{"id":419,"date":"2024-02-12T17:06:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T17:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freshstoryes.lol\/?p=419"},"modified":"2024-10-15T19:21:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:21:01","slug":"mash-star-alan-alda-overcame-childhood-struggles-now-battles-parkinsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshstoryes.lol\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"\u2018M*A*S*H\u2019 star Alan Alda overcame childhood struggles, now battles Parkinson\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u2018M*A*S*H\u2019 star Alan Alda overcame childhood struggles, now battles Parkinson\u2019sConsidered a Hollywood treasure thanks to his role as Hawkeye Pierce on the much-loved TV show \u201cM*A*S*H,\u201d Alan Alda is also admired for overcoming many childhood struggles on his road to success.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The now 86-year-old actor, director, and writer gained international fame playing the wisecracking doctor Benjamin Franklin \u201cHawkeye\u201d Pierce in the long-running TV show.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Sadly, he\u2019s now battling Parkinson\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0disease, and recently, he revealed some of the biggest challenges that come with the condition.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The wartime comedy and drama M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983, is one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history and its final episode remains one of the most-watched finales of any television series.Alan Alda ended up winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series six times for his part in the beloved show.Despite coming from a showbiz family the highly-rated actor\u2019s childhood was one of many upheavals, struggles, and trauma, which began at a young age.Born in the Bronx in 1936 Alan spent his childhood with his parents traveling around the United States in support of his father\u2019s job as a performer in burlesque theatres. His father Robert Alda (born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D\u2019Abruzzo) was an actor and singer, and his mother Joan Browne was a homemaker and former beauty-pageant winner.\"\"<\/div>\n
In his memoir, \u201cNever Have Your Dog Stuffed \u2014 and Other Things I\u2019ve Learned,\u201d Alan revealed that his father often spent many nights away from home working and his mom struggled with her mental health.During the 40s and 50s mental illness was a taboo subject with very few resources to help so many families were left to deal with it alone.\u201cHow much easier it could have been for my father and me to face her illness together; to compare notes, to figure out strategies. Instead, each of us was on [our]\u00a0own,\u201d\u00a0he wrote in his 2005 memoir<\/a>.He recalled a traumatic childhood memory of when he was just six years old and had stayed up with his mother while his father was working late.When Robert got home, his wife accused him of sleeping with another woman. The argument led to Alan\u2019s mother attempting to stab his father with a paring knife. Before anyone was harmed, Alan grabbed the knife from his parents and rammed it into the table, bending the point.<\/div>\n
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He admits that weeks later when he mentioned it to his parents they denied all knowledge of the incident and his mother said he had imagined it.The following year Alan was diagnosed with\u00a0Polio<\/a>, a disabling and life-threatening disease.\u201cI got it when I was 7,\u201d he said to\u00a0AARP<\/em> magazine. \u201cI had a stuffy nose at Warner\u2019s movie theater\u2014honking the whole evening. I couldn\u2019t clear my nose. When I got home, I threw up, and my legs were unsteady. The next day, I had a stiff neck. I couldn\u2019t sit up in bed.\u201d\"\"<\/div>\n
Astonishing recoveryAlan spent two weeks in hospital and then six months of painful therapy which involved wrapping his arms and legs with hot towels to help increase the blood flow and combat the muscle weakness that could be caused by the disease.\u201cI had nearly scalding blankets wrapped around my limbs every hour,\u201d\u00a0Alan recalled.<\/a> \u201cIt was hard on me. It was harder, I think, on my parents, who couldn\u2019t afford a nurse and had to torture me themselves. It\u2019s always better to pay somebody to torture your kid.\u201dThankfully the treatment worked and Alan made an astonishing recovery with no sign that he had ever had the disease.As well as the many traumas and obstacles he overcame Alan had an unconventional childhood where he watched burlesque shows from a young age and made his first stage debut as a baby.\"\"<\/div>\n
Alan Alda and Meryl Streep in New York City, 1979 \/ Getty Images)He writes in his memoir of the constant traveling he did with his parents so his father could sing with the burlesque troop and sat and watched the raunchy shows as a toddler sometimes five times a day.Alan also shared in his memoir that when he was two years old, his father had posed him with a tobacco pipe for a newspaper to get publicity for the burlesque club where he worked.\u201cA photographer from the Toronto\u00a0Daily Star<\/em>\u00a0came backstage, and my father got the idea that if he posed me in a way that made me look as if I were smoking a pipe, the paper would be sure to print the picture and the burlesque company would get some unusual publicity. They dressed me up in my woolen suit and posed me gravely holding a pipe with tobacco in it,\u201d\u00a0he wrote.<\/a>Despite his chaotic upbringing and overcoming a life-threatening disease Alan went on to do very well at school, studied English at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York City, and then joined an improv comedy group where he honed his performance skills and comedic timing.His career officially started in 1959 when he made his Broadway debut in \u201cOnly in America.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Marriage to AreleneA few years later, he made his film debut in \u201cGone Are the Days\u201d in 1963, a film version of the theater play, \u201cPurlie Victorious,\u201d which he had starred in too. He went on to appear in multiple Broadway shows and movies before landing his most notable role as Hawkeye Pierce in \u201cM*A*S*H.\u201dSince then he has had recurring roles on TV shows such as\u00a0\u201cThe West Wing\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201c30 Rock\u201d. He received critical acclaim for his appearances in films such as\u00a0Same Time, Next Year,<\/em>\u00a0and for his directorial debut film\u00a0The Four Seasons<\/em>. In 2004, Alan was nominated for the\u00a0Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor\u00a0for his role in\u00a0The Aviator.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Jim Spellman\/WireImageBehind the scenes, his personal life was also a triumph; he married musician, photographer, and writer Arlene Wiess in 1957. And 65 years later, they are still happily married.Alan met the woman of his dreams, and when he first met her, the actor knew that she was the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.The rum cake incidentThe couple first laid eye on each other at a party in Manhattan \u2013 long before Alan would become widely known as the iconic Hawkeye.Arelene was studying at New York City\u2019s Hunter College and made quite an impression on Alan, especially when she picked up the clarinet at the party and started playing Mozart.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They met again a couple of weeks later when a mutual friend invited them for dinner. Alan and Arelene were sitting opposite each other and were having a good time. But all of a sudden, a rum cake placed on the top of the fridge fell on the floor. Bang!Due to the refrigerator shaking, it landed in front of Alan and Arelene. They were the only ones who decided to grab a bite of the cake, eating it from the floor. After that drama, they knew that they matched.They shared the same humor and could laugh together \u2013 and at each other.\u201cMy wife says the\u00a0secret of a long marriage is a short memory,\u201d Alan told\u00a0Closer Weekly<\/a>\u00a0at the New York Film Festival premiere of\u00a0Marriage Story<\/em>, adding that it \u201cseems to work!\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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