LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Alan Alda
built 672 days ago
Alan Alda was born in 1936 as Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo. The surname Alda was an inheritance from his actor father, Robert (born Alphonso Giovanni Giuseppe Roberto D'Abruzzo), who used the surname professionally. Alda's acting career began in summer stock at age 16, and later grew to theatre and TV in Europe during his junior year in college. After graduating from Fordham University in 1956, he served six months in Korea as a member of the Army Reserve.
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Alda apprenticed himself to a traveling dentist, who taught the youngster the fundamentals of medicine. Forging a secondary school degree, Alda used his considerable charm to bluff his way into Oxford University, winning the university's first facial-hair-growing contest. Alda was later expelled when his complete lack of medical training became apparent (he once diagnosed a head cold in a patient's anus).
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"I used to be a Catholic," Alan told Ms. magazine. He left the Church, he says, "because I object to conversion by concussion. If you don't agree with what they teach, you get clobbered over the head until you do. All that does is change the shape of the head."
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Alan Alda