Alan Alda's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) M*A*S*H Capt. Benja… Scientific American Frontiers Himself - H… TV Tales Alan Alda

Main Movie Roles 2008 - Diminished Capacity 2008 - Nothing But the Truth 2008 - Flash of Genius 2007 - Resurrecting the Champ 2004 - The Aviator 2000 - What Women Want 1998 - The Object of My Affection 1997 - Murder at 1600 1997 - Mad City 1996 - Flirting with Disaster 1996 - Everyone Says I Love You 1995 - Canadian Bacon 1993 - Manhattan Murder Mystery 1990 - Betsy's Wedding 1989 - Crimes and Misdemeanors 1981 - The Four Seasons 1979 - The Seduction of Joe Tynan 1978 - Same Time, Next Year 1978 - California Suite 1971 - The Mephisto Waltz

BIOGRAPHY:

As a boy, Alan Alda suffered through polio, developing his sense of humor while bedridden, watching his eccentric family's antics. As a young man he started in comedy with Chicago's Second City troupe, and his first big break came with the Americanized version of the British skit show That Was the Week That Was, in 1964, with David Frost and Buck Henry.

During his stint in the Army, shortly after the Korean war, Alda served as a gunnery officer in Korea. M*A*S*H, of course, was set during the Korean war. As Dr Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H, Alda brought the series a perfect balance of wiseass and gravitas. As the series continued its long run, Alda gained more power behind the scenes, and some critics complained that the series delivered more political statements than laughs in its latter seasons. Over its eleven seasons, M*A*S*H earned numerous Emmy awards, and Alda earned five -- three for acting, one for writing, and one for directing. He is the only artist to win Emmys in all three of these categories. He wrote 20 and directed 32 episodes of M*A*S*H.


Alda has written or directed five feature films, of which the best reviewed was The Seduction of Joe Tynan with Meryl Streep. Playing perfectly off his M*A*S*H role, Alda played a self-obsessed and none-too-funny TV sitcom star in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors. He was the longtime host of Scientific American Frontiers on PBS, and in the last season of TV's The West Wing, Alda played a moderate Republican running for President.



TRIVIA:

• Was one of the actors considered to play President Bartlett on _"The West Wing" (1999)_ (qv). Alda later landed the role of Sen. Arnold Vinick in 2004 on that series.
• Once did a cartwheel down the aisle while on his way to accept an award that he had just won.
• He did not sign on to play Hawkeye Pierce on _"M*A*S*H" (1972)_ (qv) until 6 hours before filming began on the pilot episode.
• To show the horrors of war in a television sit-com, Alda had it written into his contract that one scene of every episode must take place in the operating room while surgery occured.
• He is an Italian-American.
• His favorite curseword is "horse". It stems from an outburst he once had on a set, where he went through every obscenity he could think of, then unable to come up with anymore, he loudly stated "Horse!". According to Alda, it has since become his favorite curse.
• With the exception of taking a course in Theater Games, he's never studied acting. His degree from Fordham University is in Science. He felt that he was a natural performer and that studying would ruin his gift for being natural.
• Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith; pg. 7-8. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387