Alan Alda Reveals Unexpected Way ‘M*A*S*H’ Role Impacted Fans’ Lives
Alan Alda recently revealed the unexpected way his M*A*S*H* role impacted the lives of fans.
In the ’70s medical drama/dark comedy series, the actor, now 90, played Hawkeye, a fictional U.S. Army Reserve captain and surgeon in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.
On May 21, Alda spoke with Joy Behar and Roger Rosenblatt about Rosenblatt’s new book More Rules for Aging, as part of 92NY’s Recanati-Kaplan Talks. He noted that the line “live usefully” stood out the most to him, tying it back to the enduring influence of M*A*S*H*.
“You talk about making a contribution, and it makes you feel good,” Alda said, per People. “It’s not just giving, it’s getting.”
He continued, “One of the ways that I noticed that I must have lived usefully is people, this is really true, people come up to me on the street and they say, ‘After seeing you play a doctor on M*A*S*H, that made me want to become a doctor.’ And they became doctors because not a single one of them says they wanted to become an actor. But it was sort of me.”
'M*A*S*H' Star Mike Farrell Reveals What Shocked Him on First Day on Set
During a 2022 interview with The New York Times discussing the show’s 50th anniversary, Alda reflected on why he thinks the audience connected so deeply with M*A*S*H.
“Aside from really good writing and good acting and good directing, the element that really sinks in with an audience is that, as frivolous as some of the stories are, underneath it is an awareness that real people lived through these experiences, and that we tried to respect what they went through,” he explained. “I think that seeps into the unconscious of the audience.”
M*A*S*H aired for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983. In addition to Alda, it starred Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, Harry Morgan, Gary Burghoff, and Larry Linville, among others.
M*A*S*H, streaming on Hulu, Disney+, and FRNDLY TV
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