Not many of the original cast remain.
Hot Lips forever!
I saw her on a talk show once, and the host asked her about her name, since her name was Polish and so short (well, actually, her birth name was slightly longer at six letters), and she said that “No, not all Polish names are long. I had a classmate whose name was only three letters D-u-l.”
Other than that I got nothing.
I’m sure there were some background players still around, but as far as I can tell, for the main cast it’s Alan Alda, Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff, and Mike Farrell.
Funny we were just discussing her role in the Cagney & Lacey pilot over in this other thread. The convo was totally not occasioned by Swit’s death.
Just now watching her on the show.
True. The last name Czech is pretty common, and short. Ironically, it means just what you’d think it means-- that the bearer, or a paternal ancestor of his, came from Bohemia or Moravia, which are now called The Czech Republic.
For some reason, American English has chosen to use Polish spellings for Slavic words.
If Polish had used the Czech word for Czech (čeština), which is longer.
But anyway, Swit was right-- I can think of lots of five-letter Polish names-- Nowak, when it is spelled with the W is Polish.
I loved the way she played out the changes in MAJ Houlihan as she worked on a MASH unit and for the first time in her career was not with other career soldiers, but mostly people who thought of themselves as civilians and were just trying to survive the ordeal of being drafted.
Larry Linville leaving the show was the best thing that happened to her character.
RIP. You deserve it.
Or, in one of the three* MAD satires, Hot Lobes Holdahand.
*One for the movie and the series was on for so long that it got two.
I think the most recent thing I had seen her in was Beer from 1985. And that was sometime in the 1990s. I’m sorry she missed out on Cagney and Lacy because of her obligations to MASH, but she did a great job as Hot Lips.
As big a fan I was of Meg Foster, and as disappointed as I was that she was replaced, I admit that Sharon Gless OWNED that role. She was meant to play it.
And Swit was great on MASH. Better to finish that show than be the finish of another.
Swit was great on MASH, no question. But she was the token woman character on that show. Beats me how MASH got this great progressive reputation when the show treated their nursing crew as a gaggle of non-entities. What a slew of missed opportunities for episodes. Even TV westerns treated women characters better.
Anyway, good rest to Loretta. She was memorable.
MASH was a great show and Swit part of the reason why. Funny, reasonably authentic and wise. Saddened to hear this.
Yeah-- MASH was very backward in objectifying women as much as it did. When it premiered (1972), it was pretty much in line with other shows of its time. But then it ended up being on forever, and while it became somewhat more enlightened, it was not nearly enough for the time when it ended.
I suppose there is some excuse, because the time in which it’s set was a horrible time for women, and the guy who wrote the original books was a pig; that doesn’t prevent the show from presenting a counterpoint, though. They can show the men being pigs, then show how the women really feel about it, no matter what they may say to the men’s faces.
Rizzo made a few appearances and GW Bailey is alive.
Jeff Maxwell played Igor the Cook and he is alive as well. He hosts a MASH podcast.
Sadly, Nurse Kelly died a few years ago.
Alan Alda share some thoughts.
Swit was perfect for that role. One of my favorite scenes is when Frank walks in on her touching up her dark roots and says “Oh no, did you cut your head again?” Yeah, Mr. Clueless.