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Background:
“I hear from people who watch six and seven times a day. It scares me.” Alan
Alda on the popularity of “M*A*S*H”
An Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actor/ writer/
director, Alan Alda is best connected with his autograph role of the
wisecracking Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the television series “M*A*S*H”
(1972-1983), where he nabbed three Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. Also
serving as a writer and director, he picked up such awards as two Emmy and three
Directors Guild of America Awards for his outstanding behind-the-scene efforts.
Additionally, his spectacular work in M*A*S*H has launched Alda as the only
person ever to win an Emmy for acting, writing, and directing. Many years after
the massive victory, Alda re-reached his television celebrity by picking up a
2006 Emmy Award for his exceptional supporting portrayal of presidential-hopeful
Arnold Vinick in NBC’s political drama “The West Wing” (2004-2006).
As a movie actor, Alda, who frequently cast as ambitious authority figures that
are corrupt and unethical, attained the zenith of her eminence in 2004, when
Martin Scorcese had him play the corrupt senator in the Martin Scorcese’s
critically-acclaimed Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, in which he received a
Best Supporting Oscar nomination. He is also memorable for playing roles in such
films as The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979, netted an American Movie Award),
Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, won a New York Film Critics Circle
Award and a National Board of Review Award), Flirting With Disaster (1996) and
the box office hit What Women Want (2000). He also wrote and directed and
starred in a string of moderate comedies of variable quality depicting the
foibles of American bourgeois life: The Four Seasons (1981, won a Bodil Award),
Sweet Liberty (1986), A New Life (1988) and Betsy’s Wedding (1990).
On stage, Alda has been nominated three times for Broadway’s Tony Awards. He
received the Best Actor nod in “The Apple Tree” (1967) and “Jake’s Women”
(1992), and in 2005, as Best Performance by a featured actor (Play) for his work
in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
“Republicans are as capable of coming up with great ideas and moving this
country along as anyone - they just don’t do it.” Alan Alda
Off screen, Alda is a political activist and long-term advocate for feminist
causes. In 2003, he underwent an emergency surgery to clear an intestinal
obstruction in La Serena, Chile. On a more personal note, Alda, who received
$220,000 for “M*A*S*H” (1972), is the husband of the famous photographer,
author, and clarinetist Arlene Alda, whom he married in 1957, and has three
daughters with her.
Polio
Childhood and Family:
Alan Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo on January 28, 1936, in New York,
New York. His father, Robert Alda (born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto
D’Abruzzo), was a flourishing actor of Italian-American lineage, and his mother,
Joan Brown, was a former Miss New York pageant winner. They later got divorced
and his father was married to Flora Martino, from whom he has a half-brother
named Anthony Alda (actor, born on December 9, 1956). At age 7, Alan dealt with
polio that required him to undergo treatments for two years.
Alan grew up around vaudeville and burlesque comedians that cultivated his
interest in performing. He attended Fordham University in New York, New York,
and went to Europe during his junior year. Upon receiving a Bachelor of Science
degree in 1956, Alan joined the U.S. Army Reserve and spent six months in Korea
as a gunnery officer during the Korean War.
A year after college graduation, on March 15, 1957, Alan tied the knot with
Arlene Weiss. He and his renowned photographer, author, and clarinetist wife
share three daughters, Eve, Elizabeth, and Beatrice. He has a grandson named
Scott.
The West Wing
Career:
Born to a theatrical family, Alan Alda began acting as a teenager when at age 15
he performed Abbott-and-Costello-style comic sketches with his dad, actor Robert
Alda, at the Hollywood Canteen, and made his stage debut two years later with a
leading role in “Charley’s Aunt” in summer stock in Barnesville, Pennsylvania. A
junior student of Fordham University, Alda traveled to Europe and was later
discovered on stage with his father in a play in Rome titled “Room Service.”
Still with his father, he also appeared on TV in Amsterdam. Alda debuted on the
New York stage as understudy in a production of “The Hot Corner” (1956).
After graduating from college, Alda joined the Cleveland Playhouse and later
studied improvisational acting with Paul Sills and continued training at The
Compass in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and Chicago’s Second City. During
1961-1962, Alda came to prominence as Charlie Cotchipee in the Broadway
production of “Purlie Victorious,” a role he reprised when he made big screen
acting debut in the film adaptation, Gone Are the Days in 1963. After his TV
series debut on the ground-breaking political spoof show “That Was the Week That
Was” (NBC, 1964), Alda revisited the New York stage in his first starring role
in the two-character hit “The Owl and the Pussycat” (1964-65), along side Diana
Sands. That was followed by a fine performance opposite Larry Blyden and Barbara
Harris in the musical “The Apple Tree” (1966-67), from which he received a Tony
nomination.
The acclaimed stage-actor returned to film after five years with the lead of
George Plimpton in the biopic Paper Lion (1968). He continued to appear in five
other movies, such as The Mephisto Waltz (1971) and To Kill a Clown (1972), and
several TV films, most notably the ABC fascinating prison drama Truman Capote’s
The Glass House (1972), before landing his signature role of Captain Benjamin
Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce in the long-running CBS comedy-drama “M*A*S*H,” which
ran from 1972 to 1983. Glowingly portraying the wisecracking Army surgeon, Alda
collected a number of recognitions and awards. He picked up three Emmys for Best
Lead Actor, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Serie and Actor of the Year, and
six Golden Globes for Best TV Actor and Best Performance by an Actor. Not only
acting, Alda also directed and wrote several episodes and served as creative
consultant. For his behind-the-scene-efforts, he was handed two Emmys for
Outstanding Directing and Writing and three Directors Guild of America for
Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
Once he achieved a star status, Alda started appearing more outside the series.
He co-starred and co-directed with Carol Burnett in the TV version of the
Broadway comedy 6 Rms Riv Vu (1974), where he took home an Emmy nod for his
performance, as well as created and penned pilot for the CBS sitcom “We’ll Get
By” (1975). He received another Emmy nod in 1977, this time for his fine
presentation of condemned murderer Caryl Chessman in the NBC film Kill Me if You
Can. On the wide screen, Alan was teamed with Ellen Burstyn as a traitorous
couple who shared one weekend a year for 26 years in Robert Mulligan’s
adaptation of Same Time, Next Year (1978) and made his debut as a film
screenwriter in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), where Alda also starred as
the titular politician. For his brilliant acting in the latter, he won a 1980
American Movie for Best Actor. Alda went on to score victory when The Four
Seasons (1981), an ensemble comedy-drama which marked his film directorial debut
where he also served as a writer and co-starred with Carol Burnett, gained a
1982 Bodil for Best Non-European Film.
Alda continued taking a triple duty for his next projects, Sweet Liberty (1986),
A New Life (1988) and Betsy’s Wedding (1990). Meanwhile, his supporting
performance as an arrogant TV director named Lester in the Woody Allen film
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) garnered him a New York Film Critics Circle and a
National Board of Review for Best Supporting Actor. In 1993, Alan received even
more rave reviews for his portrayal as scientist Robert Gallo in the HBO
much-admired television movie And the Band Played On, where he earned an Emmy
nod. He reunited with Woody Allen in Manhattan Murder Mystery, that same year,
and again in 1996 with the romantic musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You.
Still in 1996, Alan reprised hid Tony-nomination performance for the CBS TV
adaptation of Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Women,” a role he originated in a 1992 play
of the same name, and earned praise for his work in David O Russell’s comedy
Flirting With Disaster, opposite Ben Stiller and Lily Tomlin. Next up, he had
roles in films the ill-received political thriller Murder at 1600 (1997), Costa-Gavras’
Mad City (1997, starred Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta) and The Object of My
Affection (1998, appeared as the brother-in-law of Jennifer Aniston), and on
Broadway play “Art” (1998), costarring Alfred Molina and Victor Garber. Alan
rounded out the decade with a memorable recurring role in the NBC hit medical
series “ER” (1999), earning an Emmy nomination for playing a famous surgeon in
the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The award-winning performer had a cameo as Mel Gibson’ boss in the blockbuster
hit comedy What Women Want (2000), teamed up with Steven Weber in the Showtime
movie Club Land (2001, received an Emmy nod as fanatical talent agent Willie
Walters), starred as physicist Richard Feynman in the Los Angeles stage
production of “Q.E.D.” (2001) and portrayed a defense lawyer in the Showtime
original The Killing Yard (2001) for director Euzhan Palcy.
However, it was not until 2004, after a long acting career, that Alda got his
first nomination for an Oscar. This was the Best Supporting Actor nod for his
role as Ralph Owen Brewster, the bough-and-sold chairman of a Senate committee
devoted to publicly ruining the nonconformist airline tycoo in Martin Scorcese’s
critically-acclaimed Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, starring Leonard DiCaprio.
The same year, he made his return to series TV by joining the cast of the NBC
White House drama “The West Wing” in the regular role of the Republican
presidential candidate Arnold Vinick. The role brought Alda a 2006 Emmy for Best
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. On stage, Alda attracted the interest of
public with the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry
Glen Ross” (2005), where his starring performance of Shelly Levene netted him a
Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
The 70-year-old actor is set to play the supporting role of Metz in the drama
film Resurrecting the Champ, which is for 2007 release. The upcoming film will
star Samuel L. Jackson as Champ, Josh Hartnett as Erik and Kathryn Morris as
Joyce.
Awards:
- Emmy: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, The West Wing,
2006
- National Board of Review: Best Supporting Actor, Crimes and
Misdemeanors, 1989
- New York Film Critics Circle: Best Supporting Actor, Crimes and
Misdemeanors, 1989
- Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in
Comedy Series, M*A*S*H, 1983
- Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series -
Comedy/Musical, M*A*S*H, 1983
- Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in
Comedy Series, M*A*S*H, 1982
- Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, M*A*S*H, 1982
- Bodil: Best Non-European Film, The Four Seasons, 1982
- American Movie: Favorite Star – Male, 1982
- Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series -
Comedy/Musical, M*A*S*H, 1982
- Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series -
Musical/Comedy, M*A*S*H , 1981
- People’s Choice: Favorite All Around Male Entertainer, 1980
- American Movie: Best Actor, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, 1980
- Humanitas Prize: 30 Minute Category, M*A*S*H, 1980
- Golden Globe: Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy, M*A*S*H, 1980
- Golden Apple: Male Star of the Year, 1979
- Emmy: Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series,
M*A*S*H, 1979
- Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in
Comedy Series, "M*A*S*H, 1977
- Emmy: Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, M*A*S*H, 1977
- Golden Globe: Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy, M*A*S*H, 1976
- Golden Globe: Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy, M*A*S*H, 1975
- People’s Choice: Favorite Male Television Performer, 1975, 1979, 1980,
1981, 1982
- Emmy: Actor of the Year, M *A*S*H, 1974
- Emmy: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, M *A*S*H, 1974
- Golden Apple: Male Star of the Year, 1974
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