Alan Alda, who starred on CBS’ long-running comedy collection M*A*S*H alongside Loretta Swit, spoke out Friday after the information of Swit’s loss of life at age 87.
Swit, who performed Main Margaret “Scorching Lips” Houlihan on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H from 1972-1983, died at her residence in New York Metropolis at age 87.
Alda performed Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce additionally for the total run of the 14-time Emmy-winning present, which was based mostly on Robert Altman’s 1970 characteristic movie that starred Elliott Gould as Hawkeye and Sally Kellerman as Scorching Lips, the top nurse on the U.S. Cell Military Surgical Hospital close to the entrance traces of the Korean Struggle.
“Loretta was a supremely gifted actor,” he posted on X. “She deserved all her 10 Emmy nominations and her 2 wins. However greater than performing her half, she created it. She labored onerous In exhibiting the writing workers how they may flip the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into an actual individual — with actual emotions and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script got here out itemizing her character not as Scorching Lips, however as Margaret. Loretta made probably the most of her time right here.”
Swit and Alda appeared in all 251 episodes of M*A*S*H together with the 2½-hour collection finale that aired in February 1983. It stays the most-watched episode of collection TV in historical past, with greater than 105 million viewers and mind-boggling 60.2 ranking/77 share.
One other M*A*S*H common, Jamie Farr (who performed the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger), mentioned in an announcement, “I dearly liked Loretta! She was my adopted sister. As shut as household can get. From the primary time I met her, on what was alleged to be a at some point look on M.A.S.H., we embraced one another and that grew to become a lifetime friendship. I can’t start to specific how a lot she can be missed.”
