Danny Glover, one of Hollywood's most recognizable actors, publicly revealed Wednesday that he has been living with Alzheimer's disease for several years.
The 79-year-old spoke in a pre-taped interview with former NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt that aired on the Today Show. According to BBC News, Glover said he received the diagnosis not long after receiving an honorary Oscar designation in 2022. His movements, speech and memories have since slowed, but he said he remains active.
"I can live with it in a sense," Glover said in the pre-taped interview. "I'm sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing."
Glover is best known for playing Detective Roger Murtaugh alongside Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon film series. He also appeared in Places in the Heart in 1984 and The Color Purple in 1985. A four-time Emmy winner, he has accumulated more than 170 acting credits across a career that began in his early 20s. He later founded a production company to develop and fund politically relevant films.
Glover and his family said they went public in part to fight the stigma surrounding the disease.
"I think it's really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story," his daughter Mandisa said. "That's really important. And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself?"
In the interview, Glover reflected on the role that art has played in addressing the world's difficulties.
"We have challenges in the world," he said. "I think art becomes a reframe, a way of looking at that, you know?"
Glover is one of approximately 7 million people in the United States over the age of 65 living with Alzheimer's disease, a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior. Older Black Americans are twice as likely as older white Americans to develop Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Researchers have not yet identified the cause of that disparity.
