Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth has acknowledged that he may have a higher risk of acquiring Alzheimer’s. The startling information was revealed in a Vanity Fair interview. Hemsworth claimed that when undergoing standard tests for the production of a new docuseries, he discovered that he is genetically vulnerable to the illness.

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain ailment that gradually impairs thinking and memory abilities as well as the capacity to do even the most basic tasks. Symptoms of the late-onset variety typically begin to show in the majority of patients in their mid-60s. Rarely, early-onset Alzheimer’s strikes between the ages of 30 and 60. For older individuals, Alzheimer’s disease is the most typical cause of dementia.

Also read: Why Chris Hemsworth is at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Here is a list of 10 famous people you did not know battled Alzheimer’s disease:

1. Charles Bronson

Bronson was an American actor best known for his roles in films like The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, and Sergio Leone’s epic Spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West. 

At the age of 52, Bronson played the lead part in Michael Winner’s most well-known picture, Death Wish. He portrayed Paul Kersey, a famous New York architect who, when his wife is killed and his daughter is sexually raped, becomes a crime-fighting vigilante. Over the following two decades, this film bore four different sequels, all of which starred Bronson.

In November 2001, Bronson’s family revealed that the actor was battling Alzheimer’s and could no longer leave home alone. He was reported receiving holistic and conventional treatment from doctors in Los Angeles and New York. Bronson died aged 81 on August 30, 2003.

Also read: What is APOE4, gene that increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease?

2. Rita Hayworth

As one of the most gorgeous movie stars of her time, Hayworth quickly gained notoriety. She produced several musicals starring Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in addition to erotically charged movies like Blood and Sand, Gilda, and The Lady from Shanghai.

After becoming the most glamorous cinema idol of the 1940s, Hayworth was given the nickname ‘The Love Goddess’ by the media. In World War II, she was the most popular pin-up girl for soldiers.

Since its discovery in 1906, Alzheimer’s disease has mostly been ignored by the medical establishment. When Hayworth’s diagnosis was publicly disclosed in 1981, according to medical historian Barron H. Lerner, she was “the first public face of Alzheimer’s, helping to ensure that future patients did not go undiagnosed … Unbeknownst to her, Hayworth helped to destigmatize a condition that can still embarrass victims and their families.” A New York Times report added in 1981, a Los Angeles court declared Hayworth was legally unable to care for herself.

At the age of 68, Hayworth died from Alzheimer’s disease in her New York City apartment in 1987. Since then, her eldest daughter has established the annual Rita Hayworth Gala through the Alzheimer’s Association to preserve her mother’s legacy and raise money for research into the illness in an effort to find a cure.

Also read: Viagra can potentially treat Alzheimer’s disease: Study

3. Norman Rockwell

Almost usually, Norman Rockwell’s paintings offered a glimpse into an ideal, worry- and conflict-free American existence. Rockwell spent his summers in the country despite being born and bred in New York City, and his early work in especially tended to focus on it as a method to escape from some of the horrible imagery he saw around him in the city.

Rockwell’s artwork is frequently incorporated into the schedules of events at senior living facilities and adult day care facilities around the nation. Once more, these timeless pictures can make people with memory problems feel better and even get the most reserved people to talk about what they see and the things from their own lives they link with the picture.

Unfortunately, Norman Rockwell himself was identified as having dementia near the end of his life; the condition is said to have prevented him from producing artwork in his later years. At the age of 84, Rockwell died from emphysema in his Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home on November 8, 1978.

Also read: Alzheimer’s disease: 5 regular habits that can lead to dementia

4. Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett, an American veteran singer of classic pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz, was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926. Bennett is also a painter, and he has produced pieces that are on exhibit for the public on a long-term commitment in a number of establishments. In Astoria, Queens, New York, he founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.

Bennett’s 2016 Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis was made public in February 2021. He maintained a steady recording schedule, tour, and performance despite the slow progression of his illness until he announced his retirement from live engagements due to physical difficulties after his final performances at Radio City Music Hall on August 3 and 5, 2021.

Also read: New study on Alzheimer’s uncovers 4 indicators of the degenerative disease

5. Malcolm Young

Malcolm Mitchell Young, an Australian musician, co-founded AC/DC and served as the band’s rhythm guitarist, backup singer, and composer. He was a member of the group from its inception in 1973 until his retirement due to health issues in 2014, with the exception of a brief hiatus in 1988. He was admitted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 as an AC/DC member.

Malcolm was referred to as the driving force and the leader of the band, despite the fact that his younger brother Angus was the more noticeable of the brothers. Young claimed in 2014 that despite his departure from the group, AC/DC was committed to carrying on with his approval.

Young departed AC/DC in the middle of 2014 to get dementia treatment. His definitive retirement was confirmed by the band’s management in September 2014. He died on November 18, 2017, due to the ravages of dementia.

Also read: Dementia risk associated with cardiovascular risk factors: Study

6. James Stewart

American actor and pilot James Maitland Stewart served in the military. Stewart’s cinematic career covered 80 movies from 1935 to 1991. He was known for his unusual drawl and everyman on-screen demeanour. In the middle of the twentieth century, he personified the ‘American ideal’ because of the strong morals he exhibited both on and off the screen. On their list of the top American male actors in 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) placed him third.

His performance in the comedy The Philadelphia Story, which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, his lone career-defining competitive Oscar. George Bailey was Stewart’s first post-war character in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo are among the Alfred Hitchcock films in which Stewart portrayed darker, more morally dubious characters.

Stewart was taken to the hospital in December 1995 after falling. He had to have the battery in his pacemaker changed in December 1996, but he decided against having it done. He was admitted to the hospital in February 1997 due to an abnormal heartbeat. His right leg developed a thrombus on June 25, and a pulmonary embolism followed a week later. At the age of 89, Stewart died from a heart attack brought on by the embolism, after being slowed by Alzheimer’s.

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7. Margaret Thatcher

Although it was claimed that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died from a stroke, few medical professionals disagree that dementia, the illness she battled for at least the last 12 years of her life, played a significant role in her passing.

According to doctors, Thatcher’s stroke may very easily be considered a dementia-related issue. According to Dr. Lon Schneider of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, abnormalities and narrowing of the tiny blood arteries in the brain are thought to be the cause of many ischemic strokes as well as the cause of some types of dementia.

Thatcher’s alleged journey to dementia is conventional; she is reported to have experienced numerous minor strokes. But the procedure can also be applied backward: According to UCLA dementia expert Dr. Liana Apostolova, Alzheimer’s disease makes the blood vessels in the brain more fragile, increasing the likelihood that they would rupture and result in a hemorrhagic stroke.

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8. Sugar Ray Robinson

Former boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes and was totally dependent on his wife to care for his daily needs in the last few years of his life.

He is frequently regarded as the best boxer ever, pound for pound. On April 12, 1989, he died in Los Angeles at the age of 67. Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California is the location of Robinson’s grave.

9. Rosa Parks

According to her doctor in September 2004, who spoke to a federal magistrate, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks had dementia and shouldn’t have been made to testify in her lawsuit against a rap group.

She is most recognised for playing a crucial part in the boycott of the Montgomery buses. She has received recognition from the US Congress as “the mother of the freedom movement” and “the first lady of civil rights.”

At the age of 92, Parks died at her residence on the east side of Detroit on October 24, 2005, from natural causes.

Also read: 5 celebrities diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

10. Ronald Reagan

Former US President Ronald Reagan announced his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease to the public on November 5, 1994.

Reagan claimed that he and his wife, Nancy, made the decision to reveal his illness in the hopes that it would raise awareness for the ailment that gradually but certainly robs the mind of its memories.

After ten years, in 2004, Reagan succumbed to the condition.