Celebrities and Famous People Living With Diabetes

We originally published this list in 2000. In the years since, many more celebrities, stars, athletes, and movers and shakers have joined the ranks of people with diabetes. Here is an updated list of the more prominent ones, divided between the living and the dead.

If you know of any celebrities with diabetes whom we have missed, please let us know in the comments section below.

Living

Actors/Directors

Halle Berry, Oscar-winning actress

Wilford Brimley, of television and films, “Cocoon” and “The Firm”

J. Anthony Brown, actor (“Drumline”), comedian

Delta Burke, of television’s “Designing Women”

Nell Carter, of the television show “Gimme a Break”

Dick Clark, television emcee, producer

Stephen Furst, actor on the television shows “St. Elsewhere” and “Babylon 5”

Victor Garber, actor (“Alias,” “Titanic,” “Sleepless in Seattle”)

Dorian Gregory, actor (“Charmed,” “The Other half”)

Nicole Johnson, Miss America 1999

Zippora Karz, former New York City Ballet soloist, ballet teacher

Larry King, talk show host

Jerry Lewis, comedian, telethon host

Jerry Mathers, actor of “Leave It To Beaver” fame

Mary Tyler Moore, actress and star of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”

Park Overall, actress (“Empty Nest”)

Della Reese, singer, actress (“Touched by an Angel”)

Sir Harry Secombe, Welsh singer, former president of the British Diabetic Association

Jean Smart, actress on “Designing Women”

Elaine Stritch, comedian

Elizabeth Taylor, actress (“National Velvet,” “Cleopatra,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”)

Aida Tuturro, actress (“The Sopranos”)

Political Leaders

Hafez al-Assad, dictator of Syria

Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister

Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, D.C.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet premier

Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas

Janet Jagan, president of Guyana

Bill Janklow, former governor and congressman, South Dakota

Wei Jengsheng, Chinese dissident

James Lloyd, congressman, California

Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid leader

Buddy Roemer, governor, Louisiana

Business Leaders

Damon Dash, entrepreneur

Musicians

Ray Anderson, jazz trombonist

Carol Channing, Tony Award-winning singer/actress in “Hello Dolly”

Mark Collie, contemporary country star

David Crosby, member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Phife Dawg, rapper, (“A Tribe Called Quest”)

Mick Fleetwood, singer in rock band Fleetwood Mac

Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul

Shirley Horn, Grammy-winning jazz singer

Marvin Isley, singer, The Isley Brothers

Waylon Jennings, country singer

Nick Jonas, lead singer, the Jonas Brothers

B.B. King, rhythm and blues star

Patti LaBelle, pop singer

Tommy Lee, of heavy metal band Motley Crue

Meat Loaf, singer

Bret Michaels, lead singer of the rock group Poison

The Pump Girls

Jessica Stone, actress and singer

Elliott Yamin, singer

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway composer

Neil Young, rock singer and guitarist

Norman Whitfield, Grammy-winning R&B producer and songwriter

Scientists

Cynthia Ice, developer of Lotus software

Lois Jovanovic-Peterson, scientist, endocrinologist, author of “Diabetic Women”

Sports

Wasim Akrim, Pakistani cricket bowler

Sarah Bina, champion clogger

Nick Boynton, hockey player

Ayden Byle, runner

Bobby Clarke, hockey player for the Philadelphia Flyers

Scott Coleman, first man with diabetes to swim the English Channel

Chris Dudley, New York Knicks basketball player

Rick Dudley, hockey

Scott Dunton, world-ranked competitive surfer

Mike Echols, NFL

Curt Frasier, hockey player for the Chicago Black Hawks

“Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, heavyweight boxing champ

Walt Frazier, NBA, New York Knicks

Kris Freeman, Olympic cross-country skier

Joe Gibbs, NFL coach

Bill Gullickson, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds

Gary Hall, Olympic gold medalist in swimming

Jonathon Hayes, tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs

Chuck Henderich, skier

Chris Jarvis, champion Canadian rower

Jason Johnson, pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles

Billie Jean King, tennis player

Ed Kranepool, baseball player with the New York Mets

Kelli Kuehne, LPGA golfer who wears a pump on the golf course

Jay Leeuwenburg, offensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals

Michelle McGann, LPGA golfer

Calvin Muhammed, football player for the Washington Redskins

David Pembler, baseball player, Milwaukee Brewers

Sir Steven Redgrave, rower, winner of five consecutive Olympic gold medals

Ron Santo, third basemen for the Chicago Cubs

Art Shell, NFL player and coach

Kendall Simmons, NFL

Michael Sinclair, NFL defensive end

Hank Stram, NFL coach

Bradley Suttle, major League second baseman

Sherri Turner, LPGA golfer

Scott Verplank, PGA golfer

Jo Ann Washam, LPGA golfer

David “Boomer” Wells, major league pitcher

Wade Wilson, NFL quarterback

Writers/Reporters

Richard Bartlett, film

June Bierman, author of books on diabetes

Fran Carpentier, editor of Parade magazine

Sylvia Chase, ABC News Reporter

Rodolfo Garcia, AP reporter

Linda Goodman, horoscope book author

Anne Rice, “Interview With a Vampire” author

Famous Diabetics in Heaven

Actors/Directors

Jack Benny, ’50s television host

James Cagney, producer, director and actor

Alvin Childress, actor (“Amos & Andy)

James Doohan, actor (Scotty on “Star Trek”)

Dale Evans, actress, singer and wife of Roy Rogers

Jackie Gleason, actor and comedian, star of “The Honeymooners”

Dana Hill, actress (“Shoot the Moon”)

Gordon Jump, actor on “WKRP in Cincinnati”

Mabel King, actress who played Mama on “What’s Happening”

Al Lewis, actor (“The Munsters”)

Marcello Mastroianni, actor who appeared in 142 films

Richard Mulligan, actor on the television show “Empty Nest”

Carroll O’Connor, actor (“All in the Family,” “In the Heat of the Night”)

Minnie Pearl, entertainer, actress on the variety show “Hee Haw”

Esther Rolle, actress on the TV Show “Good Times”

George C. Scott, Academy Award-winning actor

Kate Smith, singer who sang classic “God Bless America” rendition

Spencer Tracy, famous leading man of Hollywood movies

Mae West, actress (“She Done Him Wrong,” “My Little Chickadee”)

Jane Wyman, actress on “Falcon Crest”

Political Leaders

Yuri Andropov, former premier of the Soviet Union

Samuel Block, civil rights activist

Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Lucille B. Chapman, a five-time Menominee Indian tribal chairwoman

Paddy Devlin, co-founder of the Social Democrat and Labor Party in Northern Ireland

King Fahd, king of Saudi Arabia

James Farmer, civil rights pioneer

Anwar Sadat, Egyptian leader

Business Leaders

James Conkling, founder of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

Bill and John Davidson, founders of Harley Davidson motorcycles

Tom Foster, former head of Foster Poultry Farms

W.L. Gherra, of Payless Drugs

Howard Hughes, industrialist, eccentric billionaire

Ray Kroc, entrepreneur who bought and built McDonald’s restaurants into the world’s largest fast food chain

Musicians

Nat Adderley, jazz trumpeter

Hoyt Axton, folksy baritone, songwriter and actor

Syd Barrett, of the rock group Pink Floyd

Danny Joe Brown, singer (Molly Hatchet)

James Brown, The Godfather of Soul

Johnny Cash, legendary country singer, known as “the man in black”

Johnny Darrell, country music singer

Miles Davis, legendary jazz great

Mama Cass Elliott, singer, Mamas and the Papas

Freddy Fender, actor and country singer

Ella Fitzgerald, jazz vocalist

Jerry Garcia, lead singer of The Grateful Dead

Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter

Mahalia Jackson, singer

Rick James, singer (“Super Freak”)

Herbert Kahury (“Tiny Tim”), singer (of sorts)

Peggy Lee, ’50s songster

Curtis Mayfield, soul singer

Elvis Presley, The King

Luther Vandross, singer

Scientists

Morris Braunstein, scientist

Thomas Edison, inventor

Albert Ellis, psychologist, rational emotive therapy

George Minot, first person with diabetes to receive Nobel Prize in medicine

Sports

Arthur Ashe, tennis legend

Walter Barnes, former Philadelphia Eagle turned actor

Ty Cobb, baseball player for the Detroit Tigers

Buster Douglas, boxer

Kenny Duckett, football player for the New Orleans Saints

Del Ennis, baseball player

Catfish Hunter, pitcher for the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees

Ham Richardson, tennis pro

Jackie Robinson, baseball star who broke the color barrier in the Major Leagues

Sugar Ray Robinson, boxer

Jersey Joe Walcott, boxer

David “Boomer” Wells, major league pitcher

Wade Wilson, NFL quarterback

Writers/Reporters

Ernest Hemingway, 20th-century novelist

Ken Kesey, novelist (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”)

Walt Kelly, animator and cartoonist (“Pogo”)

Mario Puzo, author of “The Godfather”

Carl Rowan, syndicated editorial columnist

H.G. Wells, writer, “The Invisible Man”

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author