Entertainment

MAS*H star Alan Alda reveals he has been living with Parkinson’s for years

Aug 01, 2018

He played Hawkeye Pierce in the series. Source: YouTube/Studio 10.

Revered actor Alan Alda made a heartbreaking confession on Tuesday, revealing he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The M*A*S*H star shared the news of his diagnosis on US show CBS This Morning, admitting he received the shocking news more than three years ago.

The 82-year-old, who played doctor Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H and presidential contender Arnold Vanick in West Wing, told interviewers that he is yet to suffer any symptoms of the disease, except a slight thumb twitch.

“”I’m doing great. You might be surprised to hear that. I was diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago and I’ve had a full life since then,” he said. “I’ve acted, I’ve given talks, I help at the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook, I’ve started this new podcast.”

"If you act out your dreams, there's a good chance that might be a very early symptom… where nothing else shows," Alan Alda explained on @CBSThisMorning. Here's what you should know about his Parkinson's diagnosis https://t.co/Eizgjzx3Tr pic.twitter.com/ucKPKDY2aX

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 31, 2018

Alda went on to reveal that he first realised something might be wrong after he began acting out his dreams, leading him to ask his doctor for a scan which then led to his diagnosis.

“If you act out your dreams, there’s a good chance that might be a very early symptom… where nothing else shows,” he added. “By acting out your dreams, I mean I was having a dream where someone was attacking me and I threw a sack of potatoes at them, and what I was really doing was throwing a pillow at my wife.”

Alda, who has been married to wife Arlene since 1957, noticed his first symptom, a thumb twitch, after watching back recent television interviews he’d given to promote his new podcast Clear + Vivid with Alan Alda.

He said: “I noticed that – I had been on television a lot in the last couple of weeks talking about the new podcast – and I could see my thumb twitch in some shots and I thought, it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view, but that’s not where I am.

“This is a disease that’s different for almost everybody who has it. There are some common symptoms, but mostly everybody’s different and each day is different from the next.”