6 famous people with hemophilia

Last updated Dec. 10, 2024, by Susie Strachan

Hemophilia has affected people from all walks of life, including royalty, athletes, actors, and advocates. It’s a rare genetic bleeding disorder that mostly affects males, while females are more likely to be carriers. Learn about some of the notable names who have lived with the condition, according to our research and The Missing Factor.

Alexandrea Borstein

A comedian, film writer, actress, and voice artist, Borstein is most recognized for playing the acerbic Susie Myerson in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and being the voice of Lois Griffin in “Family Guy.” She’s also appeared in many films such as “Love the Coopers” and “Extinct.” Borstein is a carrier of hemophilia, as well as an active advocate for the disease.

Alex Dowsett

Alex Dowsett is a British former professional road racing cyclist who holds the track cycling world hour record with a distance of 32.89 miles. As a youth, he initially took up swimming as a sport and then cycling, both of which were considered less risky than contact sports for an athlete with hemophilia. He founded the charity Little Bleeders in the U.K. to encourage children with hemophilia to participate in sports and movement.

Jesse Shrader

Despite having severe hemophilia A, Jesse Shrader was a pitcher in a professional independent baseball league. After every game, he had to ice his arm. He now coaches children in baseball, including offering support for young players who are managing a bleeding disorder.

Richard Burton

Richard Burton was a seven-time Oscar-nominated Welsh actor who was married multiple times to actress Elizabeth Taylor. During his career, he starred in dozens of films and plays. Although Burton’s hemophilia was not well-known at the time, he set up the Richard Burton Hemophilia Fund, along with Taylor, in 1964, according to the New York Times. He died in 1984 from a stroke at the age of 58.

Ryan Wayne White

Ryan was diagnosed with severe hemophilia A at 3 days old following extensive bleeding after his circumcision. Ryan inadvertently became the poster boy for AIDS during the 1980s after he contracted the disease from unscreened blood transfusions. His school blocked him from attending because of his illness, but his parents fought and won a lawsuit they had filed against the school. After his AIDS diagnosis in 1984, he was originally told he had only six months to live, but Ryan lived for another five and a half years. He eventually died from AIDS in 1990 at the age of 18.

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was a carrier of hemophilia B, a disease that she passed on to two of her daughters and one of her sons, resulting in high-profile royal cases of hemophilia in Germany, Russia, and Spain. Her son, Prince Leopold, died in 1884 following a fall. Through her daughter’s marriages into other European royal families, more monarchs were born with the disease, including Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who eventually had to use a wheelchair full time due to complications. The teenage Nikolaevich was killed along with the rest of the Russian royal family during the Russian Revolution in 1918.

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