For millions of Americans, Alan Alda will always be Hawkeye Pierce.

More than five decades after M*A*S*H first arrived on television, the wisecracking Army surgeon remains one of the most recognizable characters in TV history.

But at 90, Alda looks back at those years from a very different place.

The actor recently reflected on something fans have been telling him for decades — and it isn’t simply that they loved the show.

Some people have approached Alda and told him that watching Hawkeye inspired them to become doctors.

That realization has stayed with him.

Speaking during a May event in New York about the idea of “living usefully,” Alda explained that hearing those stories made him feel his work had contributed something beyond entertainment.

For a man who spent 11 seasons pretending to save lives on television, discovering that Hawkeye helped inspire real people to enter medicine gave the role an entirely different meaning.

Alda said it helped him realize he had “lived usefully.”

Hawkeye Wasn’t Perfect

Time has also changed the way Alda sees parts of his famous character.

Hawkeye was compassionate, funny and deeply opposed to the horrors surrounding him.

But he was also a product of 1970s television.

Alda has acknowledged that Hawkeye’s womanizing behavior would be viewed very differently today. He has said he tried even during the show’s original production to push the character away from some of that behavior, although he wasn’t successful every time.

Yet Alda doesn’t seem interested in pretending the past was perfect.

Instead, he remembers what M*A*S*H gave him.

He recently explained that he became better as an actor, writer and director during those years. But one of the things he valued most happened when the cameras weren’t even rolling: the cast sitting together between scenes, joking, talking and forming real connections.

More Than 40 Years Later

M*A*S*H ended on February 28, 1983.

Its finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, became a television event watched by an enormous American audience and remains the most-watched scripted series finale in U.S. television history.

Alda went on to an extraordinary career.

He acted in The West Wing, The Aviator, ER, Marriage Story and many other projects. He became deeply involved in science communication and continued working even after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. At 90, he remains active and continues hosting his Clear+Vivid podcast.

But Hawkeye never completely left him.

Years ago, Alda said he couldn’t control how people would remember him. If he could leave something useful behind, he said, that would be enough.

Now he has evidence that he did.

Somewhere, there are real doctors who say a fictional surgeon at the 4077th helped put them on that path.

After all these years, that may be one of Hawkeye Pierce’s most remarkable legacies.