1.  Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo was born on January 28, 1936 in the Bronx, New York City.  He is the son of actor, Robert Alda.

2.  When Alan Alda was seven years old, he contracted polio. To combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, consisting of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles.

3. In 1972, Alda auditioned for and was selected to play the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the TV adaptation of the 1970 film MASH.  He was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards®, and won five.  He was the only actor to appear on every episode of the show.  That was 251 episodes.

4. Alan Alda 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.

5.  In 2005 Alan Alda became the fifth actor to receive an Oscar®, Emmy® and Tony® nomination in the same calendar year (for The Aviator (2004), The West Wing (1999) and Glengarry Glen Ross, respectively).

6. Roles Alan Alda almost played:  Jason Miller’s role in The Exorcist,  Roy Scheider’s role in All That Jazz,  Robert Vaughn’s role in Superman III and Martin Sheen’s role in the television series The West Wing.

7. Alan Alda has been married one time.  He has been married to Arlene Alda since 1957.  They have three children.

8. With the exception of taking a course in Theater Games, Alan Alda never studied acting. His degree from Fordham University is in Science. He felt that he was a natural performer and that studying would ruin his gift for being natural.

9. Alan Alda’s tennis playing partners?  Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and Dick Van Patten.  Makes you wonder how Alda never appeared in a Brooks’ movie.