For the past several years, former M*A*S*H star Alan Alda has been battling Parkinson’s
disease.
While this might sound terrifying, it appears as if the actor has been managing to do fairly
well for himself since the diagnosis.
The star only managed to find out that he had the disease by a mere fluke, and he has
only since begun exhibiting minor symptoms.
Alan isn’t afraid to let the small tremors that he suffers from being seen during his
acting roles, with some of the star’s recent work including the Academy Award-winning film
Marriage Story and the hit premium-cable series Ray Donavan.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Alan Alda lets his Parkinson’s tremors loose for the
camera.
Alan Alda Is Suffering from Parkinson’s Disease
Alan Alda rose to fame portraying the character of Hawkeye on the hit 1970s television series
M*A*S*H. Following the actor’s time on the series, he has managed to work consistently.
However, many feared that this was going to come to an end when the actor publicly revealed
in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few years earlier.
Thankfully, Alan has continued to work since the announcement, even if his tremors are
visible on the camera.
Alan Alda was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015.
If it hadn’t been for a freak coincidence, the actor would likely still have no idea
that he is afflicted with the disease.
At the time, Alan was 79 years old.
According to him, he was reading an article in the New York Times that suggested a person
acting out their dreams was an early sign of Parkinson’s disease.
As it turns out, Alan had caused a mild disturbance by acting out one of his dreams several nights
previously.
He had dreamt that an anonymous person was attacking him, and this attack prompted Alan
to throw a sack of potatoes at the person in self-defense.
In real life, Alan actually ended up throwing a pillow at his wife.
The two of them didn’t think much of it until Alan stumbled upon this article, which
prompted him to go to the doctor.
When Alan arrived at the doctors, they examined the seemingly healthy star and said that there
seemed to be no reason for him to undergo a brain scan.
However, perhaps feeling some supernatural sense of intuition, Alan persisted that he
needed the brain scan just to play it safe.
As it turns out, Alan’s intuition proved correct!
The actor was found to be suffering from Parkinson’s disease, despite the fact that significant
symptoms of the disease had yet to manifest.
It’s certainly a good thing that the actor managed to catch the affliction early, as
he has changed his life around in a way that he thinks will prevent him from experiencing
more severe symptoms of the disease later on.
Alan Alda Says Keeping Active Will Abate His Symptoms
As a consistently working actor, Alan Alda has always been fairly active.
However, the actor claims that he has upped his exercise routine to a significant degree
ever since learning about his Parkinson’s disease.
Alan has learned that movement is one of the best ways to keep the symptoms of the disease
at bay, and he has a variety of different ways that he keeps active during the day.
One of Alan’s favorite ways to keep active, he says, is to move to the music.
This is something that the star has always enjoyed, and he has found it doubly therapeutic
since his 2015 diagnosis.
When it comes to staying active, Alan Alda does much more than just dance.
The actor also says that he takes boxing lessons and that his boxing instructor is specifically
trained to deal with those suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
This training allows Alan to get a workout that’s specifically designed to lessen the
symptoms of the disease.
Despite all that Alan has done since his Parkinson’s diagnosis to keep the more serious symptoms
of the disease at bay, he has claimed that he has noticed more signs of the illness in
the days since his diagnosis than he did before.
One of the symptoms that Alan has noticed is that his thumbs are always twitching, which
is a tremor that he hasn’t been afraid to exhibit on camera during his continued acting
work.
Alan Alda made his Parkinson’s diagnosis public knowledge in July of 2018, via a memorable
appearance on CBS This Morning.
Alan went out of his way to ensure that the moment wasn’t a solemn one, and his positive
spirit certainly helped the news go down smoothly with the actor’s fans.
Since the announcement, the actor has made good on his promise to stay busy, and has
even made some groundbreaking leaps for people with Parkinson’s by allowing his tremors
to be shown on camera in some of his recent works.
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Alan Chose to Reveal His Diagnosis His Way After receiving his diagnosis of Parkinson’s
disease in 2015, Alan Alda knew that he wasn’t going to be able to keep it a secret for long.
The actor has always been a very public person and has always done his best to keep up appearances.
One of the actor’s main reasons for choosing to announce his diagnosis himself via live
television was to ensure that he got to control the narrative.
According to Alan, he feared that another outlet might try to pick up the story and
make the actor into the victim.
Alan didn’t want the news of his Parkinson’s diagnosis to be just another sad celebrity
tale.
He instead wanted the announcement of his diagnosis to be a positive moment for both
himself and others like him that have been afflicted with the disease.
Alan’s main reason for making his diagnosis public after three years was to show that
the illness hasn’t taken control of his life.
No matter what happens, the most important thing to Alan Alda seems to be keeping busy.
There are numerous ways that the actor keeps busy, and his prominent acting roles only
seem to be the tip of the iceberg.
The actor also hosts his own podcast, which is called Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda.
The podcast features interviews with experts in the field of communication.
Of course, Alan Alda himself could inarguably be counted amongst their ranks thanks to his
years in the entertainment industry.
Communication seems to be a topic that Alan Alda has a particular passion for, as it also
led him to create the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science in 2009.
The center can be found at Stony Brook University, and its work is a good deal more interesting
than it may sound on the surface.
Apparently, the center’s main work involves teaching those in medical, science, and business
professions how to better communicate, and the center’s method for doing so is by teaching
them improvisational theater.
Alan Alda’s work with his namesake center at Stony Brook University goes much deeper
than the surface, as the actor can be found routinely lecturing there to this day.
The actor has also released several autobiographies over the course of his career, rounding out
his renaissance-man status.
The actor’s most recent autobiography goes by the laborious name of If I Understood You,
Would I Have This Look on My Face?
My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.
It was released in 2017, and viewers have likely guessed that the main topic of discussion
in the book was Alan’s recent work in the field of communication.
86-Year-Old Alan Isn’t Slowing Down Anytime Soon!
With all of this groundbreaking work that Alan Alda has been doing outside of the entertainment
industry despite his Parkinson’s diagnosis, the actor’s recent roles in such prominent
works as Ray Donovan and Marriage Story almost seem like footnotes.
However, they are certainly both notable in that they allowed the actor a venue to publicly
display the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease.
One of Alan’s main goals nowadays seems to be decreasing the negative stigma attached
to the disease, and part of this is not hiding his tremors before the cameras.
According to Alan Alda, he told the people in charge of both Ray Donovan and Marriage
Story that he wasn’t going to be able to control his Parkinson’s tremor, but that
they could edit them out of the performance if they so chose.
Thankfully, the people behind the scenes of both works opted to keep the Parkinson’s
tremors in for added realism.
As a matter of fact, Alan’s character on the premium-cable series Ray Donovan was even
given a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease himself.
According to the show’s producer, they thought that it would add more depth to the character.
Alan’s work in both Ray Donovan and Marriage Story has garnered him a great deal of recent
acclaim.
Marriage Story went on to receive a great deal of awards recognition after its release,
though most of the attention was lavished on the film’s main stars.
Meanwhile, Alan’s work on the Showtime series Ray Donovan paved the way for him to appear
in Ray Donovan: The Movie, which premiered on the premium cable network in early 2022.
Alan is currently 86 years old, and he’s now been consciously suffering from Parkinson’s
for around seven years.
It seems that Alan is continuing to make good on his promise to not let the typically debilitating
disease slow him down, even if his symptoms might continue to gradually worsen.
With or without Parkinson’s, Alan is certainly doing better than most people his age!
After several decades in the spotlight, 86-year-old Alan Alda isn’t ready to let Parkinson’s
disease slow him down.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Alan Alda’s Parkinson’s disease
tremors are visible in some of his recent works and that
this fact seemingly couldn’t make the actor happier?
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