Alan Alda Recalls Not Recognizing His Daughter on Set Due to Face Blindness: 'I Don't Think She Was Too Happy About That'

The father and daughter duo once worked together on a film in the '90s, which was recently adapted into a Netflix series. The veteran actor makes a cameo in the show.

Hollywood star Alan Alda has had face blindness, also known as prosopagnosia, for a long time. The condition makes it hard for him to recognize people.

At a certain point, he mistook his daughter Beatrice Alda for a stranger while filming "The Four Seasons" together in 1981. Alan not only starred in the film but also wrote and directed it.

While on set, he sent the actress out to get her hair dyed blonde so she could look like her on-screen parents. Upon Beatrice's return to the set, he couldn't recognize her. The six-time Emmy Award-winning actor remembered the events from that day in a recent interview:

"I saw this person with horn-rimmed glasses and blonde hair staring at me, and it was starting to get distracting. I said to the assistant director, 'Don't let these strangers come on the set.' He said, 'That's your daughter!'"

"I don't think she was too happy about that, because neither of us knew that there was such a thing as face blindness [at the time]," Alan added. The father of three, who was also diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015, shared he still finds it difficult to recognize people to date.

Despite that, he remains active as an actor and even had a cameo appearance on the 2025 adapted Netflix series, "The Four Seasons" by Tiny Fey. He also produced the show.