Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover, 79, reveals devastating Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis

Danny Glover has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The acclaimed actor, 79, who is best known for his roles in the Lethal Weapon franchise and The Color Purple, publicly announced his battle with the degenerative condition during an emotional appearance on Wednesday’s The Today Show.

Glover revealed he had been diagnosed ‘not long’ after receiving an honorary Oscar in 2022.

He said, ‘I can live with it in a sense. I’m sure as it advances, different things will be different and changing.’

Glover’s daughter Mandisa, 50, added during the pre-taped appearance that it is ‘really important’ for her father to speak on his own terms.

She said, ‘And the time is now. What better time but now for him to speak for himself? 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.’”

Glover also spoke candidly about his condition with People – with Mandisa revealing ‘he’s aware sometimes and then sometimes not.’

The actor said he is ‘still not accepting in my mind all parts of it.’

‘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.’

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.

This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink.

This causes loss of short-term memory, disorientation and behavioral changes before progressing into severe memory loss and eventually losing the ability to walk.

He said coming to terms with his 2023 diagnosis involved him ‘in some sense acknowledging that it’s happening to you and at the same time that there are millions of people suffering from it.’

Mandisa said her first clue something was wrong with her father was when he started to forget key elements of his past.

She said, ‘The history of my dad is that he remembers every single thing back to 1970, what corner he was standing on, who he spoke to, what they spoke about, what color they were wearing, everything.

‘He’d tell you so much about his parents — and I’ve heard those stories over and over — and there would be pieces of the story missing. I said, ‘I wonder what’s going on.’”

The original Lethal Weapon, which was written by Predator actor Shane Black, was released in 1987 and was met with much critical praise upon its debut.

It starred Gibson and Glover as mismatched LAPD detectives Sergeant Martin Riggs and Sergeant Roger Murtaugh – who work together as partners.

The feature went on to be put up for the Academy Award for Best Sound, although it lost to The Last Emperor.

A sequel to the film was released in 1989, and Joe Pesci notably joined the cast of the feature

The third installment in the franchise made its debut in 1992 and went on to become the highest-grossing entry in the series.

The fourth Lethal Weapon movie was made available to the public in 1998 and notably starred Jet Li as its villain.

A television series of the same name made its debut in 2016 and featured Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford as Murtaugh and Riggs, respectively.

The show was renewed for two further seasons, and it eventually concluded in 2019.