With a career that has balanced a facility with comedy and drama alongside a drive toward furthering science and human rights causes, Alan Alda received the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award at the SAG Awards on Sunday night.
And, after an introduction by Tom Hanks, the actor formerly known as Alphonso D’Abruzzo accepted his honor with a blend of those passions.
“The thing is, this comes at a time when I’ve had a chance to look back on my life and to think about what it’s meant to be an actor,” said Alda, who last year revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. “When we get a chance to act it’s our job, at least in part, to get inside a character’s head and to search for a way to see a life from that person’s point of view … and then to let an audience experience that.”
“When a culture is divided so sharply, actors can help, at least a little, just by doing what we do,” he continued, his hands shaking slightly. “And the nice part is it’s fun to do it.”
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The cast of “Black Panther” accepts the prize for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture onstage during the show at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall.
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Glenn Close accepts Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for “The Wife” during the show at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Rami Malek accepts the award for lead actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Sterling K. Brown, cast member of “This Is Us,” interacts with other cast members after they heard that their show had won outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series during the show at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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The cast of “This Is Us” accepts its award for ensemble in a drama series during the show at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Alan Alda receives a lifetime achievement award during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett relax during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Megan Mullally performs a skit during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”) accepts her SAG award.
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Patricia Arquette accepts her award for female actor in a miniseries or television movie for “Escape at Dannemora.”
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Patricia Arquette, winner of female actor in a miniseries or television movie for “Escape at Dannemora.”
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Henry Golding, left, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong and Constance Wu introduce “Crazy Rich Asians” during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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The cast of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” accepts the award for an ensemble in a comedy series during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Emily Blunt, in the audience with husband John Krasinski, reacts after winning for female actor in a supporting role for the movie “A Quiet Place.”
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Emily Blunt accepts the award for female actor in a supporting role for “A Quiet Place” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Angela Bassett and Chadwick Boseman present the motion picture cast nominee “Black Panther” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Mahershala Ali, left, hugs Peter Farrelly as he goes to accept the award for male actor in a supporting role for “Green Book” during the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Mahershala Ali accepts the award for male actor in a supporting role for “Green Book.”
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Darren Criss accepts the award for male actor in a television movie or miniseries for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Megan Mullally shows a residuals check her father received for the pilot of “The Twilight Zone” as she hosts the SAG Awards.
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Glenn Close (“The Wife”) at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga hug at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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“Grace and Frankie’s” Lily Tomlin onstage during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards show at the Shrine Auditorium.
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Sam Elliott, left, Anthony Ramos, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper present the motion picture cast nominee “A Star Is Born” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Tracy Morgan presents an award at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Presenter Alec Baldwin and host Megan Mullally announce the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall.
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Tony Shalhoub accepts the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Matt Bomer, left, and Ricky Martin present the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall.
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Rachel Brosnahan accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Host Megan Mullally entertains the crowd at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) ‘Black Panther’ wins top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards »
The 82-year-old Alda first rose to fame in the 1970s by setting the template for a new kind of war hero in Capt. “Hawkeye” Pierce on the TV adaptation of the Robert Altman film “MASH.” The groundbreaking series ran from 1972 to 1983, and Alda wrote and directed numerous episodes, including a series finale that drew more than 100 million viewers. He remains the only actor to receive Emmy Awards for writing, directing and performing on the same series.
Consistently working over a decades-long career, Alda continues to appear on Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” as well as CBS All Access’ “The Good Fight.”
“I’ve been training and doing about a dozen things to hold back the progress of Parkinson’s, which is pretty, you know, pretty successful,” Alda told the Associated Press earlier this week. “I’m still able to work and I do everything else that I do with a full heart.”
2019 SAG Awards: See the full list of winners »
During the run of “MASH,” Alda also appeared on the big screen in Neil Simon’s “California Suite” (1978) and “Same Time Next Year” (1978), as well as writing, directing and starring in “The Four Seasons” (1981). He became known for portraying sensitive, progressive-minded characters, and these traits were echoed in his personal life including as an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
After “MASH,” some of Alda’s roles toyed with his nice-guy image, including a Hollywood player in Woody Allen’s “Crimes & Misdemeanors” (1989) and the president of the United States in Michael Moore’s “Canadian Bacon” (1995). In 1996, Alda played an LSD-dealing fugitive alongside Lily Tomlin in the David O. Russell comedy “Flirting With Disaster,” and he appeared as a power-hungry senator in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator,” a movie that earned him his first Academy Award nomination.
Over the past 20 years, Alda has enjoyed something of a renaissance with his TV roles, which included Emmy-nominated roles on “The West Wing,” “30 Rock” and “The Blacklist,” as well as appearances on “The Big C” and “Broad City.” But his commitment to social causes remained equally prominent.
Fueled in part by his role as host of the PBS series “Scientific American Frontiers” from 1993 to 2007, Alda was a longtime advocate for bringing a greater understanding of advancements in medicine and science to a wide audience. Inspired by Alda’s efforts, Stony Brook University in New York renamed a branch of its school of journalism the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, which uses improvisational theater techniques to help scientists better connect with policymakers and the general public.
Onstage at the SAG Awards, Alda wished to share his award with his fellow actors. “My wish for all of us is let’s stay playful, let’s have fun and let’s keep searching,” he said. “It can’t solve everything, but it wouldn’t hurt.”
chris.barton@latimes.com
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