Biography
Born on January 2, 1952, in Tyrone, Pennsylvania.
After graduating high school in 1969, he received a full scholarship from the U.S. Air Force, one of only 40 awarded that year. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1971 and earned a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1972. Following graduation, Alan was drafted for Vietnam but enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps instead. He attended Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, earning his 2nd Lt. commission in December 1972. The Marines sent him to flight school at Pensacola, Florida, where he was in primary flight training when the war ended and was honorably discharged.
Alan made his theater debut in a Jon Voight production of "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel" in Los Angeles, starring David Proval. There, he was noticed by Renee Valente, head of casting at Columbia Pictures, who introduced him to director Buzz Kulik. Kulik cast him in the 1976 TV movie "The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case," which led to other television and film roles. During this period, he faced setbacks, including involvement in an unreleased film titled "Ellipsis" with Billy Gray and Toni Basil, and an unsold MTM pilot called "Nichols and Dymes," also known as "The Iron Cowboys." He co-owned a vintage clothing store on Sunset Boulevard for a time and briefly lived in Miami. Alan also contributed voiceovers and looping for shows like "Magnum, P.I." (1980) and "Miami Vice" (1984). He currently resides in Studio City, California.
He is presently affiliated with Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Alan was an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes in oils and acrylics, winning several prizes and awards in Pennsylvania during the 1960s.
While attending Penn State, he was a member of the Sigma Tau Gamma and Alpha Phi Omega fraternities.
An avid spelunker, Alan conducted his undergraduate Aerospace thesis underground in the Milroy Cave System in Central Pennsylvania. He applied fluid dynamics to explain the formation of flutes etched into the limestone corridors by analyzing water flow.
Beckwith holds honorable discharges from both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps.
At age 20, he was the youngest commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps with a four-year degree.
In August 1969, he opted out of attending a concert in upstate New York to study for final exams during his first term at Penn State; the event later became known as Woodstock.
