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Antony Alda

Antony Alda (1956–2009) grew up close enough to the theatre that backstage life felt ordinary. Born Antonio Joseph D’Abruzzo in Saint-Julien, Var, France, he was the son of actor Robert Alda and Italian actress Flora Marino, and the half-brother of Alan Alda. He later recalled spending summers on Broadway while his father and brother appeared in separate plays, often passing the time with the lighting crews. That family name brought complicated expectations. Alda observed that some people assumed he understood acting because he had grown up around it, while others suspected he had been cast because of his name. His own interests extended beyond performance: after finishing high school at Notre-Dame International in Rome, he studied musical composition at the Juilliard School in New York. Alda worked across film and television, appearing in seven films and more than 200 television episodes. His film credits included Melvin and Howard, Homeboy and Hot Child in the City. On television, he appeared as Rick Elliot in two episodes of Knots Landing and played Johnny Corelli on Days of Our Lives from 1990 to 1991. One of his most distinctive television appearances came in the 1980 M*A*S*H episode “Lend a Hand.” Alda played a medic trying to persuade two bickering surgeons to concentrate on a critically wounded patient. The episode placed him alongside his father, Robert, and his half-brother, Alan, who also co-wrote and directed it. His broadest creative statement arrived with Role of a Lifetime in 2001. Alda wrote, directed and acted in the film, which stars Scott Bakula as Bobby, a formerly successful actor who is mistakenly presumed dead and adopts a new identity to audition for a movie about his own life. Its mixture of Hollywood satire, identity play and self-examination gave Alda room to work on both sides of the camera—and to shape a story concerned with what remains when reputation begins to slip away.