Mr. Alan Alda

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Alan Alda is my favorite actor. I first came across him as Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the incomparable TV show M*A*S*H. He superb acting, as well as directing, garnered him a flabbergasting 21 Emmy nominations and 5 wins during the 11-year lifetime of the show. And then he did the brilliant science show Frontiers, in collaboration with Scientific American. And then there was the fantastic ER episode - The Peace of Wild Things [the eponymous Wendell Berry poem], for which he was nominated for yet another Emmy. Then, of course, there was the Oscar-nominated performance for The Aviator - which brings me to the actual point of this post (other than fawning over Mr. Alda).

I just found out that he has been nominated for a "best supporting actor" Emmy for his work in West Wing and caught a brief sound bite of him saying something to the effect of "Has there been someone before who has actually lost all 3 in the same year ?" And then it hit me ... he has been nominated for an Oscar, a Tony - for the broadway resurrection of David Mamet's glorious Glengarry Glen Ross. which I will definitely be catching before curtains go down in late August and I head back to MD - and, now, an Emmy. My question is - "Has someone been nominated for all 3 in the same year before ?"

Anyway, I really really hope that he wins.

[ PS: I only mention an iota of the work that Mr. Alda did between M*A*S*H and The Aviator. ]