Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo was born at New York City on this day in 1936. (The family uses Alda, a contraction of ALphonso and D'Abruzzo, as their surname for most things, but the birth certificates all use the original name.) He suffered from polio starting at age seven, was bedridden for two years, and at one point could only move his left arm. After graduating from Fordham University in 1956 he started acting with the Compass Players of Chicago. He also joined the Army Reserve and served six months in Korea, as a gunnery officer, and regularly was officially AWOL on weekends to date Arlene Weiss, who he married in 1957. He is best known for the role of Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in M*A*S*H; he was the only actor to play in every episode, he wrote five of them, directed 32. His roles have been a bit more varied since then, in fact he's been a villain from time to time. Hero, clown, or villain, on screen and off, he has a few observations on life.
Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once and a while, or the light won't come in.
When people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another.
It's really clear to me that you can't hang onto something longer than its time. Ideas lose certain freshness, ideas have a shelf life, and sometimes they have to be replaced by other ideas.
Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.
No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.
All from Alan Alda
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