# RIP Loretta Swit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [May 30, 2025, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021 "2025-05-30T21:35:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/1 "2025-05-30T21:35:37Z")
[Died today at age 87.](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/entertainment/loretta-swit-death) Not many of the original cast remain. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/2 "2025-05-30T21:37:26Z")
☹ Hot Lips forever! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/3 "2025-05-30T22:09:06Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/4 "2025-05-30T22:23:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/5 "2025-05-30T23:15:39Z")
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. > [@Old favorite TV show is holding up in rewatch](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-favorite-tv-show-is-holding-up-in-rewatch/1018997): > > If people haven’t guessed from references in “TV Binge-watch,” I have been rewatching one of my favorite shows from high school, and it is holding up really well. Cagney & Lacey Lacey’s work to maintain an egalitarian marriage, and Cagney’s attempts to balance being “One of the guys” without getting to the point of spouting any of their sexist rhetoric herself are surprisingly relevant. The main characters themselves are not dated, and the plots are not significantly so in that few of them hi… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/6 "2025-05-30T23:20:43Z")
Just now watching her on the show. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/7 "2025-05-30T23:53:49Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > she said that “No, not all Polish names are long. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/8 "2025-05-31T02:56:55Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Hot Lips forever! 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. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/9 "2025-05-31T03:35:32Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/10 "2025-05-31T13:29:30Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I’m sorry she missed out on Cagney and Lacy 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. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/11 "2025-05-31T14:24:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/12 "2025-05-31T14:26:13Z")
MASH was a great show and Swit part of the reason why. Funny, reasonably authentic and wise. Saddened to hear this. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/13 "2025-05-31T15:20:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/14 "2025-05-31T15:31:27Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/15 "2025-05-31T15:36:22Z")
Alan Alda share some thoughts. > ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-loretta-swit/1019021/16 "2025-05-31T16:01:00Z")
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.