Alan Alda isn’t letting age or health hinder his productivity.
At nearly 90, the legendary writer, actor, and director — best known for playing Captain Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce in the long-running sitcom MASH — is still active, hosting the podcast Clear + Vivid and making a cameo in the popular Netflix series The Four Seasons, a remake of his hit 1981 film. He’s also continuing to navigate life with Parkinson’s disease following his 2015 diagnosis.
In a new conversation with financier and novelist Ken Miller published by People, Alda explored the ideas of longevity and productivity, revealing what keeps him going.
“I think the main thing that keeps me alive is laughing,” Alda shared.
“When something goes wrong, I often see it as funny. Take my Parkinson’s. (Please.) The night I accidentally fell into the dishwasher, I reassured our dinner guests by telling them, ‘I’m fine. It was only on rinse cycle.’ Fortunately, when you’re old, pretty much any bizarre thing you say gets a laugh.”
Alda decided to go public with his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2018. He recently shared an update on his health, telling People in a different interview he has recently been “making progress,” then clarifying with a joke: “I didn’t say in which direction.”
He also has a condition called prosopagnosia, known as face blindness, which makes it hard for him to recognize people.
Alda told the publication that dealing with his health issues presents a series of puzzles, adding: “Almost every day I’m finding a new way to do something.
“It's a little like a game. I've found whatever the little problem is, if I keep at it, I can eventually solve it, and then I feel like a million bucks. It's a way to have a good time under poor circumstances.”
He went on to say that managing his Parkinson's has "gone from a part-time job to almost a full-time job keeping track of all these little solutions. But it keeps me always looking for the funny side."
Along with his sense of humor, Alda revealed his secret for being productive despite his age.
“To go a little deeper with your question about being productive while being old, I think a few embers still have to be glowing. A passionate interest in something you haven’t yet followed up on,” he told Miller.
“I've always been interested in how people relate and communicate. And now I'm spending most of my time exploring that on my podcast. But I think it's important to follow a passion even if it doesn’t deliver the same status hits you’ve had in the past.”
For Alda, those hits included MASH, for which he won acting, directing, and writing Emmy Awards, and The West Wing, for which he also won an acting Emmy, in addition to The Four Seasons, among many other films and TV shows.
“As long as we can stay creative,” Alda said, “life goes on.”
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