I can live with it in a sense. Things are going to be different.
Glover received his Alzheimer's diagnosis shortly after receiving an honorary Oscar in 2022, with symptoms affecting his movements, speech, and memory. Black Americans over 65 are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's as white Americans, though research has not yet identified the cause of this disparity.
- Danny Glover, 79, received Alzheimer's diagnosis shortly after honorary Oscar in 2022
- Black Americans over 65 are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's as white Americans
- Approximately 7 million Americans over 65 live with Alzheimer's disease
- Glover has more than 170 acting credits spanning from his early twenties
Actor Danny Glover, 79, disclosed he has lived with Alzheimer's disease for several years, revealing the diagnosis publicly to help reduce stigma around the condition affecting millions of Americans.
Danny Glover sat down with Lester Holt on The Today Show this week to say something he'd been holding for years: he has Alzheimer's disease. The 79-year-old actor, four-time Emmy winner and star of the Lethal Weapon films, received his diagnosis not long after accepting an honorary Oscar in 2022. Since then, his movements have grown slower, his speech more deliberate, his memory less reliable. But he wanted to tell the story himself, on his own terms, before the disease wrote it for him.
"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." There was no performance in the statement, no attempt to minimize what's coming. Just a man in his eighth decade acknowledging what he knows and what he doesn't.
Glover's career has spanned more than 170 acting credits, beginning in his early twenties. He became a household name in the 1980s as Detective Roger Murtaugh opposite Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series, a role that defined a generation of action cinema. He appeared in Places in the Heart and The Color Purple, films that mattered. Beyond acting, he built a production company dedicated to making politically engaged cinema, films that asked audiences to see the world differently. "We have challenges in the world," he reflected in Wednesday's interview. "I think art becomes a reframe, a way of looking at that."
His daughter Mandisa spoke alongside him, explaining why the disclosure mattered now. "I think it's really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story," she said. "That's really important. And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself?" The family's decision to go public was deliberate—not a leak, not a forced revelation, but a choice to shape how the world understands what's happening to him.
Glover is one of roughly 7 million Americans over 65 living with Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia that erodes memory, thinking, and behavior. The numbers are stark, but one number stands out: Black Americans over 65 are twice as likely as white Americans to develop Alzheimer's or another dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Researchers have not yet determined why. The disparity exists. The cause remains unknown. That gap—between what we see and what we understand—is where much of the suffering lives.
By speaking publicly, Glover and his family are trying to do something harder than simply announcing a diagnosis. They're attempting to shift how we talk about the disease itself, to strip away the shame and silence that often surrounds cognitive decline. A man who spent his life telling stories through film is now telling a different kind of story—one about aging, about loss, about the courage it takes to name what's happening while you still can.
Notable Quotes
I can live with it in a sense. I'm sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.— Danny Glover, in interview with Lester Holt on The Today Show
It's really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story. The time is now.— Mandisa Glover, Danny Glover's daughter
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did he choose to reveal this now, rather than keep it private?
Because silence becomes a kind of erasure. His daughter said it plainly—he wanted control of his own narrative. If he waited, the disease would tell the story instead. This way, he's the author.
What does it mean that Black Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's?
It means there's a disparity we can measure but not yet explain. That gap is where the real work is. It's not just about Glover; it's about millions of people whose risk is higher and whose stories are less likely to be heard.
Is he still working, still acting?
He says he's still active, though his movements and speech have slowed. The disease is advancing, but he's not gone. That's what he wanted people to understand—that you can live with this, even as it changes you.
Why does his voice matter more than anyone else's?
Because he's spent a lifetime making people see things differently through film. When someone like that speaks about their own vulnerability, people listen. And maybe that listening changes how we think about the disease itself.
What comes next for him?
He said it himself: things will be different and changing. But he's already done the hardest thing—he's told the truth while he still could.