• Russell Andrews, 64, known for Better Call Saul and Straight Outta Compton, publicly revealed an ALS diagnosis he received in autumn 2025.
• The actor appeared on CNN’s The Story Is with Elex Michaelson on May 16 alongside fiancée and Justified actress Erica Tazel, 49.
• Tazel told Andrews after his diagnosis: “At least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife.”
• Andrews is partnering with the nonprofit ALS Network during ALS Awareness Month to raise visibility and connect families to resources.
• His daughter Anya will also be part of the family’s public advocacy alongside Andrews and Tazel.

Russell Andrews is living with ALS. The 64-year-old actor — a familiar face from Better Call Saul, Straight Outta Compton, and a celebrated career in August Wilson’s theater work — made the announcement publicly on Saturday, May 16, sitting beside his fiancée, actress Erica Tazel, during an emotional appearance on CNN’s The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.

“I am a person living with ALS,” Andrews told anchor Elex Michaelson. “I was diagnosed in the late fall of last year. It’s been humbling.”

The diagnosis, confirmed in autumn 2025, was the end of a long and disorienting road. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to muscle weakness, slurred speech, and eventual paralysis. There is no cure.

Years of Symptoms, and a Pandemic That Complicated Everything

Looking back, Andrews believes the earliest warning signs surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic — though at the time, he had no idea what he was dealing with. “I thought I had a stroke during COVID,” he said. “It was a stressful time.”

The timing made everything harder to parse. Between the industry-wide production shutdown and the historic 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes, Andrews said he was largely out of work for roughly three years. “We didn’t work for three years, about, and then we had the back-to-back strikes and so a lot was going on,” he said.

By 2023, the physical changes were becoming harder to ignore. He started experiencing occasional muscle twitches and attributed them to pinched nerves in his neck. Then came the moments that stopped him short — cups and glasses slipping from his hands at night, strange sensations traveling up and down his arm. “I was not able to do things that I normally do,” he recalled. “It felt like things were running up and down my arm at different times and it was the nerves.”

Tazel noticed things from the outside that Andrews himself was still explaining away. She watched him take longer than usual to clean the pool. She saw subtle shifts in the way he walked. “There was just the subtle little things like that and I had questions,” the Justified actress said. “I was like, ‘Something is definitely wrong.'”

Andrews had lost his health insurance during the work stoppage, and it wasn’t until coverage was restored that he could finally see a doctor. The appointment moved fast. “Within 15 minutes, the primary care [physician] said she would like me to see a neurologist,” he remembered. “One thing led to another.”

“I Still Want to Be Your Wife”

When the diagnosis came, Tazel’s response was immediate and unwavering. She described feeling an unexpected calm when Andrews first shared the news — not relief, exactly, but clarity after months of unanswered questions.

“When he shared the news with me, again, there was not a sigh of relief, but some understanding of what was happening,” she said. “And I looked at him across the room and I said, ‘At least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife.'”

Tazel, 49, has stepped into the role of Andrews’ caretaker, and she said the experience has reshaped how she understands love. “There are cases” where it “is truly unconditional,” she told CNN — and walking through this with Andrews has shown her that firsthand.

The couple has not announced a wedding date.

Going Public During ALS Awareness Month

The timing of Andrews’ announcement is deliberate. May is ALS Awareness Month, and he has formally partnered with the nonprofit ALS Network to raise visibility around the disease. His fiancée Tazel and his daughter Anya will be part of that effort alongside him, sharing their family’s journey and helping connect others to resources and support.

For Andrews, the community he found through the ALS Network has been one of the most unexpected parts of this chapter. “I walked into a family of very caring people I did not know a year ago — the cliché family,” he said, “but they have not let us miss a step in terms of care, the attention, the awareness and the ability to get me here today.”

“Receiving this diagnosis changed my life,” Andrews said in a statement. “What I didn’t expect was the depth of connection and support that comes with it. There’s a community here that shows up in ways that matter.”

Sheri Strahl, president and CEO of the ALS Network, welcomed the family’s partnership. “The ALS Network is built around one simple truth, that no one should face ALS alone,” she said. “Russell, Erica, and Anya’s willingness to share their journey brings visibility to the realities of this disease and the strength of the community behind it.”

Beyond his screen work, Andrews is a deeply respected stage actor with a long association with August Wilson’s plays — earning a Laurence Olivier Award for his role as Youngblood in Jitney at London’s Royal National Theater, and originating roles in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and King Hedley II. He is also the founding member of StageWalkers Productions, with additional television credits including Insecure, Grey’s Anatomy, and NCIS: New Orleans.

Andrews’ announcement comes months after the death of fellow actor Eric Dane, who passed away in February at 53 following his own battle with ALS. Dane’s family said he “became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight.”

Andrews, for his part, seems to be on the same path. “This moment is bigger than me,” he said. “It’s about making sure people feel supported, and making sure we keep moving forward.”

The post Better Call Saul’s Russell Andrews Reveals ALS Diagnosis appeared first on Cream.

• Bob Odenkirk, 63, is speaking out about his near-fatal heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul in July 2021.
• He revealed that the on-set medic had never performed CPR, and costars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian were screaming for help.
• Odenkirk has no memory of the incident — his first recollection is leaving the hospital a week later.
• The heart attack was caused by a fully blocked “widow-maker” artery and was treated without surgery.
• He now describes his recovery as “such a gift” and has made lasting changes to his diet and medication routine.

Bob Odenkirk has never shied away from talking about the day his heart nearly gave out on him — but in a new interview with The Times of London, the Better Call Saul star is sharing details that make the whole thing feel even more terrifyingly close.

“I went down and Rhea [Seehorn] and Patrick [Fabian] grabbed me and they were screaming, but [the crew members who noticed] thought they were laughing,” Odenkirk recalled. “So there were delays in reacting because we were all so far apart from each other. I was gone. I turned grey. Eventually the on-set medic showed up and he didn’t know what to do. He’d never done CPR.”

That was July 2021. Odenkirk was 58 years old, deep into filming the sixth and final season of the hit AMC drama, when he collapsed. He was rushed to a local hospital and treated — remarkably, without surgery — for what turned out to be a blockage in his widow-maker artery. That’s not a nickname anyone wants to earn. “That’s why it’s called the widow-maker ’cause you die when that happens,” he said plainly during a 2022 appearance on Sunday Today. “But I went down.”

A Week of His Life He Simply Doesn’t Have

One of the most striking things about Odenkirk’s account isn’t what happened — it’s what he can’t tell you about it, because he wasn’t there for any of it, even as it was happening to him.

“A lot of people get that wonderful reel of film of their life, or they have a person who says, ‘Do you want to go back?'” he told The Times. “None of that for me. The first memory I have is leaving the hospital a week after I got there.”

Everything he knows about that day came from the people who lived through it alongside him — his castmates, his crew, the people who love him and stood at his side while he was somewhere else entirely. “I was not present for any of it,” he said in that same 2022 interview. “I’m told it was a pretty shocking day on set, and traumatizing for all my costars and crew members.”

The memory loss didn’t stop when he left the hospital, either. Speaking to Yahoo! Life in 2023, Odenkirk described a strange kind of cognitive fog that lingered for weeks. “Weirdly, it didn’t affect me much for a long time. I had a strange kind of upbeat energy literally the next day, and every day,” he said. “It was because I had, like, a mind wipe every night. My ability to even think about what had happened to me was compromised — I needed to hear about it from people who’d been there, and I needed my brain to get back on a normal state. It’s something I think about every day.”

What Came After

Days after the incident, Odenkirk broke his silence on social media with a message that was equal parts gratitude and relief. “Hi. It’s Bob,” he wrote on X, then still called Twitter. “Thank you. To my family and friends who have surrounded me this week. And for the outpouring of love from everyone who expressed concern and care for me. It’s overwhelming. But I feel the love and it means so much.”

A follow-up post named the person he credits with saving his life: “I’m going to be ok thanks to Rosa Estrada and the doctors who knew how to fix the blockage without surgery.” He also couldn’t resist a little warmth. “I’ve had my very own ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ week of people insisting I make the world slightly better. Wow! Thank you, I love everyone right now but let’s keep expectations reasonable!”

Since then, Odenkirk has made real changes. He’s cut back on sugar and now takes statins, aspirin, and metoprolol — a beta-blocker that helps manage blood pressure. The kind of quiet, unglamorous daily maintenance that means he’s still here.

And he’s genuinely grateful for it. “That was such a gift, to experience a few weeks where I felt that way about my presence in the world,” he told The Times. “I felt just very, very delighted and engaged.”

Coming from the man who spent years playing one of TV’s most anxious, scheming, survival-at-all-costs characters, that kind of peace sounds hard-won. And entirely earned.

The post Bob Odenkirk on His 2021 Heart Attack: ‘I Was Gone. I Turned Grey’ appeared first on Cream.