What was Loretta Swit’s net worth? Career earnings explored as M*A*S*H star dies at 87

Loretta Swit, who embodied the role of Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the comedy series M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87.

Variety has reported that the seasoned actress succumbed to her demise on Friday at her home in New York City. Her representative, Harlan Boll, told the outlet that local police listed her time of death at 12:01 p.m. on May 30. The cause of death was ruled as natural causes. TMZ broke the news that her remains were discovered by her maid.

Given her decades-long career, Loretta Swit reportedly boasted a net worth of $4 million at the time of her passing. While she was most known for her contributions to M*A*S*H, for which she nabbed several Emmy nominations, she was also a thespian, having contributed to productions like The Balcony, Any Wednesday, Same Time, Next Year, and Mame.

Loretta Swit's life and legacy explored:

As reported by Variety, for her contributions to M*A*S*H, Loretta Swit nabbed Emmy nominations for outstanding performance by a supporting actress in a comedy for nine consecutive years, from 1974-83. She even won the titles in 1980 and 1982, having stayed with the TV series for over a decade.

Reuters has reported that Swit, whose character on the show was renowned for her bold and independent personality, showed up for over 250 episodes. She also made a cameo in the series finale, which had become the most-watched episode of any TV series of all time in 1983, back when the show came to an end.

The Hollywood Reporter has pointed out that Swit was one of only two to have starred in both the pilot and finale, right alongside Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce. The episode, aired on February 28, 1983, amassed a viewing of nearly 106 million viewers.

During a 2017 interview with Fox News, Loretta Swit said of the show, which was an adaptation of Robert Altman's Oscar-winning 1970 film:

"While we were shooting, even from the very beginning, we were aware of how very special it was. The symbiosis, the camaraderie, the love and respect we had for each other."

Over the years, however, Swit wanted more for her character than to just be known as "Hot Lips," a nickname that was given because she was having an affair with a married man.

Swit told Suzy Kalter, the author who penned The Complete Book of M.A.S.H:

"Around the second or third year I decided to try to play her as a real person, in an intelligent fashion, even if it meant hurting the jokes." She added, "To oversimplify it, I took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it. I didn't go into the next episode as if it were a different character in a different play. She was a character in constant flux; she never stopped developing."

Per the Hollywood Reporter, during a 2004 discourse for the TV Academy Foundation website The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, Loretta Swit said of her character:

"She was [unique] at the time and in her time, which was the ’50s, when [the Korean War] was happening. And she became even more unique, I think, because we allowed her to continue to grow — we watched her evolve. I don’t think that’s ever been done in quite that way.”

Born Loretta Jane Szwed in November 1937, Swit moved to Los Angeles in 1970, after having graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She went on to land roles on series like Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Gunsmoke, and Hawaii Five-O.

“I had done a guest-starring role [in the premiere episode in 1971] on Glenn Ford’s CBS series, Cade’s County, which was short-lived, but it was a wonderful role,” she said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “The network people, as well as Fox, knew about me, and when the part came up, they thought of me.”

Loretta Swit also made her feature debut in 1972, with Stand Up and Be Counted, a comedy starring Jacqueline Bisset. She was also involved in theater, as she made her debut in Broadway debut back in 1975. At the time, she starred opposite Ted Bessell in Same Time, Next Year.

In her private life, the seasoned thespian was married to Dennis Holahan. They tied the knot in 1983, though they opted for divorce 12 years later, in 1995. Swit was also an avid animal rights activists, as she served as the founder of SwitHeart Animal Alliance, which was a fundraising initiative for animals.

Loretta Swit was recognized with the Betty White Award from Actors and Others for Animals and by several other animal rights organizations for her work, Variety has published.

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