--- description: Ben Stiller was diagnosed with prostate cancer but survived his battle with the disease due to early detection, the actor revealed Tuesday. title: Ben Stiller Says He Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8be72a27f494233/6988a895196cf4856f03d6d9/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ben Stiller Says He Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 4, 2016 2:31 PM CUT  Ben Stiller arrives at "The Watch" premiere on July 23, 2012 in Hollywood, California. Ben Stiller arrives at "The Watch" premiere on July 23, 2012 in Hollywood, California.Charley Gallay—WireImage  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 4, 2016 2:31 PM CUT Ben Stiller was [diagnosed with prostate cancer](http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/ben-stiller-reveals-he-was-diagnosed-with-prostate-cancer-w443251 "undefined") two years ago, the actor revealed Tuesday. The 50-year-old _Zoolander_ star opened up about his diagnosis during an interview on SiriusXM’s [_The Howard Stern Show_](https://www.howardstern.com/show/2016/10/4/ben-stiller-goes-public-how-he-fought-prostate-cancer-and-won/?utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcontent=sternshow/ "undefined"). “It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea,” Stiller said. “At first, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was scared. It just stopped everything in your life because you can’t plan for a movie because you don’t know what’s going to happen.” The actor and father of two told Stern that upon learning of his diagnosis, he immediately called fellow Hollywood star [Robert De Niro](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=101017 "undefined"), who had also been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Stiller says he credits early detection with his positive outcome. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4517866/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4517866/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer/"},"headline":"Ben Stiller Says He Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer","datePublished":"2016-10-04T14:31:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:14:18.303Z","description":"The actor opens up on Howard Stern","url":"https://time.com/4517866/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer/","keywords":["celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8be72a27f494233/6988a895196cf4856f03d6d9/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8be72a27f494233/6988a895196cf4856f03d6d9/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Watch\" Premiere Sponsored By AXE","caption":"Ben Stiller arrives at \"The Watch\" premiere on July 23, 2012 in Hollywood, California.","creditText":"Charley Gallay—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4517866/ben-stiller-prostate-cancer/","name":"Ben Stiller Says He Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer"}}]}] ```