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Quotes

It's too bad I'm not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.

Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.

It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.

When people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another.

Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe, you can't take a taxi.

Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.

No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.

Sources:
Said What
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Biography

by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The son of actor Robert Alda, Alan Alda grew up around vaudeville and burlesque comedians, soaking up as many jokes and routines as was humanly possible. Robert Alda hoped that his son would become a doctor, but the boy's urge to perform won out. After graduating from Fordham University, Alda first acted at the Cleveland Playhouse, and then put his computer-like retention of comedy bits to good use as an improvisational performer with Chicago's Second City and an ensemble player on the satirical TV weekly That Was the Week That Was. Alda's first film was Gone Are the Days in 1963, adapted from the Ossie Davis play in which Alda had appeared on Broadway. (Among the actor's many subsequent stage credits were the original productions of The Apple Tree and The Owl and the Pussycat.)

Most of Alda's films were critical successes but financial disappointments. He portrayed George Plimpton in the 1968 adaptation of the writer's bestseller Paper Lion and was a crazed Vietnam vet in the 1972 movie To Kill a Clown. Alda's signature role was the wisecracking Army surgeon Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 through 1983. Intensely pacifistic, the series adhered to Alda's own attitudes towards warfare. (He'd once been an ROTC member in college, but became physically ill at the notion of learning how to kill.) During his M*A*S*H years, Alda also began auxiliary careers as a director and scriptwriter, winning numerous Emmy awards in the process. He also developed a separate sitcom, 1974's We'll Get By.

In 1978, Alda took advantage of an unusually lengthy production break in M*A*S*H to star in three films: California Suite, Same Time, Next Year, and The Seduction of Joe Tynan. He made his theatrical-movie directorial debut in 1981 with The Four Seasons, a semiserious exploration of modern romantic gamesmanship; it would prove to be his most successful film as a director, with subsequent efforts like Sweet Liberty (1986) and Betsy's Wedding (1989) no where close. Long associated with major political and social causes and well-known both offscreen and on as a man of heightened sensitivity, Alda has occasionally delighted in going against the grain of his carefully cultivated image with nasty, spiteful characterizations, most notably in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and as death row inmate Caryl Chessman in the 1977 TV movie Kill Me if You Can. Alda later continued to make his mark on audiences with his more accustomed nice-guy portrayals in films such as Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Flirting With Disaster (1996), and The Object of My Affection (1998).

Source: allmovie.com

Filmography

Filmography [writer]

Filmography [director]

Key: *TV series, **TV film, †Creator
Source: imdb.com

Awards and Nominations

American Movie Awards

1982: Won Favorite Male Star

1980: Won Best Actor for Seduction of Joe Tynan, The (1979)

BAFTA Awards

1991: Nominated Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Bodil Awards

1982: Won Best Non-European Film for Four Seasons, The (1981)

Directors Guild of America, USA

1983: Won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Where There's a Will, There's a War" (1972). Shared with David Hawks (unit production manager/first assistant director) and Cathy Kinsock (second assistant director).

1982: Won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Life You Save, The" (1972). Shared with David Hawks (unit production manager/first assistant director) and Cathy Kinsock (second assistant director).

1977: Won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Dear Sigmund" (1972). Shared with Ted Butcher (unit production manager), David Hawks (assistant director) and Lisa Hallas (assistant director).

Emmy Awards

2001: Nominated Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Club Land (2001) (TV).

2000: Nominated Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for ER (1994). For playing "Dr. Gabriel Lawrence"

1994: Nominated Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for And the Band Played On (1993) (TV)

1982: Won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1982: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Where There's a Will , There's a War" (1972)

1982: Nominated Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H" episode "Follies of the Living, Concerns of the Dead" (1972)

1981: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "The Life You Save" (1972)

1981: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1980: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Dreams" (1972)

1980: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1979: Won Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series for M*A*S*H episode "Inga" (1972)

1979: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series for M*A*S*H episode "Dear Sis" (1972)

1979: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1978: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series M*A*S*H episode "Comrades In Arms, part I" (1972). Shared with Burt Metcalfe (director)

1978: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1978: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or Comedy Special for Kill Me If You Can (1977) (TV)

1978: Nominated Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Fallen Idol" (1972)

1977: Won Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Dear Sigmund" (1972)

1977: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series forM*A*S*H (1972)

1977: Nominated Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "Dear Sigmund" (1972)

1976: Nominated Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H episode "The Kids" (1972)

1976: Nominated Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1974: Won Actor of the Year - Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

1974: Won Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for M*A*S*H (1972)

Golden Apple Awards

1979: Won Male Star of the Year

1974: Won Male Star of the Year

Golden Globes, USA

1995: Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for White Mile (1994) (TV)

1983: Won Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical for M*A*S*H (1972)

1982: Won Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical for M*A*S*H (1972)

1982: Nominated Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical for Four Seasons, The (1981)

1982: Nominated Best Screenplay - Motion Picture for Four Seasons, The (1981)

1981: Won Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1980: Won Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1979: Nominated Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy for Same Time, Next Year (1978)

1979: Nominated Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1978: Nominated Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1977: Nominated Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1976: Won Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1975: Won Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1974: Nominated Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1973: Nominated Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy for M*A*S*H (1972)

1969: Nominated Most Promising Newcomer - Male for Paper Lion (1968)

Hasty Pudding Theatricals, USA

1980: Won Man of the Year

Humanitas Prize

1980: Won 30 Minute Category for M*A*S*H (1972)

National Board of Review, USA

1989: Won Best Supporting Actor for Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

1989: Won Best Supporting Actor for Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

People's Choice Awards, USA

1982: Won Favorite Male Television Performer

1981: Won Favorite Male Television Performer

1980: Won Favorite All Around Male Entertainer

1980: Won Favorite Male Television Performer

1979: Won Favorite Male Television Performer

1975: Won Favorite Male Television Performer

Razzie Awards

1993: Nominated Worst Supporting Actor for Whispers in the Dark (1992)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

2002: Nominated Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for Club Land (2001) (TV)

Writers Guild of America, USA

2000: Valentine Davies Award

1982: Nominated Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen for Four Seasons, The (1981)

Source: imdb.com