Being one of the most common causes of death, heart attacks can happen to anyone irrespective of age, gender, and fitness, and celebrities are no exception to it. Many celebrities survived a heart attack and continue to live their lives, share their story, and inspire millions so that people do not miss out on the basic signs of a heart attack and get to the hospital immediately.
Here are some of the celebrities who survived a heart attack, including David Bowie, Rosie O’Donnell, and Bob Harper, who have spoken up about their health issues and showed people that life does not end after you have suffered from a heart attack. All you have to do is listen to your doctors and be a compliant patient, and you will be good to live for several more years.
Fabrice Muamba
Fabrice Muamba had a cardiac arrest in front of hundreds of people during his game at the White Hart Lane in 2012. According to The Guardian, the arrest was so severe that he practically passed away as his heart stopped beating, but he was brought back to life at the hospital after 78 minutes.
Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek has survived not one but two heart attacks. Thankfully they were minor ones and a sign that Alex needed to bring changes in his lifestyle. The Jeopardy! host had his first minor heart attack around the end of 2007 when he was 67. Then, in June 2012, he once again had a heart attack. It started with the host feeling a squeezing pain in his chest for which he took an aspirin. Alex’s plan was to completely ignore the pain and go about his life when his wife forced him to go to the hospital and get it checked out by a professional. The doctors informed Alex that he had just survived a minor heart attack and would not need any surgery for it.
Bob Harper
Being in the best shape possible thanks to his profession as a trainer, Bob Harper was stunned when he suffered from a heart attack in February 2017 when he was 51 years old. However, his heart attack was due to genetics. Since then, the professional trainer has started his own organization, Survivors Have Heart, to help heart attack survivors deal with the ordeal of touching death so closely emotionally.
Larry King
According to CNN, owing to smoking for decades and a poor diet, Larry King suffered from multiple heart attacks before finally undergoing a bypass surgery in 1987. But, soon after surviving it, Larry brought modifications to his lifestyle and completely quit smoking for good.
Rosie O’Donnell
Rosie O’Donnell is another celebrity on our list of celebrities who survived a heart attack at the age of 50 without even realizing she had one at the moment. In August 2012, Rosie O’Donnell had nausea, sweaty skin, and pain in her chest. She simply took an aspirin, and the symptoms settled for the time being. According to Harvard Health Publishing, the comedian then searched up the symptoms of a heart attack and noticed she was suffering from lots of them, and so when she visited the hospital the very next day, her EKG showed that her left anterior descending “was 99% blocked.” The comedian wasted no time and had an immediate surgery to resolve the issue. Since then, the 62-year-old has talked about heart attacks, their signs and symptoms, and how one should not ignore them in her blog.
Susan Lucci
In 2018, Susan Lucci felt a chest pain, and she went to the hospital only to find out that she had to undergo emergency surgery. The doctors had found out that Lucci had two blocked arteries.
Later, in February 2019, the soap opera star shared that blocked arteries were in her DNA as her father also suffered from the same. Lucci’s father had calcium blockage at the age of 49. However, according to the star, her father was an avid smoker, something she was not, and because of this, she could never connect the dots to date.
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith was once extremely overweight, weighing around 256 pounds, and had to face its consequences. At the young age of 47, Kevin suffered from a major heart attack in February 2018. According to CBS News, it started with Kevin puking a little and then having a heavy feeling in his chest, along with lots and lots of sweating. The director went to Glendale Hospital only to find out that his Left Anterior Descending Artery was completely blocked. However, he soon realized it was time to bring healthy changes in his lifestyle, with the Mall Rats director losing just a little over 50 pounds by April 2018.
Darlene Love
Darlene Love is a famous backup singer who has worked with celebrities like Elvis Presley and Sam Cookie. Things changed considerably for Darlene in 2012 when she felt a terrible headache and stomach ache before one of her performances. But as the saying goes, “the show must go on,” Darlene got on stage and performed like the star she is. However, the very next day, her doctors informed her that she had survived a heart attack. She was then made aware of all the changes she needed to make in her lifestyle, and she followed them thoroughly. Darlene made changes to her diet and began kickboxing five times every week. She even shared her story with the world so that she could inspire as many people as possible to not take the warning signs lightly and go get themselves checked out by a doctor if they are feeling unwell, no matter what.
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp suffered from a heart attack while he was on tour in 1994 when he was 42 years old. The singer was not feeling well during the tour and decided to head back to Bloomington because, according to the star, this was where actual doctors existed. At the hospital, a doctor came up to him and simply said, “You’ve had a heart attack.” While sharing the story in 2015 with David Letterman, John said that he lost it when the doctor said that and even went as far as calling him names. However, the doctor kept his calm and said that no matter what you say or how you act, you did have a heart attack, and even a first-year medical student could tell that.
David Bowie
The legendary David Bowie just had to be on our list of celebrities who survived a heart attack. After all, he did not survive one but two heart attacks. Both heart attacks took place in the span of less than a week. According to Rolling Stone, Bowie suffered his first heart attack during his concert in Prague, where he had intense pain in his chest and shoulder. David tried to ignore the pain and perform for the audience, leaving the stage twice when the pain got too much to handle before finally ending it a little early while saying, “I’m sorry folks but I just can’t continue, I’m in too much pain. I have to bid you goodnight. I’m so sorry.” He was soon taken to a hospital.
However, David Bowie was back on stage three days later in Germany. Here too, David was in tremendous pain, and so when he got backstage, he collapsed and was taken to the hospital immediately. Here, he got an emergency angioplasty.
Bob Odenkirk
Bob Odenkirk is another actor on our list of celebrities who survived a heart attack. The actor had a major heart attack on the sets of Better Call Saul in 2021 in New Mexico. According to The New York Times, Bob was brought back to life by the on-set health safety supervisor along with an assistant director who gave the actor CPR and also shocked him with a defibrillator thrice before rushing him to a hospital. The cardiac arrest had taken place as a piece of plaque broke. This was the same plaque buildup that Odenkirk was informed about in 2018 by his doctors, and the heart attack resulted in the actor learning to find a good work-life balance.
Kelsey Grammer
In June 2008, Kelsey Grammer experienced one of the worst pains of his life as his chest felt like someone was going to tear it apart, and he immediately went to the hospital. At the time of the chest pain, the Frasier star was in Hawaii and enjoying quality time with his ex-wife, Camille Grammer. It was soon discovered that the then 53-year-old had just suffered from a heart attack and needed to bring changes in the way he was leading his life.
