Alan Alda Net Worth

Alan Alda's Quotes

• [on the popularity of M*A*S*H (1972)] I hear from people who watch six and seven times a day. It scares me.
• Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.
• Republicans are as capable of coming up with great ideas and moving this country along as anyone - they just don't do it.
• What I can't completely understand is most other people's fascination with what the famous among us do with their lips and the rest of their bodies. Why do ordinary people become the target of this curiosity simply by virtue of the fact that other people recognize their names and faces but know nothing else about them? Why do we care what they think, what they wear, what they eat?
• [from an interview in "Ms." magazine] I used to be a Catholic. I left because I object to conversion by concussion. If you don't agree with what they teach, you get clobbered over the head until you do. All that does is change the shape of the head.

Interesting Facts about Alan Alda

1. He did not sign on to play Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H (1972) until 6 hours before filming began on the pilot episode.
2. He commuted from his home in New Jersey to LA every weekend for 11 years while starring in M*A*S*H (1972). His wife and daughters lived in NJ, and he did not want to uproot the family to LA, especially because he did not know how long the show would last.
3. Son of Robert Alda and Joan Brown, a former Miss New York pageant winner.
4. He, his father Robert Alda and his half-brother Antony Alda appeared together in an episode of M*A*S*H (1972), M*A*S*H: Lend a Hand (1980), during Season 8. Robert had previously appeared in M*A*S*H: The Consultant (1975) in Season 3.
5. Alda almost turned down the role of Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H (1972) because he did not want war to be a "backdrop for lighthearted hijinks... "I wanted to show that the war was a bad place to be.".
6. Suffered from a severe case of polio as a young child. At its worst point he was only able to move his left arm. He received treatment originally developed by Australian polio expert, nurse Sister Kenny, subject of the movie Sister Kenny (1946).
7. Alan and his wife, Arlene Alda, have three daughters: Eve Alda Coffey (born on December 12, 1958), Elizabeth Alda (born on August 20, 1960), and Beatrice Alda (born on August 10, 1961).
8. 1975 People's Choice Award: Favourite Male TV-Performer
9. Studied at Fordham University in New York
10. Earned a reported $200,000 a week for M*A*S*H (1972) in 1980.
11. "If you work very, very hard, this is the kind of actor, writer, and director you may turn out to be. And if you work extra hard, this is the kind of person you may turn out to be." - James Lipton, to students at New School University, where Alda gave an interview.
12. 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.
13. Is the first person ever to win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing. (He accomplished wins in all three categories for his work on M*A*S*H (1972) before the ending of the series).
14. Studied at the Sorbonne during his junior year of college.
15. Served in the U. S. Army, and he went AWOL every weekend because he was dating the woman that he ultimately married, Arlene Alda.
16. He was once selected as the most believable actor in the U. S.
17. Once did a cartwheel down the aisle while on his way to accept an award that he had just won.
18. Earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University (New York City, USA) in 1956.
19. Attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, NY.
20. Was one of the actors considered to play President Bartlett on The West Wing (1999). Alda later landed the role of Sen. Arnold Vinick in 2004 on that series.