CNN
“Better Call Saul” actor Russell Andrews announced he is battling ALS in a heart-wrenching CNN interview Saturday.
The 64-year-old veteran actor revealed he had been having symptoms as far back as when COVID first hit, leading him to wonder if the pinched nerves and twitches he was experiencing may have been the result of a stroke.
Speaking out on “The Story Is with Elex Michaelson” alongside his fiancée, fellow actor Erica Tazel, Andres confirmed he was finally diagnosed in 2025.
“I am a person living with ALS,” he said. He added, “It’s been humbling but there’s… Elex, there’s also something in the fact that I walked into a family of very caring people I did not know a year ago — the cliché family, but they have not let us miss a step in terms of care, the attention, the awareness and the ability to get me here today.”
Tazel will step into the role of his caregiver.
ALS causes increasingly weakening muscles, slurred speech, and, in its final stages, near-total paralysis. There is no cure.
Some patients succumb to ALS very quickly, while many others live three to five years. There are cases of patients living for decades with the disease, including physicist Stephen Hawking.
ALS is often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the baseball great who died of it in 1941.
Other famous names who have died of ALS include Eric Dane, Roberta Flack, “SpongeBob SquarePants” creator Stephen Hillenburg, and playwright Sam Shepard.
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