Grace Kelly, Cary Grant and Lady Bren!

     I have to admit I like seeing my name next to the likes of Hollywood Royalty.  However the reasoning isn't glorious.  Grace Kelly, Cary Grant and I have all suffered Strokes. 
     Like so many things it seems when a celebrities name is attached to anything the public seems to stand up and take notice.  In 2011, three weeks before the Oscars, the International Stroke Conference was held in Hollywood.  Using the location as inspiration the organizers of the conference, American Heart Association/American Stroke Association decided to research the frequency of stroke among a very elite group of people, Oscar nominees. 
    They discovered of the 409 men and women nominated from 1927-2009:

• 30 (7.3 %) suffered strokes and 39 (9.5%) suffered heart attacks
• 67 was the average age of when they had their first stroke
• 18 of the 30 (60%) stroke victims were women
• 6 of the 30 (20%) suffered fatal strokes.

     Among the 18 female stroke victims is Sharon Stone.  Sharon was 43 and training for a 3 mile charity run when she suffered a stroke. After her recovery she became a spokesperson for the American Stroke Association and filmed this PSA.

     Here is the complete list of those who suffered stroke and their most recent best actor/actress Oscar nomination:

Ruth Chatterton, 1930, Sarah and Son

Mary Pickford, 1930, Coquette

Bette Davis, 1963, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Claudette Colbert, 1945, Since You Went Away

Merle Oberon, 1936, The Dark Angel

Gladys George, 1937, Valiant is the Word for Carrie

Robert Donat, 1940, Goodbye, Mr. Chips

James Cagney, 1956, Love Me or Leave Me

Greer Garson, 1961, Sunrise at Campobello

Cary Grant, 1945, None But the Lonely Heart

Walter Pidgeon, 1944, Madame Curie

Jean Arthur, 1944, The More the Merrier

Celia Johnson, 1947, Brief Encounter

Gene Kelly, 1946, Anchors Away

Anne Baxter, 1951, All About Eve

Broderick Crawford, 1950, All the King's Men

Kirk Douglas, 1957, The Lust for Life

Julie Harris, 1953, The Member of the Wedding

Burt Lancaster, 1982, Atlantic City

Richard Burton, 1978, Anne of the Thousand Days

Grace Kelly, 1955, The Country Girl

Anthony Franciosa, 1958, A Hatful of Rain

Elizabeth Taylor, 1967, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Patricia Neal, 1969, The Subject Was Roses

Edith Evans, 1968, The Whisperers

Dudley Moore, 1982, Arthur

James Garner, 1986, Murphy's Romance

Sharon Stone, 1996, Casino

Samantha Morton, 2004, In America