Stanley Tucci Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

The Hunger Games and Captain America: The First Avenger star Stanley Tucci reveals that he was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. In an interview with Vera magazine (via The Hollywood Reporter), Tucci revealed that he had a tumor at the base of his tongue that was too large to operate on and had to be treated with “high-dose radiation and chemo.” For Tucci, the diagnosis and treatment of the cancer were especially difficult as his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci battled breast cancer before dying in 2009 at the age of 47.

“I’d vowed I’d never do anything like that, because my first wife died of cancer, and to watch her go through those treatments for years was horrible,” Tucci said.

Tucci detailed some of his treatment, noting that he was concerned about how his illness would impact his family as well as that, at one point, he had to use a feeding tube for six months, something that was especially difficult for his children and that he only barely made it to his twins’ high school graduation due to his illness. He also explained that his cancer isn’t likely to come back but that the disease has taken a toll on him, in particular making him feel “older”.

“[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time,” Tucci said. “I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done.”

In addition to his roles as Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games film series and Abraham Erskine in Captain America: The First Avenger — a role he reprised in voicing the character for Marvel’s What If…? — Tucci has had an extensive film and television career. He played Cadenza in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, Mr. D/Dionysus in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and was the voice of Herb Kazzas on BoJack Horseman. He is also the host of his own travel food series on CNN, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy which has been renewed for a second season. He will also appear in the upcoming third installment of the Kingsman film series, The King’s Man which serves as a prequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which is due to be released in theaters on December 22, 2021.

Photo: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images