The two-time Emmy winner almost starred on 'Cagney & Lacey' and helped lead the way for women playing strong, professional characters on television.

NEW YORK (AP) — Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Maj. Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the pioneering hit TV series “M.A.S.H.,” has died. She was 87. Publicist Harlan Boll says Swit died Friday at her home in New York City, likely from natural causes.

Loretta Swit, who played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on seminal TV comedy "MASH," died Friday at her home in New York City. She was 87.