Alan Alda Lifts Lid on Family Horrors That Will Haunt Him to Grave — 'My Mom Didn't Try to Stab My Dad Until I Was 6'
Alan Alda's childhood was filled with dark moments, including watching his mom land in the hospital.
May 28 2025, Published 7:30 p.m. ET
Alan Alda has opened up about his dark family past as the iconic actor continues to deal with Parkinson’s disease, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 89-year-old grew up watching his mother, Joan, attempt to live her life despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and saw his famous movie star father, who adopted the name Robert Alda, barely make any money.
A Very Different Reality
The actor grew up watching his mother deal with schizophrenia.
In the first line of his 2005 memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, Alan writes: "My mother didn’t try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that."
In a new interview, Alan discussed just how close an eye he had to keep on his mother: "... It may be true. What I was aware of was that I had to constantly observe her. When she told me something, I had to figure out whether this was reality or just her reality.
"She would point to cracks in the wall and say there were cameras in there taking our picture."
Alan, who makes a cameo on Netflix's 'The Four Seasons,' recalled the time his mother ran down a hotel corridor naked.
Due to her schizophrenia, Alan found himself trying to react to her reality.
"I was in college in Paris, Dad was making a TV series in Amsterdam, and Mom was running down the hotel corridor one night naked, banging on doors," he recalled, revealing that his mother was eventually placed in a hospital when he was a student.
As for his father, while he was a famous actor, he didn't exactly make much of a living.
Alan said: "He was very famous, but he hardly made much money because that was at a time when Warner had those seven-year contracts.”
As a child, the M*A*S*H actor performed with his dad in burlesque sketches, but claimed he originally wanted to be an actor.
"I wanted to be a writer when I was eight, and it was only later in life, when I was nine, that I wanted to be an actor," Alan joked during the interview.
Alan's Parkinson's Fight
The 89-year-old is also battling Parkinson's disease.
These days, even at nearly 90 years old, Alan is still working, having appeared in the Netflix version of The Four Seasons, a show based on his 1981 film of the same name.
He is also battling Parkinson's, after being diagnosed in 2015 and revealing to the public three years later.
"A little shaky!" the Hollywood star responded when asked how he is doing. "I just have to plan for the fact that everything takes three times longer to do or more. Getting your clothes on, taking your pills.
"I have to type every email three times before I stop saying rude things. I write emails to women I don’t know, and unless I check, before my signature, there are six Xs."
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Despite his struggles, Alan – who had polio as a child – does not let it impact his life.
"I rarely get upset at it because I know it’s reality," he explained. "It’s much easier to take reality than wish for something you haven’t got. I fell into this way of thinking that if a button takes too long to button, I have to find other ways to do it.
"And eventually, if I land on a way that makes the button go through the buttonhole, it’s a little victory for me, and I feel like a million bucks... It sounds like something I read in a self-help book, but it isn’t. It’s just the way I found myself reacting, and I’m very glad that I did."
The movie star admitted he 'rarely' gets upset while living with Parkinson's.
Alan previously touched on his mortality, making it clear he is not afraid of dying.
"When you’re gone, it’s over. How many people are worthy of thinking about from 100 years ago, or 500 or 1,000?" he said in another interview.
