Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards for her role as Major Margaret Houlihan on the groundbreaking series “M-A-S-H,” has died at the age of 86.
Spokesman Harlan Ball said Sweet died Friday at her home in New York City, most likely of natural causes.
Sweet and Alan Alda are the longest-running cast members of M.A.S.H., which was based on Robert Altman's 1970 film, which in turn was based on the novel by Richard Hooker (pseudonym of H. Richard Hornberger).
The CBS show aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983 and chronicled life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which gave the show its name.
The two-and-a-half-hour finale, broadcast on February 28, 1983, attracted over 100 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode of any series ever produced.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked MASH as the 25th greatest TV show of all time, while Time Out ranked it 34th.
In 2009, the show won the Impact Award at TV Land's annual ceremony, and in 1975 it received a Peabody Award “for its profound humor and use of comedy to uplift spirits as well as for its insightful analysis of the nature of war.”
In Altman's 1970 film, Houlihan was a flat character, a sex-obsessed girl nicknamed “Hot Lips.”
Her intimate moments became public knowledge when someone placed a microphone under her bed.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
