Alan Alda and his wife of 65 years, Arlene Alda, are celebrating his 87th birthday together. Alan Alda was born in New York on January 28, 1936.
I'm back to thank everyone who's wishing me a happy birthday today. You remind me how much I love birthdays. The more of them the better. Looking forward to a huge pile of them. And I wish the same to all of you.
— Alan Alda (@alanalda) January 29, 2023
He and his wife of 65 years got together in a very strange way. Alan and Arlene went on the “TODAY” show in April 2015 and said that it only took one bad dessert for them to fall in love.
The writer went to the musician’s house, where she was serving dessert.
The hostess of the evening had made a rum cake, and she put it on the refrigerator to cool. The refrigerator shook, and the cake fell off the refrigerator and hit the floor,
Alan Alda recalled.
At that point, he and Arlene separated from the other guests and went to eat the dessert. That’s when sparks started flying:
Arlene and I were the only two people who went in with spoons and ate it off the floor. That’s how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that’s it for life.
Alan said he fell deeply in love with his future wife after that meeting, but he couldn’t bring himself to contact her:
I was so intensely shy and inexperienced. I felt I needed to ask her out on the perfect date.
Having three daughters, struggling with money, and “M*A*S*H”
Alan and Arlene got married in 1957 in a church in Houston, Texas. They spent their honeymoon in Mexico. The “Tower Heist” star said they didn’t have enough money for their getaway trip and had to chip in to save:
We could barely afford a wedding trip. We added up her savings and mine, figuring out how much we had to start life with; it came out to six hundred dollars between us.
The couple that had just gotten married rented a small apartment in Manhattan, where they both worked hard to make ends meet. Arlene and Alan had three daughters, Elizabeth, Eve, and Beatrice, with whom they both worked hard to make ends meet. They took it in “turns” to stay home with their kids.
Alan’s most famous role was as Captain Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce in the 1972 American sitcom “M*A*S*H.” During that time, his kids were just getting ready to turn 13.
He had to work away from home because he drove from the couple’s home in New Jersey to the West Coast every day for work. When asked if he went to and from work every day for eleven years, Alan said in an interview in April 2013 that he traveled “four months out of the year for about six years.” In 1983, the show went off the air.
The father of three said that his daughters were still young and living at home and that he and his wife, Arlene, did not “want to uproot them.”
I was in a constant state of jet lag. But for several years, towards the end, I didn’t have to commute. My wife had to come out with me, and the kids would visit when they could,
Alan recalled.
The six-time Emmy winner’s children followed in his footsteps by becoming actors and directors. Elizabeth and Beatrice both became actresses before they switched.
Elizabeth, the oldest of the three children, quit show business to become “a teacher of the deaf and a special education teacher in general,” said their doting father.
Her younger sister Beatrice, on the other hand, is now a “writer/director” and has won an award for her documentary “Out Late.”
They all have advanced degrees and I’m very proud of them,
Alan noted his kids’ accomplishments.
Parkinson’s Disease and Having Fun in Their Eighties.
Alan and Arlene, the mother of his children, have been married for 65 years. They have both had health problems over the years. In July 2018, the director said on Facebook that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Alan, on the other hand, talked about how he felt good about the diagnosis and said he wanted to tell others “to encourage” them “to do something.” Even though it had been years since he was told he had cancer, the famous actor said he was still physically active.
My life is full. I act, I give talks. I help with the Alda Center for Communicating Science, and I do my podcast, which I love,
wrote the “Ray Donovan” alum.
He told his followers that if they ever got Parkinson’s disease, they should “keep moving!”
Alan takes his advice to heart and does sports every day. He does “boxing lessons three days a week, plays singles tennis twice a week, and take a mild pill – all Dr. recommended. I even juggle a bit,” he penned on his social media post.
Alan even has fun dancing with his grandchild. In August 2019, he tweeted a link to a video of the two tap dancing in the garage.
I love this video. My granddaughter and I trying a way-under-rehearsed tap routine when she was about 9. One performance only in the garage.
In December of that year, the six-time Golden Globe winner posted a photo of a “menorah with candles and potatoes” that Arlene had made for the couple and said how amazing it was. He also posted a picture of his wife smiling for the camera while holding a dish of food in their kitchen.
Aside from that, the TV star also likes to play wheel spins. In February 2017, he shared a video of him doing this on a beach.
Alan also meets up with his old “M*A*S*H” co-stars, like actor Mike Farrell. In September 2022, they got back together to celebrate the “50th anniversary” of the TV show. Alan posted a picture on Instagram of him and Farrell holding wine glasses and grinning at the camera. He wrote:
Mike Farrell and I today toasting the 50th anniversary of the show that changed our lives – and our brilliant pals who made it what it was. MASH was a great gift to us.
Alan also talked about what a typical Sunday is like for him now, besides seeing old friends. He made a joke about how every day is the same:
I usually forget what day it is, so I can’t tell Sunday from the other day. I play; I work; I make my wife laugh six times; I write all the time.
Alan is now a podcaster full-time, and his show “Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda” has had 200 episodes so far. When the movie star isn’t making podcasts, he spends time with his wife, Arlene, playing chess, and ladder ball, and binge-watching TV shows at their home on Long Island. When asked how he was doing in June 2022, after being told he had Parkinson’s, Alan said,
Surprisingly well.
On March 15, 2022, his and Arlene’s wedding anniversary, their youngest daughter Eve paid them a tribute on social media.
These two crazy kids are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! Love you both!
penned Eve.
