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• Bio on Mr. Pierce
• Articles on Mr. Pierce
• Alzheimer's Association
• The Forgetting on PBS

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Tavis: I'm delighted, pleased, in fact, to welcome David Hyde Pierce to the program tonight. The 3-time Emmy winner for his brilliant role on "Frasier" is a tireless advocate on behalf of the millions of Americans who suffer from Alzheimer's disease, a disease that afflicted his father and grandfather. Earlier this year, David was part of a terrific special about Alzheimer's right here on PBS called "The Forgetting..." but I didn't forget it. David, nice to see you.

David Hyde Pierce: Hey, Tavis. Good to see you.

Tavis: Nice to have you on the program, man.

Pierce: Thank you.

Tavis: You know, I've been anxious to talk to you, and I do mean honored to talk to you, because you are not one of these, and I'm not trying to cast dispersion on my Hollywood-celebrity friends, but one of those persons who is long been fighting on this issue. It--certainly around the issue of Ronald Reagan's death and the issue of stem cell research, this thing has heated up of late, but you've been doing this for like--for like a decade.

Pierce: Yeah. Well, I've been working with the Alzheimer's Association for about 10 years, and, uh--you raise a good point. It does heat up periodically, and our job is to keep the heat on because even though there's these, sort of, bounces as we now call them, like when President Reagan died, and suddenly, everyone was talking about Alzheimer's or stem cell research, and now it's... kind of gone. Stem cell research has become a political issue, which is a whole different thing, but, uh...Alzheimer's keeps on going. So we have to keep--keep the pressure on it.

Tavis: I want to get to your personal story in just a second, but since we've already mentioned Ronald Reagan a couple times here, what did his being diagnosed with it 10 years ago and his prolonged illness with it, or suffering with it, what did that do, what has it done positively for Alzheimer's research?

Pierce: I think the...the diagnosis, the fact that he and his family came forward with it and spoke publicly about it was a huge, huge boon to research, to getting funding for research. It's still--still so hard to get dollars, federal dollars, to go towards Alzheimer's research, and, uh--

Tavis: Let me stop you one second. I'm trying to juxtapose two things here. How is it difficult, hard to get money out of the federal government for Alzheimer's research when the guys who run Congress, the Republicans, Ronald Reagan, was their hero? I would think they'd be throwing money at Alzheimer's.

Pierce: You would think so. Unfortunately, there's a lot of different things to throw money on. If, you know, if you're gonna have a war, a lot of money goes to that. Um, it's hard to explain to people why Alzheimer's is a priority, and unfortunately, because of the demographics of the disease, because as...like our-- the baby-boom generation gets older, uh, the numbers of people with it, the cost to business, the, you know, devastation of our health care system, Medicare, all of that, will be inevitable if we don't stop the disease, and then we won't have to explain it to anybody, but it'll be too late.

Tavis: But isn't that all the more reason then for people to start, you know, putting the--

Pierce: You would think, but right now, we are able to fund 25% of the proposals for research in Alzheimer's. 25%. So, you know, if you said to people we're gonna fund 25% of the war on terror, I think people might have a problem with that, um, and right now, 4 ½ million Americans are dying of Alzheimer's. It's a terminal disease. So that seems to me like a lot of people to lose, and I, uh-- I'm kind of with you. I don't understand why it's so hard to make this case, but we're-- we're trying.

Tavis: Tell me your story. It is a fascinating one. I obviously did a little research preparing for our conversation, uh, but was just absolutely struck and moved by what you have dealt with in your own family, which brings you, I suspect, to the fore of talking about this disease.

Pierce: Yeah, well, as you said. My grandfather had it, and he--my grandmother was the person--this was more than 10 years ago. This was in the mid to late eighties. We didn't know anything about Alzheimer's, didn't even know that's what it was at the time. She took care of him, kept it from the rest of the family, as people often do. And ultimately he started wandering and she'd have to call the emergency squads to have him brought back. He finally became physically unrestrainable and had to go into a nursing home. And I think the first understanding I had of how serious Alzheimer's is is that my grandmother basically collapsed under the weight of caring for her husband who had Alzheimer's. You know, this idea that this person you've been married to for 50 years, who you are is your life together. And when the person you've lived with all that time doesn't know who you are, it might as well have never have happened, and that psychological and emotional damage on the person who's taking care of the sick person is pretty huge. It's what I call the collateral damage of Alzheimer's, and that's one of the things that makes it so expensive and so devastating. Because if you have someone in your family with Alzheimer's, like your wife has Alzheimer's, either, because they can't take care of themselves, you have to provide for someone to take care of them or pay for them to be in a facility, or you have to take time off of work to take care of them yourself. All these things place a huge financial and emotional burden on you and your family. And that's happening, you know, in millions of households across the country.

Tavis: So your grandfather was the first person in your family.

Pierce: He was the first one, and when the Alzheimer's Association came to me to start working with them here in Los Angeles, he had been diagnosed. And he had passed away and they did an autopsy, and we knew he had Alzheimer's. So that was my connection to the disease. While I was working with them, my own dad developed what you call a vascular dementia, related to blood vessels, which progressed into Alzheimer's. And so suddenly I'd seen it twice in my family, both sides of my family, and that certainly fueled my anger at the disease for what it had done. Because, similarly, my mom was his main caregiver, and it took a lot out of her.

Tavis: And your father has since passed away.

Pierce: He is gone now, yeah.

Tavis: Yeah. Are you scared? Are you scared for yourself?

Pierce: I couldn't say that I'm scared. I think about it every day. Every time I forget something, I think is this it? You know? But really, I look around at my brother and sisters, I look around at my friends, and I think I cannot watch someone else that I love go through this. So that, and the fact that the people in the Alzheimer's Association are some of the most amazing people because they're in the same position. They all have either been through it or are going through it, and they are pissed, and they are also dedicated. And so that's very rejuvenating to work with those people.

Tavis: Have you--this might be a little bit too personal. If it is, slap me and I'll back up. Well, don't slap me, but just ask me--

Pierce: It is so unlikely that I would slap you. Really.

Tavis: Anything can happen on "Frasier," so I don't know. If, God forbid, and we pray not, but if something--if you were to contract Alzheimer's, what have you witnessed, watched your grandfather and father go through that you would not wanna go--you know, you said when it gets to this point, when it gets to this state, here's what I know I want to happen or I don't want to happen. Does that make sense? Have you thought about this?

Pierce: I haven't thought about it, but it's a really good question because it goes to the heart of...I think it goes to the heart of the problem of, kind of, selling the battle against Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a scary disease. And even in the Association, we've done a lot of research; basically, people don't wanna hear about it. And so when you ask a question like that, yeah, I don't want to lose my sense of self. I don't want to lose my creativity. I don't want to lose my humor. I don't want to lose my sense of who my friends are. I don't want to look at my siblings and the people I love and not know who they are, even if, at that point, I won't know that that's going on. It's an existential disease at the same time that it's a terminal illness.

Tavis: I wonder whether or not--we've discussed already the need for more funding. And I suspect every individual who could sit in this chair, speaking on behalf of a particular illness or disease, wants more funding. I understand that, and that's fair. I wonder, though, whether or not you think, on the creative front, in terms of selling this--I don't mean to be flippant about this--but in terms of getting people to understand why this ought to be important to your point...you said it scares people. They don't want to hear about it. They don't want to know about it--I understand that. But since you have been and are, as long as you live, will be so good at selling us on images, on bringing a character to life, you ever thought about what can be done, what ought to be done to be able to sell this thing better that's not being done?

Pierce: Absolutely.

Tavis: It's a long-winded question. Forgive me.

Pierce: No, no. It's the essence of what we're trying to do at the Alzheimer's Association, and it's also the essence of what's happened to me working with the Alzheimer's Association. I went into this battle in great anger and great despair. Because seeing your parents and grandparents go through this and being helpless is a devastating thing. But in the course of these last 10 years, I've also seen the breakthrough after breakthrough after breakthrough in research, in finding better ways to treat it, in finding better ways to take care of people who have it, in finding better ways to diagnose it. They now actually have created a way--it's in its infancy--but they've created a way to use a P.E.T. scan to image the disease in the cells. It's cellular. That's how small it is. And they can see it. Which means they can find it long before it becomes symptomatic. So, long-winded answer to your long-winded question, the sell is, it's no longer a question of despair. It's a question of hope. We are so close. The problem is, each one of these clinical trials that you run to see, well, "What does this do, how does this help this mouse remember better and all that." They take 5 years. 3 years, 5 years. If you can only afford to run one trial at a time, then you're looking infinitely into the future to the point where we make any breakthroughs. And the thing we're up against is there is a race against time. That's one of the things that is a hallmark of this disease, is that as the number of people who are going to get it expands, as my generation specifically gets older, and we go from 4 ½ million now to 16 million in the middle of this century, that will be too late. If we find a cure after that, we will have lost 16 million lives and the concurrent loss to their families and loved ones, and to our healthcare system. The people in government are saying, "We're gonna create a great healthcare system. We're gonna save Medicare and Medicaid." No, you're not. If you don't tackle this one disease, it doesn't matter what you do with the rest of the healthcare system.

Tavis: You see, I'm long-winded, but never to be outdone. David Hyde Pierce is long-winded, too, but it was a great answer, and I'm glad you said that. I'm just being funny. In 30 seconds, tell me--'cause I'm fascinated to know now-- how your mother is doing, given that--to your point--you lose that person. You

got to--life goes on.

Pierce: Unfortunately, the same thing happened to my mom that happened to my grandmother, which is she predeceased my dad. Now, my mom came down with cancer. Cancer of the pancreas. And so, I wouldn't presume to say that my dad's illness caused that, but there is ample statistical and just plain evidence that the strain added to her decline.

Tavis: Well, you are a warrior. And I'm glad you're here.

Pierce: Well, thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: You're welcome back here any time to talk about this or anything you want to talk about.

Pierce: Thank you. It's great meeting you.

Tavis: Nice to meet you as well. David Hyde Pierce on the front line fighting for those suffering with Alzheimer's. Glad to have him on the program. Up next on this program, filmmaker and producer Reginald Hudlin. Stay with us.