Following Bruce Willis’s Aphasia, These Famous Celebrities Have Also Suffered from Aphasia

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A health condition that is still overlooked

Amid the confirmation of devastating news about Bruce Willis who is now battling aphasia, the public seems to not be familiar enough with this term. What is aphasia? How does it affect its patient? What are the causes? These questions are now circling the internet, as people are still processing the saddening news of Bruce Willis after his family announced it on an Instagram post.

Picturing yourself as a talented and creative person who can leverage your passion and personality into a job. And now, imagine if one day you start progressively losing your ability to speak, write, and process information. It’s the portrayal of how people who have aphasia have to go through their lives.

Aphasia is a condition that ruins your cognitive ability to process and express words, in brief, you are unable to understand both written and spoken language. It becomes so hard to communicate, let alone focus or concentrate on something. For someone whose job and passion rely heavily on communication, attention, and action, aphasia seems like a ticking bomb waiting to “end” the life of its sufferer.

To raise awareness of this health condition, BookMyShow managed to embrace several celebrities who have suffered from aphasia, a long way before Bruce Willis. You may be surprised to know that among these celebrities, your favorite is on the list. It’s time for us to pay some attention and recognition to this condition that spread around celebrities. 

1. Sharon Stone

September 2001 may be the day that changed Stone’s life forever. After collapsing in her home due to severe cerebral hemorrhaging and a brain aneurysm, she woke up from the hospital with an inability to read, developed a stutter, and had speech issues. According to ABC News, Stone said that this condition makes her more intelligent emotionally and stronger to embrace this flaw. She is now a part of agents that raise awareness of stroke and helps in raising funds for the Women’s Brain Health Initiative.

2. Randy Travis

Suffering from a stroke in 2013 has led Travis to an unexpected condition. He lost his ability to comprehend language and sentences, and also had a hard time producing sentences (a.k.a to talk). In his 2019 memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith, and Braving the Storms of Life, he mentioned that this condition had impacted greatly his communication with his wife, Mary. He understood what his wife said but somehow, he couldn’t give a response. It took a toll on him to finally be able to say some words after spending some months in speech therapy. Randy and Mary established the Randy Travis Foundation to help people who suffered from the same condition as his.

3. Emilia Clarke

Who would’ve thought that this Game of Thrones star suffered from aphasia? Clarke’s condition was first detected after she wrapped up the shooting of the first season of Game of Thrones. During her workout, she felt a severe headache as if her brain was going to explode, turned out it was not a common headache. According to The New Yorker, the condition that she had was a subarachnoid hemorrhage, an unusual type of stroke caused by hemorrhage on the brain’s surface. Surprisingly, she had a time when she didn’t even know her name instead, all she said was nonsense words, thanks to the panic. Her aphasia may have disappeared but the thought of the horrifying experience is still there. She established a charity, Same You, that aims to fund research and raise awareness for this matter, and also help people who have suffered from this severe injury.

4. Mark McEwen

The CBS This Morning and The Early Show reporter, Mark McEwen, had a stroke in 2005 and is not been the same ever since. He shared his experience in a memoir, Change in the Weather: Life After Stroke, and in a TEDx Talk. Singing songs from Stevie Wonder and The Beatles had helped to motivate him to recover. On his website, he admitted that he was among the privileged to be able to heal from this mild aphasia. He is an active stroke awareness activist to this day and takes advantage of his platform to encourage people with the same condition as his.

5. Dick Clark

Gone but not forgotten, may be the best sentence to describe Dick Clark. The iconic host who has hosted several famous shows suffered a stroke in December 2004. That, left him partly paralyzed and unable to give his signature sign, “For now, Dick Clark — so long!”. He continued to cohost regardless of his limited ability to the day he died in 2012. Clark received so many honorable mentions from people according to the Los Angeles Times for his bravery and persistence in not letting the condition consume him.

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