Team Factend
Many celebrities have dealt with moderate to severe visual impairment at some point in their lives, but they prove that it’s still possible to live a full life and have an exceptional career.
Here’s a list of 19 Vision-impaired celebrities who struggled with sight, this includes the likes of Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, and Robin Williams.
Vision-impaired Celebrities Who Struggled With Sight
1. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp was born in Kentucky in 1963 and has been an actor for more than two decades. He’s been in many movies and television shows, including the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which began with The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). In 2013, during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Depp shared that he had never been able to see much when it came to his vision until age 12 or 13 when he finally could see well enough that others could read lips as well.
2. Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott is a rapper and producer who has had a long career in the music industry. She has won many awards, including being named one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. A strong advocate for women’s rights, she founded her own record label to help support independent artists like herself; it’s called The Goldmind Incorporated Records (GIR).
Missy Elliott has also been open about her struggles with an autoimmune disease called Grave’s Disease, which affects the thyroid gland and causes the eyes to become more prominent and bulge as it produces excessive hormones. This can lead to blurred vision for some people who have this condition
3. Bono
If you know anything about Bono’s life and work, you probably know that he has a condition called glaucoma. Glaucoma is caused by pressure in the eye, which can lead to blindness or vision loss in some cases. It can also be treated with surgery or medication.
When asked about his unique eyewear look at an event last year, he said: “I’ve had these lenses since I was 18 years old.” In 2014, he shared that he had been suffering from glaucoma for 20 years—so it’s no surprise that this may have played into his decision to wear contacts full time now!
4. Fetty Wap
Fetty Wap, who is a rapper and songwriter from New Jersey, has been plagued by rumors about his missing eye throughout his career. There are many theories among the fans, the most popular theory being that he was shot in the eye! According to the rapper, he has been suffering from congenital glaucoma because of an accident when he was a child. As a result, he ended up having his left eye surgically removed.
His prosthetic eye is colored blue with black rings around it; this design represents his personality as well as representing his hometown where there’s lots of water surrounding him (e.g., the Atlantic Ocean).
The famous rapper Fetty has been plagued with rumors about his missing eye throughout his career due to some people believing that he had lost it during an altercation at school or while playing basketball but this isn’t true according to him himself because “When I was younger kids would tease me because they thought my eyes looked different than theirs.”
5. Judi Dench
Judi Dench, who is one of the most famous actresses in the world and has been nominated for an Academy Award, is also known to struggle with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is a condition that affects the eyes and causes severe blurred vision.
She was diagnosed with AMD at age 60; this condition progressed quickly over several years until she had to stop working because her vision was so poor that it was difficult for her to see even a few feet away from her face.
6. Venus Williams
Venus Williams is a professional tennis player and she has won seven Grand Slam titles, including three Wimbledon singles titles. She also won the Olympic gold medal in 2000 and 2004.
Although Venus Williams doesn’t have any vision problems, her sister Serena had to wear glasses when she was young because of her vision problems. The sisters often compete against each other at Wimbledon and other tournaments across the world!
7. Ray Charles
Ray Charles was a blind American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia to Bailey and Aretha Williams.
Just like many other celebrities on this list, the legendary musician was born with congenital glaucoma. Left untreated for years by his parents because they didn’t know what vision problems were until he was too young to receive treatment (it wasn’t until later that doctors discovered how damaging blindness can be).
8. Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is a singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer who has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. He was born in 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. His father was a pianist and his mother played the organ at church services.
In 1968 Stevie Wonder released his first album Songs In The Key Of Life which went on to become one of the best-selling albums ever recorded by an African American artiste in history as well as being named Album Of The Year by both Rolling Stone Magazine & Billboard Magazine (both now defunct). His other notable works include Do I Do?, Innervations (1971), Talking Book (1973) Signed Sealed Delivered (1974)
Stevie’s blindness developed when he was just five years old due to retinopathy of prematurity syndrome which causes severe damage to the retina within 24 hours after birth. He received treatment from Dr. Edward George Wilson who discovered that surgery could help improve his vision but it wasn’t until he turned 11 that Stevie’s condition improved significantly enough for him to start school again at The Salem School For The Blind
9. Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald was one of the most famous singers in history. She was blind and had lived to be 76 years old, which is amazing for anyone! The reason for her fame was that she sang jazz music with enormous feelings and emotions.
She influenced many other musicians, artists, and people alike by being so talented at what she did. Her biggest influence on others was her ability to bring joy into their lives through her music!
10. Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry is a professional basketball player who was born in 1988. He has been the NBA MVP twice, and he’s also an Olympic gold medalist.
He has two daughters with his wife Ayesha Curry: Riley (born 2013) and Ryanah (born 2017). They live in Charlotte, North Carolina with their family dog Reggie.
11. Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli is an Italian tenor, singer-songwriter, and musician. He was born with congenital glaucoma which affected his eyesight from the age of 12 after he had a soccer accident that caused him to hit his head hard on the concrete ground.
The famous opera singer underwent two surgeries in 1998 to restore his sight; but after suffering from partial blindness again, he underwent another surgery in 2007 which restored about 30% of the vision in each eye.
Since then, Andrea has continued to perform as well as release albums despite struggling with his vision problem during performances.
12. Larry King
Larry King is a blind American television and radio host who hosts Larry King Live on GAC TV. He has hosted the show since 1985 and was previously known as a reporter in local NBC affiliate stations such as WRC-TV (Washington) in Washington D.C., KTLA Los Angeles, WABC New York City and KABC Los Angeles before becoming famous.
King was born in 1934 in Brooklyn New York City to parents Henry Louis Bressler III and Erma Mae King; his mother worked as a maid while his father worked at an insurance company full-time until he retired due to health reasons when Larry was still young age of six years old.”
13. Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994. He died on June 5, 2004, at 93 years old.
The former US president suffered from severe short-sightedness, which affected his ability to see clearly. In 1942, he enlisted in the army but wasn’t allowed to take part due to this problem as well as others such as asthma and high blood pressure.
However, it wasn’t until after his presidency when he had problems seeing clearly again that they were able to diagnose him with a retinal detachment (RD).
RD is an injury where part of your retina tears off or detaches from its attachment point on your eye & travels away–usually causing vision loss & pain!
14. Stephen King
Stephen King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, and science fiction. He has published more than 70 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman. His other works include short stories, novellas, and comic books.
King’s first novel was Carrie (1974), which became a cult classic; since then he has written over 200 novels with combined sales exceeding 350 million copies worldwide as well as movie adaptations or tie-ins for films such as The Shining (1980).
Themes that run through much of his work include mortality, evil in society and violence against children; these themes have made him one of the most successful writers in horror literature history
15. Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe was a famous American painter who was born in 1887 and died in 1986. She lost her central vision and just held her peripheral vision, making it hard to paint.
As she got older, she had trouble reading the words on the canvas or even seeing what color was used for each area of the painting.
The artist would have to rely on assistants for help with these tasks so she could focus on creating art instead of having everything else around her distract her from being able to create great paintings anymore
16. Alice Walker
Alice Walker is an American author, poet and short story writer who has received several awards for her works. She is best known for writing The Color Purple which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1983.
The great American author, Alice Walker famous for her novel ‘The Color Purple’, lost her left eyesight at a very young age when she was eight years old when her brother shot her with a BB gun.
17. Apl.de.ap
Apl.de.ap, a rapper and producer born in Mexico, is legally blind in both eyes.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1978, Apl’s parents were illegal immigrants who relocated to California before he was born.
His father worked as a bus driver while his mother worked at a Catholic school as a secretary; both went on to raise him as bilingual children of Mexican descent (Apl speaks both English and Spanish fluently).
When he was young, he began rapping along with other neighborhood kids at recess time—he would perform under the name “Myron McKinley” until around age 12 when the name changed to simply “Apl”.
He later attended Mt. San Antonio College where he studied business management. Eventually dropped out after becoming interested in music production instead. This led him into working with artists like Soulja Slim & DJ Clue Star before finding himself producing tracks like “Niggas Bleed” (alongside hip hop legend Kool Keith).
Which helped bring attention to what would become his debut album The Anthem: Vol 1 – A Story About Being Different
18. Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke is a singer and songwriter who is best known as the lead singer of the rock band Radiohead. He has a form of retinitis pigmentosa, which is a degenerative eye disease.
Thom Yorke was born with paralysis on the left half of his face, making his eyelid droop. He had to undergo five surgeries to fix this but the final surgery damaged his eye, leaving him with impaired vision.
19. Slick Rick
Slick Rick is a hip-hop legend who has struggled with vision impairment since birth. He got his start in the music industry as a member of The Futuristics and later went on to become one of the most successful rappers of all time.
In fact, he has two number-one albums under his belt and many more hits like “Children’s Story” (which features LL Cool J) or “La Di Da Di.”
Slick Rick’s success comes from his ability to write catchy tunes about everyday topics like finding love or getting high. But besides being an amazing songwriter, Slick Rick also produces some great tracks too!
To date, there are over 400 recorded songs by this legendary artist—and each one of them features lyrics that you’ll want to sing along with!
Conclusion
We hope that this article has been beneficial to your understanding of vision-impaired celebrities who struggle with sight.
We know that people with disabilities can be inspiring and fascinating in their own right, but we also know that they are often overlooked by the general public.
In an effort to correct this problem, we have compiled a list of 11 famous figures who may not appear disabled on the outside but still have challenges with their eyesight due to conditions like glaucoma or macular degeneration.
While many people would dismiss these individuals as being unable to do anything without seeing well enough to do it well—and that might be true for some of them—we hope our list will inspire some empathy toward those who need assistance while still maintaining their independence somehow!
