Spiritually speaking, is Alan Alda the chosen one?

His hair is now grey and thinning, the lanky frame is a bit stooped and the eye glasses are more and more a permanent fixture.

But the eyes behind the lenses are still alert and lively, and the voice still carries the twanging cadences of Hawkeye, the irrepressible battleground anti-hero who helped make M*A*S*H one of the most honoured television series of all time.

You might say that, at 71, Alan Alda is demonstrating how one can grow old gracefully. True, the big stardom is behind him — although Hawkeye and his pals continue to enjoy a healthy life on reruns and on DVD. And he has also, without regret, put his days of screenwriting and directing behind him.

But he continues to act on television, in film — he currently plays a newspaper editor in Resurrecting The Champ — and on stage. Furthermore, he still writes, and has a new book, called Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, coming out from Random House Sept. 4.