‘I even juggle a little’: M*A*S*H star sees funny side of Parkinson’s battle
actor and director Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce in long-running war TV series M*A*S*H, has revealed he has Parkinson’s disease.
The six-time Emmy Award winner said he was diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago.
Alda, 82, told CBS News: “I’ve had a full life since then. I’ve acted, I’ve given talks, I help at the Alda Centre for Communicating Science at Stony Brook.
“I started this new podcast and I noticed that ... I could see my thumb twitch in some shots and I thought, it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view, but that’s not where I am.”
Following the interview, Alda tweeted he had decided to share the personal information to convince other people with the condition to keep active. He wrote: “I take boxing lessons three days a week, play singles’ tennis twice a week, and take a mild pill – all doctor-recommended. I even juggle a little. And I’m not entering dementia.”
Alda jokingly added: “I’m no more demented than I was before. Maybe I should rephrase that. Really, I’m good.”
Alda starred as the wisecracking Captain Benjamin Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce in all 251 episodes of the M*A*S*H TV series, which ran from 1972 to 1983.
The comedy-drama was set during the Korean War and followed the story of a team of US army doctors.
The series followed the 1970 satirical film of the same name starring Donald Sutherland, which was adapted from the semi-autobiographical book by writer and surgeon Richard Hooker.
In addition to his acting credamerican its, Alda also wrote and directed a number of the episodes of M*A*S*H.
He later appeared in Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Bafta for his performance in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film The Aviator.
In 2006 he won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his work on political drama series The West Wing.