'M*A*S*H' Actress Loretta Swit Dead at Age 87

Actress Loretta Swit -- best known for playing the character Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the long-running sitcom "M*A*S*H" -- died today, TMZ has learned.

Swit's publicist, Harlan Boll, tells TMZ … the two spoke last night, and she seemed fine. Boll said Swit died Friday inside her NYC apartment -- she was found at 10 AM by her maid.

Swit was pronounced dead at noon, according to Boll. No cause of death has been confirmed, but Boll says they believe she died from natural causes.

Swit was a 10-time Emmy nominee -- winning twice -- for her work on the show, which depicted a U.S. Army medical unit operating on the front lines of the Korean War (the name stands for "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital"). The comedy-drama show ran from 1972 to 1983 ... with the series finale racking 106 million viewers, still the most-watched scripted TV episode in history.

She worked in television for decades, appearing on "Hawaii Five-0" and "Murder, She Wrote" among many other shows, and in some movies ... but her role as "Hot Lips" cemented her place in TV history.

Loretta Swit was 87.