On Wednesday, veteran actor and former Water Mill resident Alan Alda<\/a> turns 90, with roughly seven of those decades spent in show business. But he isn’t the only big name celebrating a milestone in 2026. Here are some other soon-to-be nonagenarians as well as two stars turning 100.<\/p>\n BORN<\/strong> June 28, 1926<\/p>\n CLAIM TO FAME<\/strong> He’s the comic master behind such screen gems as “The Producers” (1967), “Blazing Saddles” (1974) and “Young Frankenstein” (1974).<\/p>\n OFF CAMERA<\/strong>\u00a0Brooks and Oscar-winning actor Anne Bancroft had one of Hollywood’s happiest marriages<\/a>, from 1964 until her death in 2005. They met in 1961 when she was in rehearsal\u00a0for “The Perry Como Show.”<\/p>\n FUN FACT<\/strong>\u00a0As a U.S. Army combat engineer during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, Brooks helped to clear German land mines so Allied troops could advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n BORN <\/strong>March 25, 1926<\/p>\n CLAIM TO FAME<\/strong> Sporting bushy dark hair, black horn-rimmed glasses, colorful bow ties and a mile-long\u00a0handlebar mustache, film critic Shalit was a sight to behold on the “Today” show<\/a>\u00a0from 1970 to 2010.<\/p>\n OFF CAMERA<\/strong> Before his TV success, Shalit wrote for numerous publications, including Ladies’ Home Journal and\u00a0Look magazine.<\/p>\n FUN FACT<\/strong> In 2007, he provided the voice of TV food critic Gene Scallop in an episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants.”\u00a0<\/p>\n BORN <\/strong>Jan. 28, 1936<\/p>\n CLAIM TO FAME<\/strong>\u00a0He had us in stitches\u00a0as the radical, fun-loving surgeon “Hawkeye” Pierce on the Korean War-set sitcom “M*A*S*H” (1972-83).<\/p>\n OFF CAMERA<\/strong> In 2009, he established the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University to help scientists get their messages across to the lay public. An avid science enthusiast, Alda also hosted the PBS series\u00a0“Scientific American Frontiers”<\/a>\u00a0from 1993 to 2005.<\/p>\nMel Brooks<\/h2>\n
Gene Shalit<\/h2>\n
ALAN ALDA<\/h2>\n