EXCLUSIVE: Parkinson’s Riddled Alan Alda, 89, Confesses He Can’t Even Button Up a Shirt — as Pals Urge Him to Tell All About His Tragic Life Before He Dies
Alan Alda has left onlookers 'worried' about his haggard appearance.
May 8 2025, Published 12:51 p.m. ET
A morbid interview from M*A*S*H legend Alan Alda in which he said he doesn’t want to be remembered and cannot even button up a shirt has friends fearing the 89-year-old is fading fast.
Sources who have seen the tragic star in recent times said they were shocked and worried about his haggard appearance after terrifying battles with mental illness and deadly medical problems, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Insiders said 'time is taking a heavy toll' on the actor.
"I didn’t realize it was Alan at first. It’s so sad," said one insider. "Time is taking a heavy toll on him."
Their concerns were compounded when Alda spoke to Vanity Fair for a wide-ranging interview on May 2. During the tête-à-tête, Alda opened up about his Parkinson’s diagnosis — and told why he doesn’t want to be remembered.
Alda confessed: "When people ask me, ‘How are you?’ I often say, ‘making progress.’ I don’t mention which direction."
“The little things I used to be able to do, I have trouble doing now,” he added. “Something as simple as buttoning or unbuttoning a shirt might take 10 tries until I get the right angle. Instead of being impatient about it, I find it’s like an exploration, like learning a new dance step.
“I finally find an angle to come in on, and I get it done, and there’s such a moment of pleasure, a shot of dopamine. It’s a little victory, and these little victories that fill my day, I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have Parkinson’s.
"Not that I welcome Parkinson’s, but I’m really glad I stumbled into this attitude."
Friends are now urging Alda to update his 2005 memoir to tell his story.
Facing death, Alda also admitted: "When you’re gone, it’s over. How many people are worthy of thinking about from 100 years ago, or 500 or a 1,000?"
Friends are now urging Alda to update his 2005 memoir — and tell his entire story — before he takes his final curtain call.
"He’s finally ready to talk about so much more that happened in his life that he has kept buried," said a source.
"He has battled mental illness, paranoia and struggled with fame. He wants to tell how he has managed to come to grips with all the heartache and anger that has tormented him all his life."
Alda, whose 1981 movie The Four Seasons was recently adapted for a Netflix series starring Tina Fey, has been haunted by mental illness throughout life.
As a child, he had to survive terrifying violence from his beauty queen mother, Joan, a former Miss New York, who was plagued with murderous hallucinations triggered by her paranoid schizophrenia.
“She thought people were trying to kill her. She thought Alan was trying to kill her,” said the source. “In order to survive, he had to watch her very carefully.”
At age six, he watched in horror as his mother try to stab his singer-actor dad Robert in a jealous rage.
When he was 6, he watched as his mother try to stab his dad Robert in a jealous rage.
“Joan suffered from furious fits of jealousy because his father worked with beautiful burlesque dancers,” added the source. “Alan cowered in terror when she picked up a knife and tried to plunge it into his dad’s face.
“He thought he was going to lose his beloved dad. When Joan was disarmed, little Alan picked up the knife and plunged it into a wooden table, bending it so his mother couldn’t use it as a weapon again.”
Joan was also convinced their apartment was bugged and that spies were listening to her every word, watching her every move.
“She dragged him down into her delusions,” said the source. “It was psychological torture.”
Ironically, Alda’s own mind began to unravel at the peak of his fame.
During M*A*S*H’s 11-season run, the constant attention proved too much.
“He became unhinged,” said a second source. “Fans would grab him in public and he felt hunted. He had night terrors — hallucinations of people trying to strangle him in his sleep.”
If that wasn’t enough, Alda also endured a series of medical emergencies. He was nearly crippled by polio as a child, and in 2003, he almost died on a Chilean mountaintop while filming a PBS show.
Doctors had to surgically remove part of his intestines in a remote village just to keep him alive.
Now, friends want the six-time Emmy winner to reveal how he triumphed over so many tragedies, especially his childhood with his demented mom.
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Alda’s own mind began to unravel at the peak of his fame.
"Alan grew up deeply ashamed of having a mad mother – it was a subject that was taboo with him for many years.
"Now, pals are urging him to deal with it in depth, to get it off his mind once and for all. They want him to show that you can’t let the past rule your life."
