Recently, famed Stepinac High School alumni actors Alan Alda and Jon Voight shared screen time in an episode of the sixth season of Ray Donovan, the hit Showtime series. According to a Google search, this may well have been the first time the legendary actors in their long careers appeared together, although in separate scenes, in either a television show, motion picture or play.
In the ninth episode, “Dream On,” multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alda plays a psychiatrist in scenes with Ray Donovan’s lead actor, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Liev Schreiber. Academy Award winner Voight has been playing the role of the patriarch of the troubled Donovan family since the series started.
Alda and Voight do not act together in any of the scenes of the episode, which is currently streaming and is also available On Demand on Showtime. But, nine years ago, the venerable actors were on stage together when they returned to their alma mater to honor their teacher/mentor, the Rev. Bernie McMahon, who taught dramatics and literature at the all-boys Stepinac High School from 1951 to 1971.
In April 2009, McMahon was presented with Stepinac’s Major Bowes Award, bestowed on individuals whose superb talents have inspired students to pursue careers in the theater arts. Fittingly, the ceremony was held on the Major Bowes Auditorium stage where Alda and Voight performed as aspiring young actors – but never together – as they graduated from Stepinac four years apart (Alda in the Class of ’52 and Voight in the Class of ’56).
During his tenure, McMahon moderated the then-known Drama Club (since renamed the Stepinac Theatre) and directed several of its productions, chaired the English department and oversaw the Shepherd Yearbook and the Phoenix Literary Magazine.
Alda, who lived in Elmsford when he attended Stepinac, not only performed in Stepinac Drama Club productions but also co-wrote the books for two original school musicals. He went on to become an Academy Award nominated, Emmy award and Golden Globe winning actor, director and screenwriter. After his landmark television series, “M*A*S*H,” Alda explored his lifelong interest in science as host of PBS’s “Scientific American Frontiers.”
A native of Yonkers, Voight starred in the Drama Club’s production of “Song of Norway.” He has a long, distinguished career as a leading man and character actor who won an Academy Award for “best actor” in “Coming Home” and starred in other landmark films, including “Midnight Cowboy” and “Deliverance.” He is also a Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominated actor.
McMahon earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota, a doctorate from St. John’s University and a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Cambridge University. Ordained a priest in 1948, McMahon has been a lifelong teacher and campus chaplain and has officiated at the weddings of countless students and the baptisms of their children.
Reflecting on his approach to teaching, McMahon said: “My job was not to impose but to elicit what my students had inside of them. What I tried to do was create a sense of joy. If they have that joy, they will find the real person in the character they are presenting.”
For more information, visit www.Stepinac.org.
