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
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Professional surfer
Bethany Hamilton has a Physical
Disability
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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
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EnglishTheoretical
physicist;
cosmologist and
author.
Did you know that Stephen Hawking
suffers from ALS?
• Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to
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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.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
•
32nd President of
the United States
Did you know FDR suffered from
paralysis?
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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?
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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
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American film
producer,
screenwriter, voice,
actor, and animator
Co-founder of The
Walt Disney
Company
Did you know that Walt Disney had
Dyslexia?
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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
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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?
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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 Caesar’s 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
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American actor,
voice actor, and
stand-up comedian
Did you know Robin Williams
suffers from ADHD?
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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.