But in 2005, Wallace made news of his own when he acknowledged his longtime war with depression – a fight that nearly caused him to take his own life.
“I came perilously close to committing suicide,” Wallace wrote in his memoir “Between You and Me.”
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Going public with his struggle did much to help others know they weren’t alone, said Dr. Charles Raison, CNNhealth’s mental health expert.
Telling everyone that someone as famously intelligent and successful as Wallace could be taken down by the disease helped to lessen the social stigma that often comes with the label “clinically depressed,” said Raison, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.