M*A*S*H* Star Names Thing That Still Moves Him Decades After The Show Ended: 'I've Lived Up'
American actor Alan Alda knows that his role in M*A*S*H* has made a difference in the lives of the show's devoted viewers, and he says it made him realize something important, People magazine reports.
Alda recently took the stage in New York with American author Roger Rosenblatt to discuss his new book, More Rules for Aging. Among other things, the now 90-year-old actor reflected on his role as Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, a doctor and surgeon with the fictional Army Mobile Surgical Hospital 4077 during the Korean War.
Alda said that one of the things that struck him about Rosenblatt's book was the phrase “Live usefully,” and he shared his personal experience with that motto through his role on M*A*S*H*.
“You talk about making a contribution [societății]and that makes you feel good. It's not only about giving, but also about receiving,” said Alda at the event organized to promote the writer's book.
“One of the ways I've noticed that I've probably lived a useful life is that people—and it's absolutely true—people come up to me on the street and say, 'After I saw you play a doctor in M*A*S*H*, I wanted to be a doctor,'” Alan Alda said. “And they became doctors, and not even one of them said he wanted to be an actor,” he pointed out.
M*A*S*H*, one of the landmark series in television history
Along with Alda, the M*A*S*H* cast included Loretta Swit as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, Jamie Farr as Maxwell Q. Klinger and William Christopher as Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy.
Although the main cast has gone through several changes over the years, Alda has starred in all 256 episodes of M*A*S*H*, being the only actor to do so.
The series ran in the United States for 11 seasons, from 1972 to 1983, and ended with a two-and-a-half-hour finale that drew more than 100 million viewers, making it the most-watched TV series finale in history.
Alan Alda Says M*A*S*H* Cast Was Shocked How Many People Watched The Final Episode
M*A*S*H* enjoyed huge popularity in Romania as well, being broadcast on TV after the fall of communism. It can currently be seen streaming on the Disney+ platform.
Although largely withdrawn from public life, Alda spoke again in 2022, on the 50th anniversary of the release of M*A*S*H*, about the influence the series had.
“I'm not sure I ever knew the impact it had,” he said in an interview with People magazine at the time.
“It took a while to catch on, sitting at the bottom of the ratings for the first season. We got used to coming to work, doing the best episodes we could and not worrying about the ratings,” Alda said.
“When that huge audience watched the last episode, we were kind of shocked,” he pointed out.
