Danny Glover’s Daughter Talks About the First Sign Her Dad Had Alzheimer’s: ‘Pieces Were Missing’ (Exclusive)
Danny Glover’s Daughter Talks About the First Sign Her Dad Had Alzheimer’s: ‘Pieces Were Missing’ (Exclusive)
Janine RubensteinWed, July 1, 2026 at 5:43 PM UTC
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Danny Glover and daughter Mandisa, photographed for PEOPLECredit: John Russo
“I think he’s aware sometimes and then sometimes not,” Danny Glover's daughter Mandisa, 50, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, sharing what life is like helping care for the award-winning actor and activist, 79.
Her words prove true throughout his PEOPLE interview, during which Glover opens up for the first time about his life with Alzheimer’s, often toggling between unfinished thoughts and poetic personal tangents.
But there are also times when he speaks lucidly. “I’m still not accepting in my mind all parts of it,” the Lethal Weapon and TheColor Purple star says of his diagnosis. “There are the moments that you keep remembering that validate the fact that you can remember stuff. And there are moments I’ll never forget.”
Danny Glover photographed for PEOPLECredit: John Russo
For his daughter, she recalls when she first felt a shift in her father. In 2022 he took home the Oscars’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his lifelong dedication to charitable work and activism. That year, Mandisa, his only child (with first wife Asake Bomani), says, she started to notice a difference in his behavior.
“The history of my dad is that he remembers every single thing back to 1970, what corner he was standing on, who he spoke to, what they spoke about, what color they were wearing, everything,” she says. But that changed. “He’d tell you so much about his parents—and I’ve heard those stories over and over—and pieces were missing. There would be pieces of the story missing. I said, ‘I wonder what’s going on.’”
These days, he maintains strong memories of his mother, who was killed in a car accident the same day he found out he’d won a career-changing role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart. “Guess what my mother wanted to be? An actress,” he says.
He goes on to tell, then retell, the story of when she first realized his talent after a theater performance. “She says, ‘Son, the people said you can act,’ ” he recalls with a chuckle. “My girl, man. We argued like girlfriend and boyfriend.” His daughter knows this tale well—and his fondness for verbal sparring. “We argue a lot,” she says. “I mean, I’m the representative of his mother. I’ve taken on that role. He needs to argue with somebody, and it’s got to be me. But it’s all love.”
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Danny Glover in The Color PurpleCredit: Warner Brothers/Getty
Glover's younger brother Marty, 67, lives with him at Glover's longtime San Francisco townhouse, where he also helps with his care.
“Everybody thinks he’s Mister,” Marty says of fans equating Glover to the complicated villain he played in The Color Purple. But “he’s the greatest guy I ever met in my life. He saved me. I’ve been to jails, institutions, used drugs. Growing up, we weren’t close until I started getting into trouble. And then he came and got me out and moved me down to Hollywood, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”
Working in production on films, Marty got to see his brother’s genius up close. It’s made the dementia brought on by Alzheimer’s even more heartbreaking. “You see the deterioration, and you think, ‘Wow,’” he says. “Sometimes you get emotional about it. It’s tough, because you don’t want to see nobody go through this.”
Danny Glover photographed for PEOPLECredit: John Russo
The supportive network around Glover remains strong, with Marty, Mandisa and a team of caregivers all helping. “We just want him to live his best life,” says Marty, “like he made us live ours.”
As for Mandisa, she's just grateful. "It's either this, or he's not here. I'm grateful."
For more on Danny Glover's life and Alzheimer's diagnosis, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, available Friday
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
