Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, aka FTD, and had to retire from acting. Before his family publicly shared his diagnosis in 2023, they revealed in March 2022 that he had to step away from Hollywood because he was experiencing a disorder called aphasia.
Actor Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with dementia, evolving from a previous diagnosis of aphasia last spring, his family announced Thursday. More specifically, Willis has frontotemporal dementia, which can include aphasia, which brings challenges with speaking and writing.
Bruce Willis' former wife, Demi Moore, posted on Instagram about his diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, known as FTD. The type of dementia affecting the actor Bruce Willis is just one of several forms that dementia can take.
Other celebrities, such as Glen Campbell and Rita Hayworth, have heightened understanding of the illness and reduce the stigma of Alzheimer's patients by publicly announcing their own illnesses. Alzheimer's disease doesn't just target one group of people. Rich or poor, famous or unknown — dementia can strike.
Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia
Which actress has Alzheimer's?
Shortly after she was diagnosed in the early 1980s, Hayworth became one of the first celebrities to publicly share she had Alzheimer's. This brave feat increased awareness at a time when very little was known about dementia and very little was discussed, and helped start a national conversation around the disease.
Fiona Phillips has said she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 62. The journalist and broadcaster discovered she had the disease a year ago after suffering months of brain fog and anxiety, she told the Daily Mirror.
A 19-year-old man in China is the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The case, presented in a recent issue of the Journal for Alzheimer's Disease, described a male teenager from Beijing who began experiencing gradual memory loss and difficulty concentrating at the age of 17.
Which actor stopped acting because of Alzheimer's?
Chris Hemsworth's plans to step back from acting were inspired by a desire to spend more time with his children, and not by a genetic test that showed he has a high chance of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Fox reflects on his career and life with Parkinson's Actor Michael J. Fox talks about his documentary, Still, about his diagnosis with Parkinson's disease.
The vessel rupture that left actor Tom Sizemore in a critical condition. Brain aneurysms often exist without people even knowing they're there - but when they rupture they cause a massive brain bleed that is fatal in about half of cases and leaves many survivors with severe brain damage.
Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. People with Alzheimer's also experience changes in behavior and personality.
Almost 40% of us will experience some form of memory loss after we turn 65 years old. But even if we experience memory loss, chances are still unlikely that we have dementia. For the most part, our memory loss is mild enough that we can still live our day-to-day lives without interruption.
In some instances, dementia symptoms can appear in the youngest of children and babies and progress quickly. While for other children, symptoms may not start until they are teenagers. Like dementia in adults, childhood dementia is progressive.
But here's the thing—dementia doesn't just happen to older people. While age is still the biggest risk factor for dementia, people in their 50s and 40s (and even 30s and 20s) can also develop dementia. We call this young onset dementia. Young onset dementia accounts for an estimated 2 to 8% of all dementia cases.
Nearly all cases of Alzheimer's disease in people younger than 30 are due to inherited faulty genes. Indeed, the previous youngest case – a 21-year-old – had a genetic cause. Three genes have been linked to Alzheimer's disease in the young: amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PSEN1) and presenilin 2 (PSEN2).
Willem de Kooning's (1904-1997) Alzheimer's was diagnosed in his late eighties. During the following years, he painted more than 300 abstract paintings, which art critics assess as among the finest and most sensitive artistic achievements in contemporary painting.
Meanwhile, Alzheimer was first presented with Auguste Deter, a female patient aged 51 years, in the Frankfurt mental hospital on November 25th 1901. The patient was a student of Johann Alzheimer, his grandfather, when he taught in Kassel.
While there is no cure, researchers say a newly approved drug, advanced testing, and increasing knowledge about the disease may improve patients' lives.
What to know about Tony Bennett's health struggles, from Alzheimer's to addiction. Bennett died on July 21, 2023, after a seven-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which includes a variety of neurodegenerative conditions, his family announced in February 2023. FTD impacts the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.
There are about twice as many women over 65 with Alzheimer's as there are men over 65 with the condition. This is mostly because women tend to live longer than men. However, women over the age of 80 still have a slightly higher risk of getting Alzheimer's than men their age.
How Tony Bennett Lived and Sang for Years with Alzheimer's: 'Singing Is Everything to Him' Kimberlee Speakman is a digital writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022.
