How much is Alan Alda’s net worth and salary?
Alan Alda is an American actor, director, and writer with a net worth of $50 million. Alan Alda is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the CBS series “M*A*S*H” (1972-1983), but he has appeared in over 70 films and television series, including “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993), “Canadian Bacon” (1995), “Everyone Says I Love You” (1996), “Tower Heist” (2011), “ER” (1999), and “The West Wing” (2004-2006). Alda wrote numerous episodes of “M*A*S*H” as well as the films “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” (1979), “The Four Seasons” (1981), “Sweet Liberty” (1986), “A New Life” (1988), and “Betsy’s Wedding” (1990), and he directed “The Four Seasons,” “Sweet Liberty,” “A New Life,” and more than 30 episodes of “M*A*S*H.” He has appeared in nearly a dozen Broadway shows, including “The Apple Tree” (1966–1967), “Jake’s Women” (1992), “Glengarry Glen Ross” (2005), and “Love Letters” (2014).
Alan is also a voice actor and has written three books: “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed” (2006), “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself” (2007), and “If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?” (2017).
Early Life
Alan Alda was born as Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo on January 28, 1936, in New York City. His father, Robert, was a singer and actor, while his mother, Joan, was a former beauty pageant winner and homemaker. Robert was born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo, but he went by the stage name Robert Alda, which he created by merging the first two letters of Alfonso and D’Abruzzo. Alan travelled all around the country as a boy since his father worked as a burlesque theatrical performer.
Alan got polio at age 7 and underwent six months of therapy, which included wrapping “scalding blankets…around his limbs every hour.” He went to Archbishop Stepinac High School and, as a junior, studied in Paris, performed in a theatrical performance in Rome, and appeared on a television show in Amsterdam with his father.
Alda subsequently enrolled at Fordham University, where he joined the ROTC and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1956. After college, he served in the United States Army Reserve for six months before being deployed to Korea. Alan’s parents split in 1946, and Robert later married actress Flora Marino. Anthony, Alda’s half-brother, was born in 1956.
Career
Alan was a member of the Compass Players, an improvisational comedy revue, in the 1950s. He joined the Cleveland Play House’s acting company during the 1958-1959 season, appearing in plays of “Heaven Come Wednesday,” “To Dorothy a Son,” and “Job.” He made his television debut on an episode of “The Phil Silvers Show” in 1958, and his first Broadway play, “Only in America,” premiered in 1959.
Alda’s first film was 1963’s “Gone Are the Days!,” and he appeared in “Naked City” (1962), “The Doctors and the Nurses” (1963), “Route 66” (1963), and “The Trials of O’Brien” (1965). He then appeared in other films, including “Paper Lion” (1968), “The Extraordinary Seaman” (1969), “The Moonshine War” (1970), “The Mephisto Waltz” (1971), and “To Kill a Clown” (1972). Alan’s big break came in 1972, when he was cast as Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce in “M*A*S*H.” He performed in all 256 episodes of the series and received various accolades for his work as an actor, writer, and director.
He wrote and directed the 1983 series finale, which was the most-watched episode of any American television series. While on “M*A*S*H,” Alda starred in many films, including “Same Time, Next Year” (1978) and “California Suite” (1978), as well as the television films “Isn’t It Shocking?” (1973) and “Kill Me If You Can” (1977).
After “M*A*S*H” finished, Alan wrote, directed, and starred in 1986’s “Sweet Liberty” and 1988’s “A New Life,” followed by appearances in the films “Crimes and Misdemeanours” (1989), “Whispers in the Dark” (1992), and the TV movie “And the Band Played On” (1993). He played the President of the United States in 1995’s “Canadian Bacon” and co-starred with Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, and Lily Tomlin in 1996’s “Flirting with Disaster.”
Alda appeared in the films “Murder at 1600” (1997), “Mad City” (1997), and “The Object of My Affection” (1998), and in 1999, he guest-starred on five episodes of NBC’s “ER,” earning him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. In 2000, he participated in the film “What Women Want,” and in 2004, he portrayed Republican politician Owen Brewster in “The Aviator,” for which he garnered an Oscar nomination. Alan played Senator Arnold Vinick on 28 episodes of NBC’s “The West Wing,” a role for which he received an Emmy.
Alda went on to participate in the films “Resurrecting the Champ” (2007), “Flash of Genius” (2008), and “Nothing But the Truth” (2008), as well as guest-starring on “30 Rock” in 2009 and 2010. From 2011 to 2013, he appeared in six episodes of “The Big C,” followed by five episodes of “The Blacklist” in 2013-2014. He rejoined with his “Flirting with Disaster” co-star Ben Stiller in 2011’s “Tower Heist,” which also starred Eddie Murphy, and reteamed with his “The Object of My Affection” co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd in 2012’s “Wanderlust.”
In 2015, Alan co-starred alongside Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” and participated in the film adaption of Nicholas Sparks’ novel “The Longest Ride.” In recent years, he has guest-starred on “Broad City” (2016), “The Good Fight” (2018-2019), and “Ray Donovan” (2018-2020), and he received critical acclaim for his role in the 2019 movie “Marriage Story.”
M*A*S*H Salary.
Alan was not just the highest paid actor on “M*A*S*H” at the height of his career, but also the most paid actor on television. Alan earned $300,000 per episode beginning in 1980, with seasons 9, 10, and 11, which was a staggering figure at the time. That compensation per episode amounted to almost $6 million every season. After adjusting for inflation, that equates to earning $20 million per season for three seasons in current currency.
Personal Life
Alan married Arlene Weiss on March 15, 1957; they had three daughters: Eve (born December 12, 1958), Elizabeth (born August 20, 1960), and Beatrice (born August 10, 1961). In 2018, Alda stated that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years before.
Alan is deeply committed to charitable work, and in 2005, he narrated the special “Fighting for Life” for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. He has sponsored Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, and HELP USA, and in the early 1990s, he and Arlene founded the Jenjo Foundation, which focusses on “early childhood, youth development, violence prevention, and microenterprise organisations that serve the needs of women and families.”
Alda is interested in science and presented the “Scientific American Frontiers” series from 1993 to 2005. In 2010, Stony Brook University hired him as a visiting professor, a year after establishing the Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science. Alan has served on the boards of the Future of Life Institute and the World Science Festival, and he was elected Honorary Fellow by the Society for Technical Communication in 2014.
He received the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public in 2014, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal in 2016, and the Distinguished Kavli Science Communicator Award in 2021. Alda is a supporter of women’s rights and co-chaired the Equal Rights Amendment Countdown campaign alongside First Lady Betty Ford.
Awards and Honours
Alda has received 16 Golden Globe nominations, six of which she won for her role in “M*A*S*H.” He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for “The Aviator,” and he has won six of the 34 Primetime Emmys for which he has been nominated, including five for “M*A*S*H” and one for “The West Wing.”
Alan received an American Movie Award for “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” in 1980 and was awarded Favourite Star – Male in 1982. He received three Directors Guild of America honours for directing “M*A*S*H,” as well as seven People’s Choice honours (five for Favourite Male TV Performer and two for Favourite All-Around Male Entertainer). In 2000, the Writers Guild of America honoured Alda with a Valentine Davies Award, and in 1977, he received the Episodic Comedy Award for the “M*A*S*H” episode “Dear Sigmund”. He won the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2019 and the Gold Derby Awards in 2009, and he was voted Male Star of the Year at the Golden Apple Awards in 1974 and 1979.
Alan received the Humanitas Prize for the “Dreams” episode of “M*A*S*H” in 1980, and he was also named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Man of the Year. In 2012, he earned the International Emmy Awards’ Founders Award, followed by the Dick Cavett Award at the 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Alda was also nominated for a Grammy for Spoken Word Album for “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself,” and had Tony nominations for “The Apple Tree,” “Jake’s Women,” and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance for “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He holds honorary degrees from various universities, including Saint Peter’s University, Fordham University, Wesleyan University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Stony Brook University. Alan was honoured with induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994.
Real estate
Alan and Arlene spent $4.9 million in 2000 on two adjoining apartments in Manhattan’s Park Millennium building. The two units are 1,528 and 878 square feet, respectively, while the couple paid $3 million in 2008 for an adjoining flat (1,284 square feet). The Aldas have also owned properties in Watermill, New York, as well as Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, and Brentwood neighbourhoods. They sold their 3,169-square-foot Bel Air home for $1 million in 2003, and their 3,072-square-foot Brentwood property for $1.395 million in 2005.