Celebrities with Disabilities

Tom Cruise

American film actor and director

Did you know Tom Cruise is dyslexic?

"I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read." - Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise was diagnosed at age 7 with dyslexia. He described his younger self as "functional illiterate" because he could barely read in high school or even through his earliest roles as an actor!

Jim Carrey

Canadian American actor, producer, and comedian

Did you know that Jim Carrey has ADHD? "My report card always said, ‘Jim finishes first and then disrupts the other

students.” - Jim Carrey

Diagnosed as a child with ADHD, Jim Carrey struggled to stay focused in school. This comic genius with his charismatic facial expressions has consistently had his audience in stitches for 20 years, but in reality, he cannot concentrate on one work for a long time.

Bethany Hamilton

• Professional surfer

Bethany Hamilton has a Physical Disability

• Bethany has a physical disability as she lost her left arm in the shark attack at the age of 13.

• Bethany did not let this disability define her or prevent her from achieving her goals.

• Bethany’s disability is a reminder that anyone at anytime can become disabled. Having a disability is not necessarily something a person is born with – it can arise at anytime in life.

Stephen Hawking

• EnglishTheoretical physicist; cosmologist and author.

Did you know that Stephen Hawking suffers from ALS?

• Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years

• He was diagnosed with ALS at age 21, but despite this debilitating illness, he has done ground-breaking work in physics and cosmology

• With this disease the nerves that control one’s muscles shut down

• He is almost entirely paralyzed and communicates through a speech generating device

David Beckham

• English football player who played on the England National team

Did you know David Beckham suffers from Obsessive-compulsive Disorder?

"I've got this obsessive compulsive disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs. I'll put my Pepsi cans in the fridge and if there's one too many then I'll put it in another cupboard somewhere."

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a type of anxiety disorder, is a potentially disabling illness that traps people in endless cycles of repetitive thoughts and behaviors. People who cope with OCD tend to (like David Beckham) obsess over certain things that may be out of order, or not a particular way.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

• 32nd President of the United States

Did you know FDR suffered from paralysis?

• FDR was diagnosed with paralytic illness that began in 1921 at age 39, when he got a fever after exercising heavily during a vacation in Canada. While Roosevelt's diagnosis with illness was well known during his terms as President of the United States, the extent of his paralysis was kept from public view.

• The result was that Roosevelt was totally and permanently paralyzed from the waist down

• Despite the lack of a cure for paralysis, for the rest of his life Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed.

Muhammad Ali

Professional boxer

Did you know that Muhammad Ali suffers from Parkinson's Disease?

• Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological condition• Ali announced that he has Parkinson's disease in 1984 and has

been involved in raising funds for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

• By the time of his diagnosis, he had developed tremors, his speech was slurred, and his body movements had become slow.

• The condition progresses unpredictably, and leads to other problems such as difficulty sleeping and depression.

• With modern treatments patients with Parkinson's disease usually have a normal life expectancy, though in long-term patients the decline in brain function can exacerbate other illnesses and so contribute to the eventual cause of death.

Walt Disney

• American film producer, screenwriter, voice, actor, and animator

• Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company

Did you know that Walt Disney had Dyslexia?

• As described earlier, Dyslexia is a broad term for a learning disability that impairs a person’s fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read.

• This disability occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols.

• His struggles with traditional learning led him to make numerous comments about modern education.

Julius Caesar

• Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose.

• Played an important role in the rise of the Roman Empire

Did you know Julius Caesar is believed to have had epilepsy?

• Epilepsy is a disorder that results from the surges in electrical signals inside the brain, causing recurring seizures. Seizure symptoms vary. Some people with epilepsy simply stare blankly for a few seconds during a seizure, while others have full-fledged convulsions.

• During seizures lifetime, epilepsy was known as "the falling sickness" because the kind of seizures that made a person lose consciousness and fall down were the only kind then recognized as epilepsy.

• Epilepsy is a 'hidden disability'' with many types of seizures experienced by the individual such as in the complex partial seizures.

• In this seizure type, one can look 'as if'' one is attending and processing information, but is actually having extra electrical brain activity which is impeding processing. In this case expectations and miscuing is common and people will think the person is disinterested, distracted or just daydreaming, which adds to the complexity of having seizures.

Robin Williams

• American actor, voice actor, and stand-up comedian

Did you know Robin Williams suffers from ADHD?

• Robin Williams was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as a child.

• As previously discussed this is a mental and neurobehavioral disorder characterized by either significant difficulties of inattention or hyperactivity and impulsiveness or a combination of the two.

• Robin Williams never refuses a role related to medicine.