Owen Wilson has spoken for the first time about his father's battle with Alzheimer's disease. "It's been a rough thing," he told the Dallas Morning News of 74-year-old patriarch Robert A. Wilson's diagnosis. "It's one of this things where if somebody had said 10 years ago, when my dad and I were joking around, having a putting match, that this is the position your dad's going to be in, where he basically needs 24-hour care, you'd think, 'Gosh, I won't be able to handle that. That's just not possible,'" Owen continued.
© Photo: Getty ImagesOwen Wilson with his dad Robert in 2008
"You just have to do your best to deal with it. You've got no choice but to accept it. And then, you sort of still look for the things to still be grateful for," he added.Robert, better known as Bob, was a longtime Dallas TV executive who took charge of local public television affiliate KERA in 1967. He hired Jim Lehrer from the Dallas Times Herald and put him in charge of public affairs programming. That led to the creation of a local news show with Jim as host which became the forerunner of national show The News Hours with Jim Lehrer.
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe actor has revealed his dad needs 24-hour care
Owen, who is himself a father-of-two, said that his father is still the man that he and his two actor brothers Luke, 43, and Andrew, 51, look up to more than anyone else. "For me and my brothers, there just wasn't a bigger influence on us," the 46-year-old added. Bob's wife and the mother of the Wilson brothers is photographer Laura Wilson.Owen is preparing for the release of his new film No Escape this week. In a departure from his usual comedic roles, he stars in the thriller as a businessman who unwittingly takes his wife and two young daughters to a country where the government is being toppled by a coup.It's a part he says he couldn't have played before becoming a father himself; the Zoolander star has two sons - four-year-old Robert Ford Wilson, named after his father, with ex-girlfriend Jade Duell, and 18-month-old Finn Lindqvist Wilson with personal trainer Caroline Lindqvist.
