Biografía

Before his 2003 emergency surgery in Chile, the surgeon tried to explain the procedure he was about to perform in layman's terms. Alda confidently asserted that the operation is called an end-to-end anastomosis. The stunned surgeon asked how he knew that. Alda replied that he had done the procedure numerous times on M*A*S*H (1972).

He 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.

Childhood friend of Carol Burnett.

Is the first person ever to win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing. (He accomplished wins in all three categories for his work on M*A*S*H (1972) before the ending of the series).

Served in the U. S. Army, and he went AWOL every weekend because he was dating the woman that he ultimately married, Arlene Alda.

[on the popularity of M*A*S*H (1972)] I hear from people who watch six and seven times a day. It scares me.

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.

Republicans are as capable of coming up with great ideas and moving this country along as anyone - they just don't do it.

What I can't completely understand is most other people's fascination with what the famous among us do with their lips and the rest of their bodies. Why do ordinary people become the target of this curiosity simply by virtue of the fact that other people recognize their names and faces but know nothing else about them? Why do we care what they think, what they wear, what they eat?

[from an interview in "Ms." magazine] I used to be a Catholic. I left because I object to conversion by concussion. If you don't agree with what they teach, you get clobbered over the head until you do. All that does is change the shape of the head.