Loretta Swit and Valerie Mahaffey

Under my usual lament that "the wrong poeple keep dying", there are a couple of celebrity passings that I would like to comment on.

On Friday, Loretta Swit died at the age of 87.    

Swit was most famous for her role on M*A*S*H as Major Margeret Houlihan, a by the book martinet who had zero patience for anyone with no respect for rigid military conduct.  

Which meant she was frequently at odds with Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce.  

Over the course of the series, the best Margeret episodes found cracks in her harsh facade, making her more human and a stronger character. An early episode saw Margeret get drunk ("I'm not as think as you drunk I am!") which was completely out of character and Col. Blake ordered Hawkeye and Trapper John to get her sober before a wave of wounded arrive at the 4077th.  

Here's a clip with one of those rare moments when Margaret dropped her steely facade and just had some fun.

There was the episode where her stern persona gives way to an emotional meltdown when a stray dog she was secretly feeding is killed by a jeep. 

Another milestone episode for Margeret was when she gets stranded behind enemy lines with Klinger. It's her birthday and she's miserable despite Klinger's efforts to be nice to her.   

Swit’s work as Major Houlihan earned her 10 Emmy nominations for best supporting actress in a comedy and two wins in 1980 and 1982.

Alan Alda had this to say about Loretta Switt: "She worked hard in showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person — with real feelings and ambitions."  

Here is a sweet moment between Hawkeye and Margaret.

Loretta's character was known as Major Margeret "Hot Lips" Houlihan and Loretta pushed the writing team to not lean on that nickname and was thrilled when the scripts began referring to her as Margaret and not Hot Lips.  

In the early seasons of M*A*S*H, Margaret was known for her long running affair with Major Frank Burns which did not entirely make sense. Yeah, they were both by the book types in a camp full of incessant insanity but Margaret was the real deal while Frank was just all talk, full of bluster to cover his many, many inadequecies as a doctor, an officer and as a human being.  

By season 5, Margaret cut Frank loose and she began her evolution into a more well rounded character.  

Here is a clip of Loretta Swit appearing on The Muppets.

Also dying on Friday was Valerie Mahaffey after battling with cancer. She was 71

Valerie Mahaffey was the epitome of "that person who was in that thing" with appearances in shows I watched from 1980's and on such as Newhart, Cheers, Seinfeld, Quantum Leap, Wings and Frasier and more.   

Most recently, she was on Young Sheldon as English teacher Victoria MacElroy.  

Iain Armitage had this to say about Valerie Mahaffey: “I’m not sure if she enjoyed Sheldon as a student, but I sure did enjoy sharing time onscreen and off with Ms. Valerie… Thank you for the wonderful memories."

Ms. MacElroy barely tolerated the preternaturally intelligent Sheldon Cooper but in her brief appearances on screen, Valerie embued her with a sharp wit and a barely repressed sense of exasperation. 

Rest in peace,Loretta and Valerie.

___________________________

I'm always griping in these posts that "the wrong people keep dying". 

The wrong people or those who might deserve death, the end of life comes for us all.  An existential point used recently by a Republican Senator to justify cuts in medical care and food assistance.

More on that in a 2nd post later this morning.