Culture

Michael J. Fox Returns to Television

by Jarrett Martineau | July 15, 2008 at 04:21 pm

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Michael J. Fox, star of Family Ties, Back to the Future, and Spin City, retired from acting after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but is set to return to television on the hit Denis Leary show "Rescue Me". Fox has made several small television appearances in recent years, but this will be his first recurring guest role on a series.

Michael J. Fox will return to series TV with a four-episode guest role on FX's "Rescue Me."
FX also announced on Tuesday that Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden ("Pollock") will be joining the Glenn Close legal drama "Damages" as a second-season series regular, while Ted Danson will return to the show for several episodes.

On "Rescue Me," which stars Denis Leary as troubled firefighter Tommy Gavin, Fox will play a "very funny, very original character," said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks.

Fox's character, who uses a wheelchair, is the new boyfriend of Tommy's estranged wife Janet (Andrea Roth) and will be introduced in the fifth-season premiere in spring 2009. The episode's air date was not announced.

Fox, 47, a friend of Leary's, was "really excited about the part," Landgraf said.

The star of TV's "Family Ties" and "Spin City" and the "Back to the Future" films was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 and revealed his condition publicly in 1998. He quit acting full time in 2000 because of his symptoms, which have included shaking and rocking.