20 Famous Men Who Have Had Prostate Cancer

California Governor Jerry Brown announced in 2012 that he was being treated for early-stage prostate cancer. Brown, now 84, did not say when he was diagnosed, but said his prognosis was good because the cancer was caught early. The 34th and 39th governor of California, Brown continued working while undergoing radiation therapy, and in early 2013 he reported that his treatment was over and he was doing great.

In 2011, Brown had surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma (a common form of skin cancer) from his nose.

British actor Sir Ian McKellen (known to many Americans as Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and as Magneto from X-Men) revealed in 2012 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer five or six years prior. So far, he's been able to live healthily with the disease.

McKellen, 83, explained that his slow-growing kind of prostate cancer had not spread to other parts of his body. "Many, many men die from it, but it's one of the cancers that is totally treatable, so I have 'waitful watching.' I am examined regularly, and it's just contained, it's not spreading. I've not had any treatment," he told the United Kingdom's Mirror.

Not even prostate cancer could slow down Academy Award winner Robert De Niro. Known for “tough guy” roles in films including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, the actor proved he had mettle offscreen, too, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003 at age 60. Fortunately for him — and his family, friends, and fans — “the condition was detected at an early stage because of regular checkups, a result of his proactive personal healthcare program,” his publicist said in a statement.

Few details were released about the star’s treatment, but he went on to make a full recovery. In 2011, at age 68, he became a father for the sixth time to daughter Helen, who was born via surrogate to him and his then-wife, Grace Hightower.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, also a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, underwent surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland in 2003 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Following his treatment, he became a vocal supporter of prostate cancer awareness and devoted his time to the Prostate Conditions Education Council, which sponsors Prostate Cancer Awareness Week every September.

On his birthday in 2011, he posted this message to fans on Facebook: “Today was my 73rd birthday, and the most valuable gift I received was all the well-wishes from so many of you. Thank you. As one of you noted, I am a prostate cancer survivor and a spokesman for prevention. Men should have regular prostate examinations. … Regular exams allowed me to deal with this problem early and make a full recovery.”

Despite being fully vaccinated, Powell died from COVID-19 complications in 2021. He was 84.

Sir Roger Moore was a self-proclaimed hypochondriac and the longest-serving James Bond actor in history. He played the secret agent for 12 years, beginning with 1973’s Live and Let Die and ending with 1985’s A View to a Kill.

Nearly a decade after his last turn as Bond, Moore faced one of his worst fears when he discovered he had prostate cancer in 1993. He later underwent a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland) and made a full recovery, but the experience changed him forever. Shortly after completing treatment, Moore left his third wife, Luisa Mattioli, for Kristina Tholstrup, a former neighbor who had survived a similarly life-altering bout with breast cancer a few years before.

In 2009, he wrote about the health scare and resulting fallout in his memoir, My Word Is My Bond. “I had plenty of time to think about my life and how close I had been to losing it,” he recalled. “It was not very admirable behavior, I admit, but the seeds for life change had been planted and were beginning to grow.”

Moore died of cancer at age 89 on May 23, 2017, in Switzerland.

Secretary of State John Kerry, now 78, was a U.S. senator on the presidential campaign trail when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002 at age 59. His father died from the same type of cancer at age 85. Kerry chose to be treated with surgery. In an interview with Coping With Cancer magazine, Kerry described his post-cancer lifestyle as follows: “I push myself to exercise consistently, and [my wife] Teresa stays on my case and challenges my worst instincts — she makes me eat a healthy, balanced diet!”

While he’s had no recurrence of the cancer, Kerry’s athletic lifestyle has led to numerous knee surgeries, two hip replacements, a broken nose and, in May 2015, a broken leg sustained in a bicycling accident in Geneva, Switzerland.

When actor Ryan O’Neal, 81, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, it wasn’t his first bout with cancer: He was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2001, for which he was treated with the cancer drug imatinib. It put his leukemia into remission, and he continues to take it today.

Initially O’Neal told news sources he had stage 4 prostate cancer, but it was later described as stage T2b, meaning it was in more than half of one side of the prostate and confined to the prostate, according to the American Cancer Society.

O’Neal was treated with targeted cryotherapy and, in an interview with the Prostate Institute of America, said, “I was particularly attracted to the cryotherapy option because of the reduced risk of side effects," he said, adding, “I haven’t had any residual effects.” Indeed in 2015 he was back on stage, per Variety, costarring with Ali MacGraw in a production of the play Love Letters.

Former Yankees manager Joe Torre, 82, has been an outspoken advocate for prostate cancer awareness ever since he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease in 1999. "What scared me initially, in addition to my cancer, was that I didn't have the answers I needed," he said in a 2000 interview with the Johns Hopkins Prostate Bulletin.

"It certainly was a very difficult time emotionally. I was a mess, my blood pressure had skyrocketed — all from being scared about the cancer and what I had to do about it." Thankfully, Torre had help by his side from his wife, Ali. "I don't know what I would have done if Ali hadn't been there to get me through it all. It later became very clear to me that you need a spouse or a good friend to be there for you, to keep you on level ground and to give you hope," he said in the bulletin. "Otherwise, saddled with a cancer diagnosis, it becomes so easy to think of your cancer as some sort of a dark hole, and that there is no way out for you."

Golf legend Arnold Palmer had 62 PGA Tour wins, his own drink (half lemonade, half iced tea), and a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame — but one of his proudest accomplishments was his triumph over prostate cancer. In the years following his 1997 diagnosis and treatment (a radical prostatectomy and radiation), Palmer used his celebrity to raise awareness of the disease among other men and to help found the Arnold Palmer Prostate Center, a nonprofit treatment destination at Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center in Rancho Mirage, California. He was adamant that all men should get screened.

“There’s nothing better than going to the doctor and knowing just exactly where you stand,” he once said. “That’s so important for men to do. Don’t think about doing it. Just do it.”

Palmer died in September 2016, at age 87, of heart problems.

Former New York City Mayor and lawyer to Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani knew the heartbreak that prostate cancer could cause even before he was diagnosed in April 2000: His father had died of the disease 19 years earlier. Determined not to meet the same fate, Giuliani, now 78 and healthy, chose a multiphase treatment plan that consisted of four months of hormone therapy, implantation of radioactive pellets in his prostate (to radiate the cancer), and five weeks of almost-daily external-beam radiation with continuing hormone therapy. The plan was aggressive, but successful. It left the politician in both good health and good spirits.

“The time that I spent this morning between 8 and 9 was not nearly as painful as most of my morning meetings,” he joked of his treatments during a press conference after the implant surgery. “And there was less fighting. ... so this was actually a much quieter and more peaceful morning than I usually have.”

Harry Belafonte — actor, activist, and singer-songwriter (perhaps best known for "The Banana Boat Song," with its famous “Day-o” refrain) — added “survivor” to his resume after he fought and beat prostate cancer in 1996. In the years since, Belafonte, 95, has been refreshingly candid about his ordeal, even going public about his post-surgery struggles with incontinence, a common side effect that Belafonte said he conquered in less than a year with exercises (such as Kegels).

But he wasn’t always so comfortable opening up. “The prostate is something that attacks that central part of the male body that men are very preoccupied with. Somehow, any disorder there means your life is over, you can't be a man anymore, you are now something less,” he said at a benefit for the Hoag Family Cancer Institute in Newport Beach, California, adding that he hoped to change that perception. “If you're going to have [prostate cancer], you're going to have it. It’s what you do about it that makes the difference — how you conduct your life."

Depending on your media diet, you may know actor and singer Mandy Patinkin, 70, for his role as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, or possibly for playing Saul Berenson on the show Homeland, or even for his Yiddish language album Mamaloshen. In his personal life, though, he also plays the role of cancer survivor. In 2004, at age 51, Patinkin was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he was roughly the same age that his father was when he died of pancreatic cancer.

Upon hearing his diagnosis, “I felt lightheaded and overwhelmed, and I was weeping on the phone,” Patinkin said in an interview with Coping With Cancer magazine. Patinkin had previously been treated for the degenerative eye disease keratoconus, for which he received two corneal transplants. Following a radical prostatectomy, Patinkin made a full recovery and, for a while, became a vegan.

In 2012, business magnate and philanthropist Warren Buffett, 92, announced to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway that he had been diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer after a high reading on a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, which measures the levels of the PSA enzyme in the blood. Buffett is chairman and CEO of the company and is considered by many to be the most successful investor of the 20th century.

As quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Buffett said of his cancer, “I've been told by my doctors that my condition is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way.” He subsequently underwent 44 days of radiation therapy, treatment that was called unnecessary by some cancer specialists, per Harvard Health Publishing. In fact, some questioned whether he should have been having PSA tests at all at his age, saying the harms of treating prostate cancer in men older than 75 outweigh the benefits, notes NPR. Buffett himself seemed none the worse for wear from the experience.

Bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, 82, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 at age 66; his father died of the same disease. As reported in SFGate, he told fans, "Since we caught it very early and it's small and slow-growing, I fully expect to have a rapid and complete recovery." He underwent robotic surgery at the Vattikuti Urology Institute at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

In October 2015, Lesh announced he’d been diagnosed with bladder cancer and had had surgery to treat it. In an online statement he said, "I am very fortunate to have the pathology reports show that the tumors are all nonaggressive, and that there is no indication that they have spread."

In 1998, Lesh underwent a liver transplant as a result of complications with chronic hepatitis C. Since then, he has been an advocate for organ donation and has become known for encouraging audience members at his shows to become organ donors.

Former Cincinnati Reds outfielder and three-time all-star Ken Griffey Sr. had already lost four uncles to prostate cancer when he was diagnosed in 2006 at age 55. Given his family history, he had made a point of getting regular prostate exams and PSA tests for years. Griffey’s cancer was detected early, and he underwent surgery to treat it. He remains cancer-free, now at 72.

Griffey often speaks publicly about prostate cancer and encourages other men — particularly Black men, who are at higher risk of prostate cancer — to get screened and to reach out to their families for support.

Actor Ben Stiller had no symptoms or family history of prostate cancer when he was diagnosed with the disease in June 2014 at age 48. He revealed his diagnosis publicly in October 2016 on The Howard Stern Show.

Stiller’s cancer came to light after his doctor ordered a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test as part of a yearly physical. When Stiller’s test result came back high, his doctor ordered a follow-up test six months later. And when that test result was even higher, Stiller had several more tests and exams that confirmed he had prostate cancer. He subsequently had surgery to remove his prostate gland, and he continues to have PSA tests every six months to screen for recurrence of the cancer.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force discourages the use of routine prostate cancer testing, saying it leads to overdiagnosis — and overtreatment — of low-risk prostate cancers. But, said Stiller in an essay he published on Medium, “Taking the PSA test saved my life.” Today, at age 56, Stiller is cancer-free.

Legendary performer Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field. The Bahamian-American achieved stardom for his performances on screen and stage. When asked by Vanity Fair to name his happiest moments, he said “I was happiest making films, writing books, and surviving prostate cancer.”

Well known for roles in films such as Look Who’s Coming to Dinner and To Sir, With Love, the actor was first diagnosed in 1993 at the age of 66, according to SurvivorNet. He successfully treated the cancer with surgery. Poitier died in 2022 at age 94 from heart failure, as reported by CNN. His death certificate also listed Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer as underlying conditions.

Musical theater veteran Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, known for writing and composing popular musicals such as Cats and Phantom of the Opera, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009, as reported by The Guardian. Lloyd Webber revealed in his memoir Unmasked that he considered suicide during his experience with cancer. "It was so painful and I couldn’t sleep," he wrote, according to SurvivorNet.

Pain is not unusual for people with prostate cancer, especially for those with advanced prostate cancer that has spread to the bones. In an interview with Piers Morgan, Lloyd Webber said he had surgery to fully move his prostate, according to the DailyMail. Now 74, the composer has been cancer free since 2010.

The musical chameleon Frank Zappa released more than 60 albums throughout his prolific career. In 1990, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer after years of urinary tract problems. He opted out of treatments since his options were limited by the late stage diagnosis, according to SurvivorNet. He spent his last years touring around the world.

He died just three years later at age 52 from metastatic prostate cancer. Two years after his death, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

As a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Nelson Mandela accomplished more change in his lifetime than most people can aspire to. The South African anti-apartheid activist spent nearly three decades in jail for his outspoken efforts. When South Africa formed a democratic government in 1994, Mandela became the first elected president of the nation.

In prison, Mandela faced harsh conditions including poor nutrition and hard labor. In 1985, five years before he was released, he underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate. In 2001, a biopsy revealed “microscopic prostate cancer,” according to Wired, for which Mandela received seven weeks of radiation therapy.

He died in 2013 at the age of 95 from various health complications.