18 Famous People with Neurological and Mental Illnesses

It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, famous or not. Illness affects us all equally. Athletes, politicians, actors, singers… nobody escapes this lottery. Today we’ll talk about the neurological and mental illnesses that some celebrities live with.

We have grouped the cases into three sections: celebrities with neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis), celebrities with brain injury and other neurological disorders (prosopagnosia, cerebral palsy, stroke and ADHD) and celebrities with mental disorders (depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia).

Celebrities with neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases cause the progressive loss of neurons and, depending on the area of the brain affected, impair memory, language, movement or behavior.

Ronald Reagan, Adolfo Suárez and Pasqual Maragall: presidents with Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. It begins slowly, first affecting the parts of the brain responsible for memory, thinking and language.

Over time, these symptoms worsen to the point that people with Alzheimer’s disease stop recognizing their closest relatives and struggle with activities of daily living such as getting dressed or washing.

Former US president Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994, just five years after leaving office, although, according to his son Ron in the book «My Father at 100: A Memoir», he already showed symptoms while he was in the White House. He died in 2004.

Reagan is not the only president who forgot he had been one. In Spain, Adolfo Suárez, prime minister during the transition to democracy, also had this neurodegenerative disease. So did Pasqual Maragall, former president of Catalonia and mayor of Barcelona, who announced in 2007 that he had Alzheimer’s. A year later, the Pasqual Maragall Foundation was created to fund Alzheimer’s research.

Bruce Willis: from stuttering to frontotemporal dementia

As a child, Bruce Willis had a stutter, a speech disorder characterized by repetitions, blocks and prolonged sounds when speaking. His classmates teased him about it at school, but on stage he became someone else and his stutter disappeared.

Decades later, in March 2022, his family announced that the actor was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that was affecting his cognitive abilities. In February 2023 the family reported that his condition had progressed and that he had a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia.

Unlike Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia mainly affects the frontal and temporal lobes, so its first symptoms are usually changes in behavior, personality or language rather than memory loss. His family described it as «a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone», and asked that media attention be used to raise awareness and support research.

Muhammad Ali and Parkinson’s disease

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali fought his toughest battle outside the ring. Ali fought Parkinson’s disease for 32 years. The disease involves the progressive death of neurons in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, specifically in a portion of this nucleus known as the pars compacta.

This reduces dopamine production, which disrupts the regulation of the main brain structures involved in controlling movement.

Its main symptoms are general clumsiness with slowness of movement, reduced spontaneous movement, resting tremor and rigidity. Postural reflexes may also be impaired, leading to falls. Cognitive decline is common, affecting memory, attention and processing speed.

Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984. «At first, there were moments when I could put thoughts of the disease out of my mind. Later, when the physical symptoms could not be ignored, there were periods of frustration and depression», said the boxing legend.

Even so, Ali stood up to the disease and became an example for many people living with it. The boxer died in 2016 of a respiratory complication related to the disease.

Chris Wright and Asier de la Iglesia: playing elite basketball with multiple sclerosis

Point guard Chris Wright is the first player in history to reach the NBA with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease whose exact cause is still unknown.

The immune system attacks myelin, a substance that surrounds nerve fibers and allows nerve impulses to travel at the right speed. The result is poor communication between neurons and a wide range of symptoms: vision problems, balance problems, speech difficulties, hand tremor, weakness in the limbs and loss of strength.

Cognitive problems are also common, affecting memory and the encoding and retrieval of information, as well as emotional problems such as anxiety and depression.

Another example is Asier de la Iglesia, who made his debut in the ACB, Spain’s top basketball league, at the age of 35, becoming the first player with multiple sclerosis to reach that level.

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Celebrities with brain injury and other neurological disorders

This section brings together very different cases: brain injuries suffered at birth or in adulthood, difficulty recognizing faces and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD.

Brad Pitt and prosopagnosia

The actor has a neurological disorder called prosopagnosia, as he acknowledged in a 2013 interview with «Esquire». Also known as face blindness or facial agnosia, it is a disorder of neurological origin that shows up as an inability to recognize faces, in some cases even one’s own. It is a type of impairment of gnosis.

Brad Pitt admitted that the disorder had caused him social problems. «So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them. One year I just decided I was going to face it and ask people: “Where did we meet?”. But it made things worse. People were even more offended and took it as vanity or arrogance. It’s a mystery to me, I just can’t grasp a face», the actor said.

RJ Mitte, the Breaking Bad actor with cerebral palsy

American actor RJ Mitte (Jackson, Mississippi, 1992) was not breathing when he was born by emergency C-section. The lack of oxygen caused permanent brain damage, and at the age of three he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He spent six months with his legs in casts to try to correct the position of his feet, and much of his childhood wearing leg braces and using crutches. By his teenage years he no longer needed walking aids.

He became known worldwide as Walter White Jr., the son of the main character in Breaking Bad (2008-2013). His character also had cerebral palsy, but with more pronounced symptoms than his own: to play him, he had to go back to using crutches. It was one of the few cases on television of an actor with a disability playing a character with the same condition.

Off screen, he was a disability rights advocate. He was a spokesperson for actors with disabilities at the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which gave him its Harold Russell Award in 2013, and an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy. He also led his own foundation and presented the coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games for British broadcaster Channel 4. As a model, he starred in a Gap campaign and walked the runway for Vivienne Westwood.

RJ Mitte died on October 12, 2026, in Brownsville, Texas, at the age of 34. His representative confirmed that he died by suicide. Bryan Cranston, his on-screen father, remembered him as someone who never allowed cerebral palsy to be an excuse for anything.

Javier Otxoa and acquired brain injury

Cyclist Javier Otxoa, a Tour de France stage winner in 2000, saw his life change on February 15, 2001, when a car hit him and his twin brother Ricardo while they were training near Málaga, Spain. Ricardo died and Javier spent weeks in a coma.

He survived with severe after-effects of a traumatic brain injury, one of the most common causes of acquired brain injury, which affected his mobility and speech. Far from giving up, he got back on the bike and became a Paralympic champion in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. He died in August 2018.

Miguel Boyer and stroke

Former Spanish Minister of Economy Miguel Boyer had a stroke in 2012 that left him with serious after-effects. Among other things, he had great difficulty speaking and was unable to write.

A stroke, also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is a cerebrovascular disease that occurs when a blood vessel carrying blood to the brain bursts or is blocked by a clot or another particle.

Not enough blood reaches the brain and, as a result, nerve cells do not receive oxygen and stop working. A stroke is the equivalent of a heart attack, but in the brain.

The former socialist minister died two years later of a pulmonary embolism.

Jennifer Lawrence and ADHD

The actress was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and says her family nicknamed her «Nitro» because she was as explosive as nitroglycerin.

ADHD is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder that lasts a lifetime but is treatable; in adulthood, hyperactive symptoms tend to ease (which does not happen so easily with attention deficit).

Celebrities with mental disorders

More and more well-known people are speaking publicly about their mental health. Their stories help reduce stigma and encourage others to seek help.

Mercedes Milá and Andrés Iniesta: depression

Spanish journalist Mercedes Milá spoke about her mental health on March 23, 2022, on the TV show ‘Las Tres Puertas’, hosted by María Casado. Milá revealed that she has lived with depression for years, with three intense episodes: “The first depression was due to heartbreak, and the second, the third and the ones that came after were due to excessive stress”, she said, while encouraging people to “not throw in the towel”.

She recalled her years hosting the Spanish edition of ‘Big Brother’, explaining that she was very happy with her work and didn’t care about criticism, but that the problem was inside her: “I could be crying all week until Thursday, get up that day, do the show and nobody would notice anything”, Milá revealed, aware that “mental illness is increasingly all around us. We must take it very seriously”.

World Cup–winning footballer Andrés Iniesta also had depression. He talked about it in November 2018 on the Spanish TV show ‘Salvados’. According to the World Health Organization, depression is a common mental disorder characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-esteem, sleep or appetite disturbances, tiredness and poor concentration. «When you have depression, you’re not yourself. When you’re that vulnerable, it’s hard to control moments in your life», the midfielder explained.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by mood swings, with mania at one extreme and depression at the other. Catherine Zeta-Jones has this condition.

«This is a disorder that affects millions of people and I am one of them. If my revealing my having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is well worth it. There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help», the actress said.

Ángel Martín and his psychotic episode

Spanish TV presenter Ángel Martín was hospitalized for a psychotic episode in June 2017.

A psychotic episode is, as its definition says, a “temporary break from reality”. It comes on abruptly and interferes with the daily life of the person affected.

The presenter aims to normalize mental illness through his book ‘Por si las voces vuelven’ (In Case the Voices Come Back), in which he describes the psychotic episode that kept him in hospital for 14 days.

John Nash and Peter Green: schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that alters the way a person thinks, perceives reality and relates to others. It can include delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thinking, and is usually accompanied by cognitive impairments in attention, memory and executive functions.

The best-known case is that of mathematician John Nash, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to game theory. Nash lived for decades with paranoid schizophrenia, which interrupted his academic career. His story inspired the film A Beautiful Mind, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture. He died in 2015 in a car accident together with his wife, Alicia.

In music, Peter Green, guitarist and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac in 1967, left the band at the height of its fame after he began to experience mental health problems. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent periods in psychiatric hospitals. Years later he returned to the stage and kept playing until his death in July 2020, at the age of 73.

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