Ted Danson, 78, Had a Health Scare. Here’s What He Did Next

Ted Danson did not plan to talk about mortality. At 78, he ended up doing it anyway.

“The last thing that kind of hit me that was very liberating was I had a bit of a health scare,” Danson said on the May 6 episode of his podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes). “I’m totally fine, but it was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s real.’ ” 

Danson, who spent 11 seasons as Sam Malone on Cheers and eventually went on to Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Place, has been one of television’s most reliable presences for more than four decades. He has won two Emmy Awards. 

He did not name the condition, but he did acknowledge that it forced a reckoning he’d been putting off. 

AARP’s 2024 Death and Dying survey found 41 percent of men 45 and older believe there is no reason to talk about dying at all. Danson had agreed with them — until he didn’t.

“It was humbling. Oh, mortality is the real deal, you know,” he said on the podcast. “It’s not just a rumor. Ted Danson doesn’t get a free pass.”

His guest, Valerie Bertinelli, noted what made his experience unusual: There was no clear cause, no behavior to blame. No “if onlys.” Danson took that as its own kind of gift.

“It was very humbling and calming,” he said. “And I’m fine, you know. But it was, I think, the best thing that could have happened to me.”

His lifestyle changes were immediate and specific. He started meditating twice a day with his wife, award-winning actor Mary Steenburgen, 73.

“I’ve always talked about it and lied about it,” he said with a laugh. What the practice gave him, he said, was attention. “The biggest gift of all [is] you can be curious about other people. You can listen and you can be supportive, caring, you can witness them. And I do believe that the rest of my life is to be curious and listen. That’s the best thing I can offer.”

AARP’s guide on end-of-life conversations reveals that when families have meaningful discussions about their wishes before a health crisis, survivors report less guilt, less depression and an easier grieving process. The hardest part, AARP notes, is simply starting. One prompt AARP suggests is to finish this sentence: “What matters to me at the end of life is ...”

Mary Steenburgen and Danson together in January 2026. Danson says a recent health scare pushed him to start meditating twice a day, with Steenburgen by his side.

Matthew Taplinger/CBS via Getty Images

Danson and Steenburgen have been married since 1995 and last year received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award together at the Emmy Awards. Danson is staying busy: He stars in the Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside, which was renewed in February for a third season, and will host the History Channel docuseries Extraordinary Origins with Ted Danson about discoveries that shaped the modern world.

The scare, he said, did not change his plans. It changed what he thinks the plans are for. The pain, he said, helps you “get to the joy and all that.”

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