List of people with motor neuron disease

This is a list of notable people who have or had motor neuron diseases, a group of rare neurodegenerative disorders that selectively affect motor neurons, the cells which control voluntary muscles of the body. This includes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), progressive bulbar palsy (PBP), pseudobulbar palsy, progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and monomelic amyotrophy (MMA), as well as some rarer variants resembling ALS.

Living

Singer Roberta Flack was forced to end her 54 year singing career upon her diagnosis with ALS in 2022.
NFL football player Steve Gleason chronicled his experiences with ALS in the documentary Gleason. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions to ALS awareness.

Deceased

Public awareness of the disease gained prominence upon the diagnosis of baseball player Lou Gehrig, whose name would become an alternative title for the disease.
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, whose ALS was diagnosed in 1963, had the disease for 55 years, the longest recorded time one had the disease. He died at the age of 76 in 2018.
The 11th century monk Hermann of Reichenau had a lifelong disease that is strongly believed to have been ALS. This would make him one of the earliest known patients of the disease.
Chairman Mao Zedong was reported to have been suffering from ALS.

References