Harry Belafonte
The iconic “Banana Boat” singer and civil rights activist made a big point of going public with his prostate cancer story after he was diagnosed and treated with a prostatectomy in 1996. “I’m very fatalistic,” he told the Los Angeles Times the following year. “If you’re going to have it, you’re going to have it. It’s what you do about it that makes the difference.” He also said he was speaking out to get more men to talk openly about prostate cancer—and that before his diagnosis, he saw cancer primarily as a women’s issue.
