Danny Glover, the 79-year-old star of the Lethal Weapon films, has revealed he has been living with Alzheimer's disease for several years – a diagnosis he received shortly after being awarded an honorary Oscar in 2022. In an interview on The Today Show, the actor said he was diagnosed 'not long' after that career milestone, and admitted his movements, speech and memory have slowed.
'There are the moments that you keep remembering that validate the fact that you can remember stuff. And there are moments I'll never forget,' Glover told People magazine. Despite the diagnosis, he stressed: 'I don't feel like it's the end of my life. There's work to do. I still have my daughter, I have friends. I want to just say, your life continues.' The actor, who turns 80 on July 22, said he is 'still not accepting in my mind all parts of it', but added that the support of his family – who 'have got my back' – is getting him through.
“Danny Glover reveals he has been living with Alzheimer's disease for several years, diagnosed after his 2022 honorary Oscar.”
Glover's daughter Mandisa said it was 'really important' for her father to speak on his own terms. 'And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself?' she said. 'It's important because people ask questions sometimes, and I don't want to be a dishonest person and say, "Oh, yeah, everything is all right. It's all great."'
Best known for playing aging LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh alongside Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon franchise, Glover has amassed more than 170 film and TV credits over a career spanning nearly four decades. He made his film debut in Escape From Alcatraz (1979) and later starred in Places In The Heart, The Colour Purple and Predator 2. He has won five Emmys and four Grammys, and served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme and later for Unicef.
Alzheimer's Society chief executive Michelle Dyson said: 'Our thoughts are with Danny Glover following his announcement that he is living with Alzheimer's disease. Sharing such personal news publicly raises much-needed awareness of Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of dementia, and we are extremely grateful to Danny for speaking openly about his diagnosis. Receiving a diagnosis can be frightening, but we believe it's better to know.'
Glover, reflecting on the three years since his diagnosis, said it was 'in some sense acknowledging that it's happening to you and at the same time that there are millions of people suffering from it'. He added: 'I could live with it, in a sense. I'm sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.'