PHOTO Loretta Swit (Hot Lips Houlihan) looking great at 73

Loretta Swit proved that not all wartime bombshells are a bad thing with her ground (and heart) breaking role as M*A*S*H‘s Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan for the entire eleven-year run of the series from 1972 to 1983. The 73-year-old actress was photographed leaving a Broadway production of The Normal Heart at the Golden Theatre New York City last night looking like she just stepped off a Korean War medical chopper – and I mean that in a good way! Dare I say that she looks sM*A*S*Hing?

What was so great about Swit’s Margaret Houlihan is that she took what was supposed to be a one-dimensional character (Thus the “Hot Lips” nickname) and she gave her depth enough to leave viewers wanting to know more about her. Alan Alda talked about her accomplishment in an interview from the Archive of American Television:

Loretta probably doesn’t get as much feminist credit as she should for the accomplishments Alda is talking about. Margaret Houlihan was too smart and too strong to be a joke and she was also too smart and too strong to stay with Tweedle Douche (Frank Burns), so she moved past Frank and after that remained an independent woman (and commander of the nurses) for the remainder of the series – all while maintaining her femininity, albeit while wearing a metaphorical pair of brass balls!

^ Loretta Swit on the cover of People magazine

Here’s a slideshow tribute to Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan set to the music of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.” (Sorry – it was the best available on Youtube)

Be sure to check out Loretta Swit’s web site at www.switheartgallery.com featuring some of her recent art work as well as info on her passion to support animal rights.

As a bloopers reel, here are some sentences that I started but wound up on the cutting room floor:

Loretta Switt is the only woman I know that made fatigues seem like an oxymoron.

Of all the things from the show M*A*S*H that I’ve had a crush on (Hawkeye’s still, Henry’s fishing hat

Oh, Frank!

Top Photo: Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com