What happened to Alan Alda: 90, Parkinson's and humor

For a whole generation, Alan Alda was the doctor in the house. Hawkeye Pierce, the M*A*S*H surgeon who operated by day and made people laugh by night, ran for eleven seasons on television, starting in 1972. Alda won six Emmy Awards. Five of them were for that show.

Today he is 90. And the interview he gave this month was not about the show.

The warning sign almost nobody knows

His first symptom showed up when he was 79, and it looked nothing like what people picture. He said it himself on CBS: no twitch, no tremor, no problems with his voice. What he had was something else: he acted out his dreams in his sleep.

That has a name: REM sleep behavior disorder. During REM sleep the body normally goes still, as if switched off, while the mind dreams. In some people that brake does not work, and the body does what the dream says: throw, kick, shout. For Alda it happened with a pillow. For others it is stronger, and some people fall out of bed.

Doctors have studied it for years because in a share of cases it appears long before the Parkinson's symptoms everyone knows. Alda received his diagnosis around 2015 and went public with it in 2018. Telling the story now, at 90, pillow included, is his way of saying: if this happens to you, do not let it pass either.

It does not define him. He jokes about it

His outlook fits in two short lines from the interview. First: reality is his friend; he does not want to wish the illness away, because he cannot, and he would rather accept what is. Second, and shorter: Parkinson's is not who he is. In his words, it is just a hobby.

And he laughs at the everyday parts. He described writing emails while his hand drifts across the screen and deletes things he needs. Instead of getting angry, he jokingly blames an imaginary doctor. Then he tells Arlene, and the two of them laugh. That is the method. It is not denial. It is something else: look straight at it, and laugh anyway.

He is still creating

Alda did not retire to watch the days go by. Since 2018 he has hosted the Clear+Vivid podcast, where he talks with scientists, actors and writers about one thing: how to communicate clearly. It sounds technical. It is not. It is the theme of his life.

In 2009 he founded a center at Stony Brook University that bears his name and trains scientists and health professionals to explain their work without confusing anyone. Think about that: the actor who played a doctor has spent fifteen years teaching real doctors to talk like people. He also takes selective screen roles, like in the series The Four Seasons, when a part appeals to him.

And there is Arlene. They have been married for almost seventy years. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren. She was the one who caught the pillow in that dream, and she is the first to hear every new joke about the illness. At 90, that is structure too: someone to laugh with about what hurts.

What science is testing now

In September 2026, Yale University announced the PRISMS trial, the first of its kind: it aims to intervene early, with an immune-based approach, in people who act out their dreams in their sleep, to try to slow or prevent Parkinson's and related diseases before they advance. It is research in progress, not an available treatment. But the direction matters: the sign Alda had at 79 is now a doorway for study.

And here is the question this house always leaves behind, to take to your next appointment: if you or your partner act out dreams, move a lot in your sleep, hit out or fall out of bed, it is worth mentioning to your doctor. It may be nothing. It may be an early sign worth watching. A professional decides that, with your full history in hand. Nothing Alda described is a diagnosis for anyone, and neither is this article.