Celebrity Eye Problems

In late 2009, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office released a statement regarding Brown’s eye problems. At that time, it was already well-known that Brown had suffered from a retinal detachment after a rugby injury in his teens and lost vision in his left eye. Recently, however, Brown’s right eye was found to have two minor retinal tears, which doctors decided not to treat as there had been no further deterioration. This discovery prompted the subsequent statement release.

This disclosure was not the first time that Brown received publicity about his eyesight – earlier reports cited friends describing his inability to read anything other than large print and need for guidance at public events. Regardless, Brown made it through his full tenure without any major vision problems, and can now enjoy his new freedom away from public scrutiny and out of office.

Brown is not the first celebrity to receive attention about his eyesight.

Stevie Wonder, who has been blind since shortly after birth, is an American singer-songwriter and activist as famous for his music as he is about his lack of vision. Wonder’s blindness is a result of his premature birth - the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not properly developed, causing his retinas to detach. Always photographed sporting sunglasses, Wonder has won a record-breaking 22 Grammy awards, the most of any solo artist.

Other famous blind celebrities include Ray Charles, John Milton – who authored his famous Paradise Lost after losing his sight at the age of 43, and Marla Runyan, the American runner who became the first legally blind individual to compete in the Olympics in 2000.

Various other celebrities have also gained attention for temporary eye injuries.

Steve Nash didn’t let his heavily-photographed mid-game eye injury stop him from playing basketball this past May, returning to the game with six stitches in his right eye, which was swollen shut by the time the game was over. He finished with 20 points against the Spurs, and without his depth perception.

NBA player Allan Ray also suffered an eye injury playing basketball. In 2006, Ray had his eye seemingly knocked out of his socket while playing for Villanova University. Though he lost his vision for a short period of time, the injury turned out to be only soft tissue damage that appeared deceptively serious in video footage of the game, so he was back on the court a week later, and was drafted to the Celtics later that year.

After a mishap on-set, Shia LaBeouf was quoted discussing the gruesome eye injury he received while filming the Transformers sequel. LaBeouf impaled his face on a spike, leading to heavy bleeding, but there was fortunately no permanent damage.

LaBeouf isn’t the only celebrity who’s received an eye injury on-set – in 2006, Teri Hatcher was injured while filming Desperate Housewives after a light bulb exploded. As a result of the explosion, Hatcher had glass shards lodged in her eye and a scratched cornea, but recovered shortly thereafter.

Other injured celebrities on-set include Halle Berry, who got smoke grenade shards in her eye filming Die Another Day, and Daniel Craig, who suffered from a bruised eye filming Casino Royale.

Finally, some celebrities have received attention for undergoing laser eye surgery – Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Tiger Woods, to name a few. As this procedure becomes more and more commonplace, there will no doubt be increasing numbers of celebrities seeking treatment to correct their visual problems once and for all.