Loretta Swit, Major "Hot Lips" from "M*A*S*H" Has Died

Swit died Friday at her home in New York, apparently of natural causes.

Although she has starred in at least dozens of films, she gained fame and sympathy from viewers for her role as Major Margaret Houlihan, the strict head nurse of the surgical ward of a military hospital operating during the Korean War, in the pioneering television series "M*A*S*H" ( Mobile Army Surgical Hospital ).

A cult series about wartime friendships

The series was based on Robert Altman's acclaimed film of the same title, which in turn was based on the novel by Richard Hooker, pseudonym of H. Richard Hornberger.

The series aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, focusing on life in the Army's 4077th Mobile Surgical Hospital, from which the series takes its title.

In the United States, the two-and-a-half-hour finale, broadcast on February 28, 1983, attracted more than 106 million viewers, which still stands as a record for the most viewers for a single episode of any drama series.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked M*A*S*H the 25th greatest TV show of all time, while Time Out ranked it 34th. In 2009, the series won the Impact Award at TV Land's annual awards. In 1975, it won a Peabody Award "for its depth of humor and its use of comedy to lift spirits while also making profound statements about the nature of war."

Although in Altman's 1970 film Houlihan was a one-dimensional, sex-crazed character, which earned her the nickname "Hot Lips", in the series she became one of the main characters, along with Alan Alda ( Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce ), Mike Farrell ( B.J. Hunnicut), Wayne Rogers ( "Trapper John" McIntyre ) and Jamie Farr ( "Max" Klinger), creating an unforgettable cast of a military hospital who, thanks to humor and constant petty mischief, but also deep friendship, try to survive the horrors of war.