Marilu Henner’s exceptional memory spurs interest in brain health

Give Marilu Henner a random date in the past and she can recall it with amazing clarity. Take April 30, 1980. "It was a Wednesday," she says without hesitation. "I was in Cancun, Mexico, with my boyfriend at the time, who was soon to be my first husband."

She remembers wearing a cream-colored jumpsuit with harem pants and a stretchy strapless top with a turquoise jacket. "I drank tequila for the first time, and then never again for 25 years!" she says with a laugh. "The weather was beautiful that night, but it poured rain the next day, and all the plumbing in our resort went out. The whole thing comes back. It's like remembering your address or phone number or the color of your eyes. It's just there."

For most people, such vivid memories are usually associated with major life events-your wedding day or the day your child was born-or traumatic moments like where you were when you heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center. Memories of our lives are typically like impressionist paintings, forming an overall picture from a distance but blurry when we try to zoom in and look at specifics.

But that's not the case for Henner, who may be best known for playing Elaine Nardo on the 1978-83 sitcom Taxi and has appeared in numerous TV series since—most recently as Paula, the politically incorrect mother of Dave (Max Greenfield), on CBS' The Neighborhood. Henner can recall past events in almost photographic detail thanks to a highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), a rare condition that has been identified in only about 100 people in the world. The condition, which allows people to recall the events of most of the days of their lives with remarkable detail and accuracy, was first described in 2006 by James McGaugh, PhD, founding chair of the department of neurobiology and behavior and founding director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California-Irvine.

Memory superpower

"Even when I was 5 years old, people would say to my parents, 'What's with that kid and her memory? She remembers the last time I was here and everything that happened,'" Henner says. "They'd call me Little Miss Memory, the Memory Kid, or UNIVAC. You know, the old-fashioned computer.

"If someone [in my family] wanted to know when something happened, it was always, 'Ask Marilu.' Everybody in my family is extremely smart and everybody has great memories, but I knew something was very unusual about mine. When you're one of six kids, you're always looking for something that makes you different from your brothers and sisters."

A rare condition

The first person to be identified with HSAM was Jill Price, who found Dr. McGaugh's name on the internet and emailed him in June 2000, describing her ability. "Whenever I see a date flash on the television (or anywhere else for that matter), I automatically go back to that day and remember where I was, what I was doing, what day it fell on, and on and on and on and on," she wrote in the email. After six years of working with Price, Dr. McGaugh and his colleagues published "A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering" in the neuropsychology journal Neurocase in February 2006.

Shortly afterward, Henner explains, a producer at 60 Minutes heard about Dr. McGaugh's research and proposed a story on the subject to Lesley Stahl, a correspondent on the show. Stahl wasn't impressed. She told the producer she didn't think the condition was that uncommon, since her friend Marilu Henner had the same type of memory. To prove it, Stahl took Henner and the producer out to lunch. "This was on Wednesday, September 20, 2006. Lesley started asking me all these questions to prove that I had it," Henner says. "And then the producer said something about her wedding on June 15, 1998, and I said, 'Why'd you get married on a Monday? That's so unusual,' and she said, 'Oh my God, you do have it!'"

Three years later, Henner says, Stahl called with the news that the condition is very rare. Dr. McGaugh's group had mounted a search for more people like Henner and Price, and at that time had only found about a dozen. Along with four other HSAM "memory wizards," Henner taped a segment of 60 Minutes for which she underwent an MRI scan of her brain, answered a lot of questions, and shared stories of memory feats that, to her, were just the way she remembered things.

"I was vibrating all day. I just loved it," Henner says. "I answered more than 500 questions. They gave us all the regular memory tests they give people for Alzheimer's, like number sequencing and repetition and looking at a box of images or objects. And then they got into the whole autobiographical part. I didn't want it to end."

Informed performance

After her 60 Minutes appearance, Henner served as a consultant for the TV series Unforgettable, which starred Poppy Montgomery as a police detective with HSAM who uses her detailed recollections to help solve crimes.

One of the first questions people ask Henner is whether her extraordinary memory helps her remember her lines. It is useful for that purpose, she says, but her memory is even better for enriching her characters. "It's what's behind the lines that makes the difference in a performance. I love being able to recall all my experiences in an emotional way," she says. "When something happens to me, even if it's negative, I think, 'I'll use this as an actor.' I can't tell you how many times people will stop me and say, 'I think my son, my granddaughter, my sister has this, and they're afraid of it.' I say, 'Get them in an acting class!'"

An exciting ability

Henner was a gifted student, but not necessarily because of her recall ability, she says. "I did well in school, but I think a lot of it had to do with being one of six kids, all of whom were very smart," she says. "Teachers had expectations when they had a Henner in their class, so you'd better be smart."

For some people, HSAM can be frustrating and overwhelming—like constantly drinking from a fire hose of memory. Jill Price told Dr. McGaugh that it was "nonstop, uncontrollable, and totally exhausting." But Henner takes great joy in her extraordinary memory and considers it a gift.

"People remember the highs and lows of their lives. I get asked if it's hard remembering all the bad things that have happened to me—but the bad memories, you're going to remember those anyway," she says. "I happen to be able to cushion that and the happy memories with all those nice middle-of-the-road memories that make up your life. I call them the 'Our Town moments' [a reference to the Thornton Wilder play about the beauty of everyday life]. To this day, my siblings will say, 'Mare, do a week from our childhood.' It's so great to have your life experiences at your fingertips."

Memory as solace

Henner lost both her parents at a relatively young age—her father when she was 17 and her mother when she was 26—and she says that having such a rich trove of memories of them is a great comfort. In her book Total Memory Makeover (Gallery Books, 2012), she recounts the tale of her father finding her—a la Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing—making out with one of the waiters at a vacation resort. "I can remember in detail his finding me. I can see him standing there and feel my heart jump as he catches Sammy and me making out on the lounge chair by the pool," she says. "It is intense and it is sad, but I wouldn't lose this memory for the world. Every memory of my parents—good, bad, indifferent, the whole range of emotions—I have it all there."

Her belief in the power of memory has spurred Henner to work with the Alzheimer's Association and UsAgainstAlzheimer's. She participated in the latter's Uniting Communities for a Cure summit on brain health in September 2018 and has advocated before Congress for more funding for brain research. "Your memory is your story, it's your life, it's everything," she says. "What's more important than creating memories with people, spending time with them, and relating to the world in a certain way that's uniquely yours?"

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Marilu Henner joins the podcast to share more about her experience living with her exceptional memory.