US actor Alan Alda reveals he has Parkinson's disease

US actor Alan Alda, star of M*A*S*H and The West Wing, has revealed he has Parkinson's disease.

The 82-year-old told the CBS This Morning show he was diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago but had only decided to speak about it now.

"The reason I want to talk about it in public is... I've had a full life since then," BBC News quotes him as saying.

"You still have things you can do," he went on, revealing he was "taking boxing lessons three times a week."

Parkinson's is a progressive condition in which the brain becomes damaged. It can lead to tremors, difficulty moving, speech changes and eventually memory problems.

Alda is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H from 1972 to 1983.

He went on to play presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in The West Wing and was Oscar nominated in 2005 for The Aviator.


Alda said he had noticed during recent interviews to promote his new podcast that he "could see [his] thumb twitch in some shots".

"I thought, it's probably only a matter of time before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view but that's not where I am," he continued.