Alan Alda gave us something truly delightful. And that was a look back at a heart-warming moment between granddad and granddaughter.
In 2019, Alan Alda, the former star of MAS*H, posted a video on his social media accounts that showed him tap dancing with his then 9-year-old granddaughter.
“I love this video,” Alan Alda wrote. “My granddaughter and I trying a way-under-rehearsed tap routine when she was about 9. One performance only in the garage.”
Check it out. Alda really had the moves down as he shuffled across the garage dance floor. Granted, he’s not Bojangles Robinson, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. But, then again, those dancers never played a surgeon, either.
Alan Alda Fell In Love With His Wife Over A Piece Of Cake
Dancing with a granddaughter seems the perfect thing to do for Alan Alda. He’s always been very family oriented. Plus, he’s the sensitive and kind of mushy type, too. After all, this is the guy who decided he wanted to marry his wife, Arlene, over their shared love of a cake, which had splattered on the floor.
Alda talked about the cake incident in 2015 during an interview on the Today show.
“The hostess of the evening had made a rum cake, and she put it on the refrigerator to cool,” Alan Alda said. “The refrigerator shook, and the cake fell off the refrigerator and hit the floor.
“Arlene and I were the only two people who went in with spoons and ate it off the floor,” he said. “That’s how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that’s it for life.”
When Alan Alda earned the part of Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H in 1972, his family still was living in New Jersey. Rather than uproot them and move to Los Angeles, Alda flew home on weekends. He did this for 11 straight years. It was all for Arlene and their daughters Beatrice, Eve and Elizabeth. He now is the proud granddad of eight grandkids.
Alda’s Grandson Did A TikTok Video About Him Last Year
One of his grandkids is Jake Alda Coffey. And he did a TikTok about his granddad last year.
“Growing up, he was always a family man,” Jake said of Alan Alda. “In the summertime as a kid, we could go to his summer home in the Hamptons and film movies for fun… All these people I looked up to as a kid told me they looked up to my grandpa.”
Multi generations of Aldas attended the Screen Actors Guild ceremony in 2019, when Alan Alda received the Lifetime Achievement Award for projects like M*A*S*H and the West Wing. He won Emmys for his work in both classic TV shows. The whole family was proud of their dad/granddad.
Now, about the dance between Alda and his granddaughter. His fans loved it.
One wrote: “I join the ranks in saying how much this has warmed my heart. And how grateful I am for you. Bravo to you both!”
And another said: “spent 3 months in the hospital before my son was born watching way too many Mash reruns. As a result, my son is named after you.”
