By the time the actors I mentioned were written about as having dementia, many film fans had already assumed they were dealing with dementia precisely because they were no longer being written about or seen in the media much. Such speculation about Jack Nicholson, for example, was rife on film forums well before those paparazzi images appeared.
Right, but that’s probably because they read stories that go back to people who knew the actors. There’s a well-oiled gossip machine.
Lots of old actors who don’t have dementia retire, there just aren’t stories about how they don’t have dementia.