Chevy Chase, an actor, comedian, and supporter of the “I am who I am” movement, recently let it slip that he is enduring memory loss as a result of heart disease.
Chevy Chase’s irregularities in speech and thought let it slip during a recent episode of the Saturday Night Live-centric podcast “Fly on the Wall” that Dana Carvey and David Spade host that he is suffering from memory loss. The show was hosted by two comedians.
Approximately in the middle of the show, Chevy Chase struggles to remember a story about Richard Pryor, an early host of Saturday Night Live. Pryor was a comedian. After some confusion regarding the dates, Chase pauses and says, “I’m trying to recall why I started that [story]… I am experiencing some discomfort in my heart.
The group was then sidetracked by Jane, Chase’s wife, who walked in on them. “I really should have warned you about this in advance. In February of the previous year, Chevy suffered from heart failure… To put it simply, he was very disoriented for a period of time. Therefore, he is missing some memories, although they are sort of returning, however…”
It’s not unusual for people who have heart failure to have problems with their memories. Heart failure “adversely impairs learning memory and delay recall, attention, executive function, psychomotor speed, and working memory,” as stated by the National Library of Medicine.
This was proven multiple times throughout the episode by Chevy Chase, who is now 79 years old. Throughout the episode, he regularly began stories that did not appear to have a definitive end, and he failed to remember events that should have been obvious.
A good illustration of this is when Chase brought up the subject of the deceased Phil Hartman and inquired, “How did he die?” In spite of the fact that Hartman’s killing is widely regarded as one of the most notorious crimes ever committed in Hollywood, I’m curious about it—not in a Chevy Chase–style sense, but in a straightforward manner.
Despite this, Chase did share some amusing anecdotes and warm reflections about the early days of Saturday Night Live. He mentioned how much he admired performers such as Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner.
In spite of the controversy, we hope the best for him…
mostly due to the fact that he is Chevy Chase and you are not.
Which of Chevy Chase’s movies or television shows is your absolute favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
