{"id":856700,"date":"2025-06-19T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T00:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/alan-alda-pays-tribute-to-11-year-mash-co-star-loretta-swit-supremely-talented-actor\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T19:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T00:13:09","slug":"alan-alda-pays-tribute-to-11-year-mash-co-star-loretta-swit-supremely-talented-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/alan-alda-pays-tribute-to-11-year-mash-co-star-loretta-swit-supremely-talented-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Alda Pays Tribute To 11-Year \u2018M*A*S*H\u2019 Co-Star Loretta Swit: \u201cSupremely Talented Actor\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tAlan Alda<\/a>, who starred on CBS\u2019 long-running comedy series M*A*S*H<\/a><\/em> alongside Loretta Swit<\/a>, spoke out Friday after the news of Swit\u2019s death<\/a> at age 87.<\/p>\n

\n\tSwit, who played Major Margaret \u201cHot Lips\u201d Houlihan on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H<\/em> from 1972-1983,\u00a0died at her home in New York City at age 87.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlda played Capt. Benjamin Franklin \u201cHawkeye\u201d Pierce also for the full run of the 14-time Emmy-winning show, which was based on Robert Altman\u2019s 1970 feature film that starred Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye and Sally Kellerman as Hot Lips, the head nurse at the U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital near the front lines of the Korean War.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLoretta was a supremely talented actor,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>. \u201cShe deserved all her 10 Emmy nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person \u2014 with real feelings and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script came out listing her character not as Hot Lips, but as Margaret. Loretta made the most of her time here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tWatch on Deadline\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\tSwit and Alda appeared in all 251 episodes of\u00a0M*A*S*H<\/em>\u00a0including the 2\u00bd-hour series finale that aired in February 1983. It remains the most-watched episode of series TV in history, with more than 105 million viewers and mind-boggling 60.2 rating\/77 share.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother M*A*S*H<\/em> regular, Jamie Farr (who played the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger), said in a statement, \u201cI dearly loved Loretta!\u00a0She was my adopted sister. As close as family can get. From the first time I met her, on what was supposed to be a one day appearance on M.A.S.H.<\/em>, we embraced each other and that became a lifetime friendship. I can\u2019t begin to express how much she will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person \u2013\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alan Alda (@alanalda) May 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Erik Pedersen
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Alda, who starred on CBS\u2019 long-running comedy series M*A*S*H alongside Loretta Swit, spoke out Friday after the news of Swit\u2019s death at age 87. Swit, who played Major Margaret \u201cHot Lips\u201d Houlihan on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H from 1972-1983,\u00a0died at her home in New York City at age 87. Alda played Capt. Benjamin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":856701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22661,901],"tags":[11187,5147],"class_list":{"0":"post-856700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-year","8":"category-tribute","9":"tag-tribute","10":"tag-year"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}