Ted Danson is opening up about a “health scare” that he says completely shifted his perspective.
Rethinking Life
The Cheers legend, 78, discussed the moment on his Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast. He admitted it made him take a hard look at how he was living.
He shared, “The last thing that kind of hit me that was very liberating was I had a bit of a health scare. I’m totally fine, but it was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s real.'”
He added that the experience was a stark reminder that “mortality is … it’s the real deal.” Danson joked that even he doesn’t “get a free pass.”
The Good Place star said the scare caught him off guard because he hadn’t “f***** up in some way.” It made the moment even more sobering.
Doing Things Differently
Still, he stressed that he’s doing well now and believes the wake‑up call was ultimately a blessing.
He said, “I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me, and I’m doing some things differently.”
One of those changes is meditating twice a day with his wife, 73-year-old actress Mary Steenburgen. It’s something he admits he used to talk about but never actually committed to. He laughed. “It’s like, wow, I’ve always talked about it and lied about it.”
Danson said the biggest lesson he took from the experience is learning to be more present and more compassionate with others.
He told guest Valerie Bertinelli, “What it’s done for me, the biggest gift of all [is] you can be curious about other people.”
He added that the scare taught him “you can listen and you can be supportive, caring,” calling that “the best thing” he can offer moving forward.
Reflecting on the emotional journey, Danson concluded, “It just means you have experienced allowing so much pain to get to the joy and all that.”
First Television Job
Meanwhile, Ted previously revealed he had a “full on anxiety attack” over his first television job.
He started his career on soaps with roles in Somerset and The Doctors in 1975. However, he has described the soap world as the “scariest” job he’s had to date.
Taking part in Deadline video series The Actor’s Side in 2025, he admitted, “It was the scariest job I ever had, ever.”
“My first day [on ‘Somerset’], this was at NBC, I was hired to be the man about town, always seducing women, all this stuff.”
“My first day, the night before, I had my – aged 24 in New York – nervous breakdown, no, but anxiety attack. Full on anxiety attack.”
“I called this wise friend, going, ‘I’m not, I just can’t’. He went, ‘Don’t do that, don’t cut your nose off – take a Valium, and get up and go.'”
“Took a Valium to discover me and Valium don’t do well. I got up, and even as soon as I woke up, I was [in] sheets of Broadway news sweats.”
Ted was meant to be in character opposite an experienced actress. He needed to make her character “nervous by coming onto her,” but instead got quickly recast as “the town sleaze.”
Danson revealed the reason for his anxiety attack was double booking himself for two soaps “on the same day”.