Alan Alda Alan Alda is most famous for portraying Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the long-running television series M*A*S*H. It is a character he morphed dramatically over the show’s run; so much so, that the creator of the books that spawned both the movie and the television show, Dr. Richard Hornberger (writing under the pen name of Richard Hooker), wasn’t very pleased. He had written the character to be patterned after himself and his conservative views, but Alda slowly changed the character to be more and more liberal, even having it written in his contract that each episode of the show needed to have a hospital scene, just to ensure that viewers would understand the realities and horrors of war. Alda, born January 28, 1936, in New York City, as Alfonso Joseph D’Abruzzo, followed his father, Robert Alda, into the acting business. While he was growing up, though, his father ran a burlesque theater while his mother was often displaying schizophrenic behavior. After she stabbed Robert Alda in the face, they divorced. The younger Alda contracted polio as a child, keeping him bedridden for two years. As a young adult he received a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University, studied in Europe, and acted in Rome and Amsterdam. He then joined the U.S. Army Reserves and served shortly after the Korean War ended, the time when he was most likely forming his views on the realities of war.
A member of the Compass Players comedy revue, Alda also had small roles in several television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, such as The Phil Silvers Show, The Nurses, and Route 66. Expanding into movies, Alda starred in the Paper Lion as sportswriter George Plimpton, along with Lauren Hutton, and in The Glass House with Vic Morrow and Billy Dee Williams. After the movie M*A*S*H was such an extreme success, Alda was offered the starring role in the television version, but was apprehensive of taking the role played by Donald Sutherland in the movie, with worries of glorifying the war. He signed on six hours before filming started. Of all the well-known stars to appear on M*A*S*H, including Loretta Switt, Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell, and Gary Burghoff, Alda is the one actor to have appeared in every single episode of the show throughout its eleven year duration. It was once he gained control on the show as a writer and director as well, that he began to change the overall flavor of his character, making him more liberal-minded. Nominated for the Emmy Award twenty-one times, he won it five times, doing a cartwheel up to the stage to accept his award on one occasion.
Throughout his time on the show, Alda was able to fit in more acting projects, such as the movies Same Time, Next Year with Ellen Burstyn, California Suite with Jane Fonda, and Four Seasons with Carol Burnett. Post M*A*S*H, Alda continued to film movies, his first being Sweet Liberty with Michael Caine and Michelle Pfeiffer. After this, he worked with Woody Allen on Crimes and Misdemeanors, and played Molly Ringwald’s father in Betsy’s Wedding. He continued to be interested in political causes, especially being a firm supporter of women’s rights. Alda considered running for U.S. Senate in 1995 when Bill Bradley retired, but was intent instead to play politicians in the movies, playing the president in Canadian Bacon, with John Candy, Jim Belushi, and Rhea Pearlman; and the National Security Advisor in Murder at 1600, with Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane. Alda then had a reoccurring role on ER (in the days of George Clooney, Noah Wyle, and Anthony Edwards), playing a doctor not wanting to admit to his own ill health. He followed this starring in What Women Want with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. It was back to political roles after this, as he starred as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. While originally being considered to play the role of the president in The West Wing, which eventually went to Martin Sheen, Alda later played the man running to replace Sheen’s president in the show. Alda has also written an autobiography, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: and Other Things I’ve Learned. YUDDY |
