Hawkeye

The slouching fellow above is one Alan Alda born this day 1936 in the Bronx, New York. He was born the son of an actor and singer father, and a mother that was a former Miss New York. Perhaps that is where he got his looks from, for he is one handsome fellow. The above picture is him in his most famous role, the role that makes him my hero of the day. That of Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce on M A S H. It is fairly ironic that the part he played was an army surgeon during the Korean War, when Alda himself had, after high school, joined the Army Reserve, and did a six month tour in Korea in 1956. For the above role he was nominated 21 times for an Emmy, and won five times. He won for acting, directing, and writing being the first person to ever do so. He wrote the series' final episode that remains to this day the single most watched episode of any TV series, and even though his critics make the claim that he took creative control of the series, and turned it into his own soapbox, Hawkeye remains one of my all time favourite characters of any TV show I have ever watched. He was the only character to appear in all 251 episodes of the show, and remains its defining character. Though the writer who wrote the book that the series was based on was not fond of Alda's Pierce, the writer was a staunch Republican, and Alda played Hawkeye as the sensitive, liberal, left wing type. That portrayal earned him a great deal of respect from the feminist movement (he is a life long feminist), and earned him the title (from the Boston Globe) of "Honorary Woman; a feminist icon." From the feminist movement of the middle 1970's that is high praise indeed. So for playing the role of Hawkeye Pierce so well, and with such passion and sensitivity, Alan Alda (January 28th, 1936-present) you are my (157th) hero of the day.