Danny Glover has revealed he has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for several years, disclosing the diagnosis publicly for the first time in an interview on NBC’s Today show.
The 79-year-old star of the Lethal Weapon films said he was diagnosed “not long” after receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy Governors Awards in March 2022. The honorary Oscar, which recognises humanitarian work, was presented to Glover just weeks before the diagnosis was confirmed. “I could live with it, in a sense,” he told the programme on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. “I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.” He described the progressive neurodegenerative disease as having slowed his movements, speech and memory. In a separate interview with People magazine, Glover said he was “still not accepting in my mind all parts of it”, adding: “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.”
Family support at the centre of his journey
Glover has repeatedly credited his family for helping him cope with the diagnosis. “They’ve got my back,” he said on Today. His daughter, Mandisa Glover, appeared alongside him in the interview and emphasised the importance of him speaking 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’.”
Mandisa, a chef who was born in 1976 from Glover’s first marriage to Asake Bomani, also described the emotional toll the disease has taken on her father. “It’s depressing for him,” she said. “It’s a change in the core of who you think you are or don’t think you are.” Together, the family is partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association to raise awareness about the disease, with a stated goal of challenging the stigma that often surrounds it.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than six million people in the United States and millions more globally. Increasing age is the greatest risk factor, and Black Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia at more than twice the rate of white Americans. The disease is progressive and fatal, gradually destroying memory and cognitive function, and there is currently no cure, though treatments exist that may slow its progression. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is typically four to eight years, though some individuals live much longer.
A career spanning nearly half a century
Glover’s career in film and television spans more than 170 credits. He made his film debut in Escape from Alcatraz (1979) and rose to international fame in the 1980s as Detective Roger Murtaugh opposite Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon franchise (1987, 1989, 1992, 1998). His other major film roles include Places in the Heart (1984), The Color Purple (1985) – for which he earned widespread acclaim for his portrayal of an abusive husband – Witness (1985), Silverado (1985), Predator 2 (1990), To Sleep with Anger (1990), Grand Canyon (1991), Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Saw (2004), Dreamgirls (2006), 2012 (2009), Sorry to Bother You (2018) and The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019).
On television, he received Emmy nominations for playing Nelson Mandela in Mandela (1987), Joshua Deets in Lonesome Dove (1989), Philip Marlowe in Fallen Angels (1995) and Will Walker in Freedom Song (2000), and had recurring roles in Hill Street Blues, ER and Brothers & Sisters. In total he has received five Emmy nominations and four Grammy nominations. He also won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for To Sleep with Anger (1991) and has received the NAACP President’s Award, the Cuban National Medal of Friendship, the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award, the Médaille des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, and the BET Humanitarian Award.
Activism and humanitarian work
Beyond acting, Glover has devoted decades to social and political causes. He served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme from 1998 to 2004, working on campaigns against poverty, disease and HIV/Aids across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He was also appointed a UNICEF Ambassador in 2004, and is an Ambassador for the UN International Decade for People of African Descent. His advocacy spans global human rights, economic and social justice, climate change, education and the arts, and he has been a vocal opponent of racism and Afrophobia.
In 1994 he co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles to promote theatre by and about Black people, and later co-founded Louverture Films, a production company focused on socially conscious cinema, as well as the Pan African Film Festival. His activism dates back to his youth in San Francisco, where he became involved in the Black Panther Party’s Breakfast for Children programme, counselled renters facing displacement, and participated in the 1968 strike at San Francisco State University that led to the establishment of the College of Ethnic Studies.
Born July 22, 1946, in San Francisco to parents who were postal workers and active members of the NAACP, Glover attended San Francisco State University and trained at the American Conservatory Theater’s Black Actors’ Workshop. He has a history of epilepsy but has been seizure-free since the age of 35. He has one daughter, Mandisa, and a grandson, Adesola, born in 2004. Glover was married to Asake Bomani from 1975 until their divorce in 2000, and to Eliane Cavalleiro from 2009 until their divorce in 2022. He and his family are now collaborating with the Alzheimer’s Association to educate the public about the disease and to reduce the stigma that often prevents people from seeking help. “I don’t feel like it’s the end of my life,” Glover told People. “There’s work to do. I still have my daughter, I have friends. I want to just say, your life continues.”
