Stanley Tucci reveals he was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago
Tucci says the tumor is "unlikely to come back," which, knock on wood
In one of the more shocking—if ultimately optimistic—things we’ve ever learned from browsing an in-flight airline magazine, Stanley Tucci recently revealed in an interview with Virgin Atlantic’s Vera that he was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. Specifically, Tucci says, he developed a large, inoperable tumor at the base of his tongue, which had to be treated with chemotherapy and radiation. And while Tucci notes that the treatment worked, and that the cancer is “unlikely to come back” (“touching wood with both hands” as he says it), it does sound like a harrowing experience.
“I had a feeding tube for six
months,” the actor notes, disclosing that he was nearly forced to miss the graduation of his twins from high school. He also reflects on his memories of his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, who died of breast cancer in 2009. “To watch her go through
those treatments for years was horrible,” he said in the interview. “[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less
afraid at the same time. I feel much older than
I did before I was sick. But you still want to get
ahead and get things done.”
As a whole, the profile is part of Tucci’s current cultural renaissance, pegged both to a pretty immaculate COVID social media game—most notably a video of him making a negroni that went viral for the sheer, charismatic Tucci-ness of it all—and a lighthearted piece he penned for The Atlantic in which he discussed his current pandemic routine. He’s also keeping busy in a professional sense: He recently reprised his role as Dr. Erskine in an episode of Marvel’s What If?, he co-stars in the upcoming The King’s Man (semi-filling in for his old pal Colin Firth, who he stars with in the relationship drama Supernova), and continues to co-star on Loren Bouchard’s Central Park.