The Westport Library has announced that the 2017 BOOKED for the evening honoree is award-winning actor, director, screenwriter and author Alan Alda.
Alan Alda: to be honored June 5. Photo courtesy of Alan Alda
His newest book, “If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating,” is being published in June.
The event will be on Monday, June 5 with tickets available on May 1.
Alda, 81, has won six Emmy Awards, received three Tony nominations, is an inductee of the Television Hall of Fame and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” (2004).
Alda played Hawkeye Pierce on the classic television series” M*A*S*H” (1972-1983), and Arnold Vinick in The West Wing (2004–2006). His films include “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), “Everyone Says I Love You” (1996), “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993), “Bridge of Spies” (2015), and many more.
Alda is an active member of the science community, having hosted the award-winning series “Scientific American Frontiers” for 11 years and founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.
Alda is the author of two bestselling books, “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned” (2005), and “Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself” (2006).
Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo on Jan. 28, 1936, in the Bronx, New York City, and had a peripatetic childhood, as his parents traveled around the United States in support of his father’s job as a performer in burlesque theatres.
He and his wife, the former Arlene Weiss, live in Leonia, New Jersey. They are the parents of three daughters and have eight grandchildren,
Past Westport Library Award recipients include Tom Brokaw, E.L. Doctorow, Calvin Trillin, Wendy Wasserstein, Pete Hamill, Martin Scorsese, Arthur Mitchell, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Halberstam, Oscar Hijuelos, Adam Gopnik, Will Shortz, Patti Smith, Barry Levinson, Jon Meacham, Nile Rodgers, Lynsey Addario and Ron Chernow.
