| Alan Alda  AKA Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo
Born: 28-Jan-1936
Birthplace: New York City
Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Capt. Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H Military service: US Army Reserve (1956-58) 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.
He has written a comedy-tinged autobiography, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. The stage name "Alda" is a contraction of both Robert and Alan Alda's real first and last names, Alphonso D'Abruzzo. Alda's wife Arlene played clarinet for the Houston Symphony, and later became a successful photographer. They have raised three daughters, which has made Alda into a staunch feminist. Father: Robert Alda (actor, b. 1914, d. 1986 stroke)
Mother: Joan Browne (once crowned Miss New York)
Brother: Antony Alda (b. 9-Dec-1956, actor)
Wife: Arlene Weiss (clarinetist and photographer, m. 15-Mar-1957, three daughters)
Daughter: Eve Alda (actor)
Daughter: Elizabeth Alda O'Heaney (executive, Jenjo Foundation, b. 20-Aug-1960)
Daughter: Beatrice (executive, Children's Museum of the East End, b. 10-Aug-1961)
High School: Archbishop Stepinac High School, White Plains, NY
University: Sorbonne
University: BS English, Fordham University, Bronx, NY (1956)
Second City
Emmy five times
Golden Globe six times
Endorsement of Atari
Endorsement of IBM
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2006
Rockefeller Foundation Trustee
Museum of Television and Radio Trustee
Appendectomy Chile Oct-2003
Italian Ancestry
Risk Factors: Polio, Depression, Appendicitis
TELEVISION
M*A*S*H Capt. Hawkeye Pierce
The West Wing Senator Arnold Vinick
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Betsy's Wedding (22-Jun-1990)
A New Life (Mar-1988)
Sweet Liberty (14-May-1986)
The Four Seasons (22-May-1981)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Resurrecting the Champ (20-Jan-2007)
The Aviator (17-Dec-2004)
What Women Want (13-Dec-2000)
The Object of My Affection (17-Apr-1998)
Mad City (10-Oct-1997)
Murder at 1600 (18-Apr-1997)
Everyone Says I Love You (6-Dec-1996)
Flirting with Disaster (22-Mar-1996)
Canadian Bacon (22-Sep-1995)
And the Band Played On (11-Sep-1993)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (18-Aug-1993)
Whispers in the Dark (7-Aug-1992)
Betsy's Wedding (22-Jun-1990)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (13-Oct-1989)
A New Life (Mar-1988)
Sweet Liberty (14-May-1986)
The Four Seasons (22-May-1981)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Aug-1979)
California Suite (15-Dec-1978)
Same Time, Next Year (22-Nov-1978)
To Kill a Clown (23-Aug-1972)
The Glass House (4-Feb-1972)
The Mephisto Waltz (9-Apr-1971)
The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
Paper Lion (23-Oct-1968)
Purlie Victorius (9-Aug-1963)
Author of books:
Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned (2005, memoir)
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