Alan Alda is Irish-Italian and the son of actor Robert Alda and Josephine Browne, who was the New York state beauty-pageant winner.  He was their only child born  Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo on January 28, 1936 in Brooklyn.   Robert and Josephine (Joan) were married 31 December 1932 and divorced in 1948 because of her unstable health.  His father was dubbed Alda as a portmanteau of his real name ALphonso and D’Abruzzo when he went to Hollywood.

Robert Alda remarried Italian actress Flora Martino whom had his second  son Antonio.   Alan Alda’s mother died in Los Angeles on September 28, 1984 and his father Robert May 3, 1986.  Flora Martino Alda died in 2008; their son  a year later at 52 from cirrhosis of the liver. 

Alan Alda married Arlene Weiss on March 15, 1957 in New York City; they have been together for 61 years. They have three daughters, Eve (born on December 12, 1958), Elizabeth Alda (born on August 20, 1960) and Beatrice Alda (born on August 10, 1961). He is called Al at home as its fits both Alphonso and Alan.

When seven years old, Alda contracted polio and is parents administered the regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, a self-taught Australian bush nurse, who developed a treatment of applying hot wool compresses to the affected limbs to reduce the spasms and then force the patient into physical rehabilitation by making the legs pretend walking. In his book “Never have your dog stuffed” Alda credits Sister Kenney with his complete recovery. Dinah shore, Rosalind Russell’s nephew and Martin Sheen also testify to its efficacy.

In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from  Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV still on the air in NYC and on the Internet via the Tune-In app.

The Aldas still reside Leonia, New Jersey.

Alda’s ascendant is 02 Capricorn and its ruler is Saturn that is in the second house in Pisces.  Saturn is opposite Neptune that gives a tendency to be hard on his fellow workers — it’s my way or the highway.   That though would not be true in his personal life, where he is far more agreeable and understanding, which is why he falls into a see-saw temperament:  the two parts of his life are quite separate except for his political views — the generational planets are on the experiential side of the chart.

The Saturn in his second house shows that he will accumulate lots of personal wealth not only through his work but also through his own thrift, and suggests that he was shrewd in using his father Robert’s Hollywood network in getting a foothold in the movie industry.

This is supported by Pluto in the sixth/seventh house cusp in Cancer that suggests he tends to manage his work relationship with his strong personality and his ability to manage people and situations.  This aspect also makes him attractive to film vehicles that have unusual or socially transformative  issues i.e. MASH with Burns and Houlihan, Same Time next year with Ellen Burstyn.

He has the Asteroid Siwa, sound, conjunct his Aquarian Ascendant, makes him love puns, and irony.  Alda’s North Node makes him successful using twelfth house environments, the military, the war and the film industry, to his advantage.

1. His Line of Vitality is sextile.
   1. While life encourages his talents to be exploited to the fullest, on the downside it does not lead to self-discovery.
2. No Line of Efficiency
3. Line of Motivation trine.
   1. Alda has the ability to be free and easy with his fungoing self-expressive and he participate in whatever his environment throws at him , but OTOH this makes him a bit of a chameleon (he is often thought of as Jewish though he is not; his wife and children are) where his true beliefs are lost.
4. No Line of Social Significance.