented by male colleagues, who gave him the nickname “hot lips”. His intimate moments were broadcast throughout the camp after someone planted a microphone under his bed.
Sally Kellerman played Houlihan in the cinematographic version and Swit took care of him for television, possibly by deepening and creating it in a much more complete character. Her sexuality was played and she was not even called “hot lips” in recent years.
The growing consciousness of feminism in the 1970s stimulated the transformation of Houlihan from caricature into a real person, but a large part of the change was due to Swit’s influence on the writers.
“Towards the second or third year, I decided to try to play it as a real person, intelligently, even if it meant to harm the jokes,” Swit told Suzy Kalter, author of “The Complete Book of ‘Mash'”
“To simplify outside, I took each traumatic change that occurred in his life and I kept it. I did not enter the next episode as if it were a different character in a different room. She was a constant flow character; she never stopped developing.”
“Mash” was not an instant success. He completed his first season in 46th place, on 75 networked series, but he caught nine nominations at the Emmy. He was awarded a better time slot for his second season, twinned on Saturday evening with “All in the family”, then the best rated television show. At the 1974 Emmy, he was crowned the best comedy, with Alda winning as the best comedy actor.
The series also survived despite the unsubscribe of the distribution. In addition to Swit and Alda, the first season included Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff. Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell and David Ogden STIERS would be added later, while Jamie Farr and William Christopher had extended roles.
“The representation of Loretta Swit by Margaret” Hot Lips “Houlihan was revolutionary – bringing the heart, humor and strength to one of the most lasting roles of television comedy. His talent extended far beyond this emblematic character, with work acclaimed on the scene and the screen that presented his intelligence, his versatility and his passion, “said Gunderson, director of the National Comedy Center, Gunderson.
‘More than one real person’
Swit appeared in all episodes except 11 of the series, almost four times longer than the Korean War itself, exploring problems such as SSPT, sexism and racism. Swit pushed for better representation for women.
“One of the things I loved, with the production of Loretta, was every time I was lucky to write for her character, we move away from the angle of hot lips and discover more about who was Margaret. She became more a real person,” Alda told Hollywood Report in 2018.
The series ended with a happy note for Houlihan, which spends a large part of the final to debate if it wants to go to Tokyo or Belgium for its next post abroad. In the end, she chooses to return to America and work in a hospital, citing her father – a man from the career army.
Swit did not personally agree that it was the right decision for an official in the military spirit: “I did not think it was correct for my Margaret,” she told Yahoo Entertainment in 2023. “I think her next decision was Vietnam. So I do not agree with that, but that’s what they wanted to do.”
But the actor was able to write the speech that Houlihan gives to his nursing colleagues during their last night together, in which she said: “It was an honor and a privilege of having worked with you. And I am very, very proud to have known to you.”
“I was consumed to write this. And I always receive letters from women from around the world who have become nurses because of Margaret Houlihan. Having contributed to someone’s life as it is remarkable, “she told Yahoo Entertainment.
During his race, Houlihan had an affair with the Hawkeye leaf, The Bumpbling Frank Burns, played by Linville in the television version, and in season 5, Houlihan returns from a stay in Tokyo hired to a beautiful lieutenant-colonel, a scenario that Swit says that she pleaded with the writers.
“I said to them,” Can you imagine what you are going to have fun with Larry when I come back to town and I tell him that I am engaged? ” He will tear the doors of Mess’s tent! And that’s exactly what they did.
Towards the end, Swit was tried to leave the show. She played the role of Chris Cagney in a 1981 TV movie, “Cagney & Lacey”, and was offered the role when he was taken up as a series of mid-season for the spring of 1982. But the producers insisted that she stays with “Mash” during her last two seasons.
Swit told Florida Times-Union in 2010 that she could have stayed with “Mash” anyway. “You can’t help but improve yourself as an actor working with scripts like that,” she said. “If you are in something literate, well, we were spoiled.”
In 2022, James Poniewozik, the New York Times television critic, watched the show and said that he summed up well: “His mixture of Farcap comedy and pitch -dark drama – laughter amplifying serious issues, and vice versa – is recognizable in today’s drameters,” better things ” DMZ between laughter and sadness ”.
After the television series, Swit became a vocal social protection activist, selling Switheart Perfum and her memoirs on her official website, with a product benefiting from various non -profit groups linked to animals.
In 1983, she married actor Dennis Holahan, whom she had met when he was a star guest of “Mash” that they divorced in 1995.
Swit was born in New Jersey
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, a daughter of Polish immigrants, Swit signed up for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then paid his contributions for years in tour productions.
In 1969, she arrived in Hollywood and was quickly seen in series such as “Gunsmoke”, “Hawaii Five-O”, “Mission Impossible” and “Bonanza”. Then in 1972, she obtained her big break when she was invited to audition for the role of “Hot Lips”.
She would regularly return to the theater, with Broadway in 1975 in “Same Time, next year” and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” in 1986. She was in “Amorous Crossing”, a romantic comedy, at the Alhambra Theater & Dining in 2010 and in the production of “Mame” by North Carolina Theater in 2003.
___
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/kennedytwits
