July 2 (Reuters) – “Lethal Weapon” star Danny Glover has said he has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
In an interview that aired on Wednesday’s edition of The Today Show, the 79-year-old San Francisco-born actor and activist said he got the diagnosis soon after receiving an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his advocacy for justice and human rights, in 2022.
“I can live with it in a sense,” Glover said. “I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.”
In the interview, Glover’s daughter Mandisa said that by sharing his diagnosis, it was important for her father to “tell his story”.
“I think it’s really important for him to have control of his own narrative, of his own life story… And the time is now,” she said.
Glover, who turns 80 later this month, made his feature film debut in 1979’s “Escape from Alcatraz”. He is best known for playing detective Roger Murtaugh in the “Lethal Weapon” movie franchise alongside Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs, as well as movies “The Color Purple” and “Places in the Heart” among others.
He was nominated four times for an Emmy Award, including for his portrayal of late South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in the 1987 television film “Mandela”.
Glover helped found production company Louverture Films, set up in 2005 to develop socially conscious projects from across the globe.
“We have challenges in the world and I think art becomes a reframe, a way of looking at that, you know?” he said in the interview.
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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