Michael J. Fox is the latest actor to play a character with his real-life diagnosis on TV. The Spin City star reunited with Bill Lawrence on Shrinking Season 3, playing a character connected to Harrison Ford‘s Paul, whose Parkinson’s disease symptoms are progressing.
Previously, The Sopranos alum Jamie-Lynn Sigler came to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for a guest role as Laura Kaplan on Grey’s Anatomy. The character is a doctor who is living with Multiple Sclerosis. The role was designed with the actress in mind, and it reflects her real life, as she has been open about her experiences living with the autoimmune disease.
Also, Eric Dane previously returned to TV for a role where art imitated life, as his character in Brilliant Minds had ALS, just as Dane does.
These three are far from the only TV actors whose real-life medical conditions became character traits, too.
In the photo gallery below, see a four-decade chronology of TV characters’ conditions mirroring those of their portrayers.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
