Loretta Swit, the Emmy Award-winning actress who played no-nonsense US Army combat nurse Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the hit TV series "M*A*S*H" for more than a decade, died on Friday at the age of 87.

Swit, a mainstay of one of the most successful and acclaimed series in US television history, died at her home in New York City from what was suspected to be natural causes, her publicist, Harlan Boll, said.

Swit earned two best supporting actress Emmys and 10 nominations for her role as "Hot Lips," the lusty, tough but vulnerable, patriotic Army career nurse in the series that ran from 1972-1983.

As the only regular female character in the groundbreaking show set in the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War of the 1950s, "Hot Lips" endured the insults, pranks and practical jokes of the fun-loving male surgeons. The show's cast also included Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Gary Burghoff, David Ogden Stiers and Jamie Farr.

Swit defined her role by playing a strong, determined, independent woman, who had input into the development and storyline of her character, including her split from her married lover Major Frank Burns, hilariously played by Linville, and her own wedding and divorce.

She appeared in nearly all of the more than 250 episodes and the series finale, which was the most watched episode of any TV series in history when the show ended in 1983. (Reuters)