Stephen Hawking has a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis . It became well known in the United States in the 20th century when in 1939 it affected the baseball player Lou Gehrig and later worldwide when physicist Stephen Hawking , diagnosed in 1963 and expected to die within two years , became famous . Stephen Hawking . Hawking has a rare early-onset , slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( ALS ) that has gradually paralysed him over the decades .