Alda gets emotional on acting in SAG life-achievement speech
LOS ANGELES — Alan Alda barely talked about himself or his 60-year career as he was honoured for a lifetime of acting at the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night, instead giving tribute to the craft of acting itself, and its power.
“This comes at a time when I’ve had a chance to look back on my life, and to see what it’s meant to be an actor,” an emotional Alda said after receiving the SAG Life Achievement Award and getting a long standing ovation from his fellow performers at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. “I see more than ever now, how proud I am to be a part of our brotherhood and sisterhood.”
Alda, 83, best known by far for his 11 seasons as Hawkeye Pierce on “M.A.S.H” from 1972 to 1983, has continued to work despite a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, and said it’s a more vital time than ever to be acting, with its search “to see life through another person’s point of view.”
“It may never have been more urgent to see the world through another person’s eyes when a culture is divided so sharply,” Alda said. “Actors can help, at least a little, just by doing what we do.”