M*A*S*H actor Alan Alda reveals he has Parkinson's disease

American actor and director Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce in long-running war TV series M*A*S*H, has revealed he has Parkinson's disease.

The six-time Emmy Award winner said he was diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago in a chat with CBS on Tuesday morning.

Alda, 82, said: "I've had a full life since then. I've acted, I've given talks, I help at the Alda Centre for Communicating Science at Stony Brook.

"I started this new podcast. And I noticed that - I had been on television a lot in the last couple of weeks talking about the new podcast - and I could see my thumb twitch in some shots and 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."

After the interview, Alda tweeted that he made the decision to share the personal information in order to convince other people with the condition to keep active.

He wrote: "I take boxing lessons 3 days a week, play singles tennis twice a week, and take a mild pill - all doctor-recommended. I even juggle a little. And I'm not entering dementia."

"I'm no more demented than I was before. Maybe I should rephrase that. Really, I'm good."

Alda starred as the wisecracking Captain Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce in all 251 episodes of the M*A*S*H TV series which ran from 1972 to 1983.

The comedy-drama, set during the Korean War, followed the story of a team of US army doctors.

It followed the 1970 satirical film of the same name starring Donald Sutherland, which was adapted from the semi-autobiographical book by writer and surgeon Richard Hooker.

In addition to his acting credits, Alda also wrote and directed a number of the episodes of M*A*S*H.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.