Alan Alda

Alan Alda

For decades, award-winning actor and entertainer Alan Alda forged a unique blend of Army experience with an ability to move audiences through words and acting. It’s an approach Alda continues to follow today.

As a boy, Alda suffered from polio, but developed a keen sense of humor, landing comedy jobs during his early years, including Chicago’s legendary Second City troupe. A Fordham ROTC graduate from New York, he became a U.S. Army Reservist during the Korean War, serving as a gunnery officer.

As serendipity would have it, M*A*S*H was also set during the Korean War. The series combined humor and military reality; Alda could draw on his own experience in service, and his showbiz upbringing -- his father was a burlesque-style actor with Vaudeville roots and his mother a former showgirl and Miss New York.

"No matter what part you play, you have to make use of yourself. The idea is not to let it show," Alda said, according to CNN. "That's the best acting there is."

According to CNN, Alda almost didn't take M*A*S*H’s leading role as Dr. Hawkeye Pierce; he was worried that "the show might become nothing more than high jinks at the front," but was subsequently reassured by producers Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart.