The Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover has tragically announced that he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This comes as he is about to celebrate his 80th birthday later this month.
Glover Reveals Alzheimer’s Diagnosis
Glover, 79, told TODAY that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2023. Since his diagnosis, he’s seen his movements, speech and memories slow.
“I’m still not accepting in my mind all parts of it,” Glover told People Magazine of his diagnosis. “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 went on to say that reconciling himself with his diagnosis is “in some sense acknowledging that it’s happening to you and at the same time that there are millions of people suffering from it.”
Glover has been dealing with his diagnosis privately until now. He decided that this was the time to come forward with it publicly as he prepares to turn 80 on July 22.
“I think it’s really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story,” said Glover’s daughter, Mandisa, who is his only child. “That’s really important. And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself?”
“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,’” she continued.
Mandisa added that moving forward, her father is just hoping to help others by sharing what it’s really like to live with Alzheimer’s
“I don’t feel like it’s the end of my life,” Glover said. “There’s work to do.”
Glover’s History
Born in San Francisco, California, where he still lives to this day, Glover found himself being drawn to acting during his time as a student at San Francisco State University.
After working in community development throughout his 20s, Glover decided to pursue his acting dreams at the age of 30. It was then that he began taking acting classes at the Black Actors’ Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.
Glover’s life changed forever when he was cast in the 1984 movie Places In The Heart, which earned Sally Field her second Best Actress Oscar. The movie skyrocketed Glover to fame, making him a household name virtually overnight.
Looking back, Glover still remembers that his beloved mother was killed in a car accident the very same day that he learned he’d been cast in the film.
“Guess what my mother wanted to be? An actress,” he recalled.
Glover is perhaps best known for starring in the Lethal Weapon series alongside Mel Gibson. Indeed, Glover and Gibson starred in four Lethal Weapon movies together between 1987 and 1998. Glover still has fond memories of working with Gibson on the series. When asked what it was like to act with Gibson, Glover simply said that it “was great.”
Glover’s Life Today
These days, Glover is helped out by his daughter, a team of caregivers, and his younger brother Marty, who has moved in with him in San Francisco.
“You see the deterioration, and you think, ‘Wow,’” Marty lamented. “Sometimes you get emotional about it. It’s tough, because you don’t want to see nobody go through this.”
Mandisa admitted that “sure it’s depressing” to see the change in her father since his diagnosis.
“It’s a change in the core of who you think you are or don’t think you are,” she explained. As for what it’s like for her personally, she confessed, “it’s very hard. You just have to live the day for what it is.”
Glover and his family are determined to keep working with his doctor to explore treatment options.
“We just want him to live his best life,” said Marty, “like he made us live ours.”
As for Glover himself, he’s staying as positive as he can.
“I still have my daughter, I have friends,” Glover concluded. “I want to just say, your life continues.”
Alzheimer’s is one of the cruelest diseases out there. Please join us in saying a prayer for Glover and his family as he continues to battle it.
God bless you, Danny Glover!