Alan Alda

Diagnoses

Vocation

Notable

Traits

Family

American actor, scriptwriter and director, a popular star from 1972. He garnered a huge following for his role as "Hawkeye" in the TV series "M.A.S.H.," which ran for 11 seasons and 251 episodes, racking up awards along the way. Alda won Emmy Awards for Best Actor, Best Writer and Best Director and the farewell episode, which Alda co-wrote and directed, was among the highest rated television shows ever. He commuted each week from his family home in suburban New Jersey to Hollywood so he could spend weekends with his wife, Arlene, whom he married in 1957, and their three daughters. After winning his battle with polio as a child, Alda took an interest in writing and acting while in high school. The son of actor Robert Alda and Joan Browne, he joined his dad on stage in the early '50s, first appearing with his father at the Hollywood Canteen in 1951, doing imitations of Abbott and Costello. A graduate of Fordham University in 1956, he studied at an Improv Workshop, worked at the Cleveland Playhouse and in "Second City" in New York. He first appeared on Broadway in "Only in America," which opened on 11/19/1959. His film debut was in 1963 in "Gone Are The Days." "The Owl and the Pussycat" opened on Broadway in November 1964. During his early years of getting established, he had to work on the side as a cab driver and at a gas station to keep up on rent money. Alda, 6'2" tall, is known as even tempered, easy-going, considerate and modest, valuing his family and privacy. At home, he is a dedicated tennis player. Around the mid-'70s, Alda emerged as the prototype of a New Man: liberal, sensitive, pro-feminine, opposed to all kinds of inequalities or sexism. One of his special interests was his series of specials on PBS, "Scientific American Frontiers." He did five of these shows a year on location, visiting China, tagging sharks and handling strange animals. In addition to his well-known television work, Alda has written, directed and acted in big-screen features. His credits include "The Four Seasons" as both writer and director, as well as acting roles in "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors." Alda's dad, Robert Alda, had a stroke in 1984 from which he never fully recovered and he died on 5/03/1986, Los Angeles, CA. Alda guested on the top-rated drama "ER" for five episodes, starting the season in September 1999. After a slip and fall on his icy front steps in Water Mill, NY, Alda was taken to Long Island Hospital where he was diagnosed and released with three fractured vertebrae, 2/19/2000. On October 18, 2003, the actor fell ill while working on a TV documentary in Chile. Taken to a hospital in LaSerena, he had emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction. He is expected to make a full recovery. Link to Wikipedia biography