‘MASH’ star Alan Alda to receive SAG Life Achievement Award

Veteran film and television star Alan Alda is slated to be the next recipient of the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award.

SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest labor union, will present the award to the “M*A*S*H” star during the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony on Jan. 27, the organization announced Thursday.

Alda, 82, is an Oscar-nominated actor, writer, director, producer and long-time advocate for science communication. He’s to be the 55th recipient of the union’s highest tribute, joining recent honorees such as Morgan Freeman, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds and Rita Moreno.

The award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” the guild said.

“He is an artist whose body of work is a testament to the craft and the magic of our business,” SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement. “His ability to make us laugh, to think and to feel is extraordinary. From theater to television, movies, and new media Alan’s dedication and talent are exceeded only by his contributions to a just and caring society.”

Though Alda is best known for his 11-season run as Dr. “Hawkeye” Pierce on “M*A*S*H,” he got his start in improvisational theater in Cleveland before moving to Broadway, which eventually earned him three Tony Award nominations.

He has since been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, won six Emmy Awards, racked up four SAG Award nominations, six Golden Globe Awards, four DGA Awards (including the D.W. Griffith Award) and the WGA’s Valentine Davis Award. He earned his supporting actor Oscar nomination for Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic, “The Aviator,” playing Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster.

Alda is one of only six people to be nominated for an Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award in the same year (2005), SAG noted.