5 Stars Whose Acting Careers Were Forever Changed by a Health Crisis

Michael J. Fox at A Country Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson’s” at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville, Tenn. on April 2, 2024; Tim Curry at the 59th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 5, 2005.Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty; Peter Kramer/Getty

Michael J. Fox turned his Parkinson’s diagnosis into decades of advocacy after retiring from full-time acting

Bruce Willis stepped away from acting in 2022 after aphasia affected his cognitive abilities

Some actors have made guest appearances in hit shows and movies after their health-related retirements

Some A-listers have had to step away from the spotlight as a result of their health issues.

Iconic stars Michael J. Fox and Bruce Willis both faced diagnoses during their careers that led to their retirement from or pause in acting.

Despite their careers changing, Fox and Willis, along with their families, have dedicated their time and money to helping other people with similar health issues.

Here are five celebrities who left or took a break from Hollywood after a health crisis.

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Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox at “A Country Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson’s” benefitting The Michael J. Fox Foundation at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts Nashville, Tenn. on April 16, 2025.Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty

Hollywood legend Fox was already a household name in 1991 thanks to roles in the Back to the Future movies, Teen Wolf and Family Ties, but that same year the actor learned he had early-onset Parkinson’s Disease.

Fox was just 29 at the time and continued acting while keeping his Parkinson’s diagnosis private. In fact, he was starring as deputy mayor Mike Flaherty in Spin City when he shared his illness publicly for the first time in 1998.

However, in 2000 Fox retired from acting to devote his time to Parkinson’s advocacy and fundraising, which included launching the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease.

He returned to his craft for guest roles on shows like Scrubs, The Good Wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well as one season of The Michael J. Fox Show but announced a “second retirement” in his 2020 book, No Time Like the Future.

“There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a twelve-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me,” he wrote in the book. “At least for now.”

However, Fox delighted fans in 2026 when he made a comeback with a guest role in the Apple TV show Shrinking.

“It’s really prolonged my life and made my life interesting in a way that I didn’t think it would be to this point,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2026.

02 of 05

Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Jan. 19, 2003.Credit: Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman’s Hollywood career had spanned more than four decades when he left acting behind in 2004.

However, it wasn’t until five years later that he revealed heart health issues had ultimately caused him to leave Hollywood.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” the actor said in a 2009 interview with Empire. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”

After living a private life in his later years, Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M. home in February 2025.

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Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis at the UK premiere of ‘Glass’ at The Curzon Mayfair in London on Jan. 9, 2019.Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage

Following a decades-long Hollywood career starring in hits like Pulp Fiction, the Die Hard franchise, The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense and Moonrise Kingdom, Willis retired from acting at age 67 after he was diagnosed with aphasia.

Bruce’s wife, Emma Heming-Willis, and their children, Mabel Willis and Evelyn Willis, as well as Bruce’s three daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore — Rumer Willis, Scout Willis and Tallulah Willis — shared the news with his fans in March 2022.

In an emotional message on Instagram, they explained aphasia was “impacting [Bruce’s] cognitive abilities” and that “as a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”

The following year, the actor’s family gave an update on his health. “Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD),” they wrote, in part, on Instagram in February 2023, signing the post with the “Ladies of Willis/Moore.”

FTD is “a neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain,” that affects “executive function and social behavior, language and communication, or muscle and motor control,” per Heming-Willis’ website.

Though Bruce has remained out of the spotlight during his health journey, his blended family, including Moore, regularly celebrate and honor him on social media.

Bruce was also pictured attending daughter Tallulah’s wedding to Justin Acee in August 2026.

04 of 05

Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins at the Moet British Independent Film Awards at Old Billingsgate Market in London on Dec. 5, 2010.Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Known for his roles in family-friendly movies like Hook, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Super Mario Brothers and A Christmas Carol, British actor Bob Hoskins also proved his acting chops in more serious roles.

He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and a BAFTA win in the same category for the 1986 crime thriller Mona Lisa.

But starring in 2012 movie Snow White and the Huntsman alongside Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron would mark his final on-screen appearance, as a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2011 ultimately led him to retire from acting.

The actor shared a statement in August 2012 announcing that he was stepping back from his career, thanking fans and those he had worked with.

“Bob is now looking forward to his retirement with his family, and would greatly appreciate that his privacy be respected at this time,” the statement read, in part, per The Guardian.

Hoskins died in April 2014 of pneumonia, per the BBC. He was 71 years old.

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Tim Curry

Tim Curry at Museum of the Moving Image’s 26th annual Salute gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City on Feb. 28, 2011.Credit: Steve Eichner/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

A star of stage and screen, The Rocky Horror Picture Show actor Tim Curry was 66 when he suffered a near-fatal stroke that ultimately led to him taking a step back from acting.

Reflecting on the experience in his 2025 memoir Vagabond, Curry — who also appeared on-screen in hit movies such as Annie, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Muppet Treasure Island and Charlie’s Angels — wrote that he “did not fade to black.”

“I did not even feel out of sorts, or like something was very wrong. In fact, I had no idea that anything was off at all,” he continued.

The British actor had to undergo a craniotomy which revealed the severity of his stroke. It was “a paralytic one,” he wrote, that affected the left side of his body. His partial paralysis led to him using a wheelchair and pivoting to voice roles rather than on-screen appearances.

“After an extremely fortuitous stretch of decades without ever being out of work for more than three or four months at a time, the roles I can now take are almost exclusively voicework,” he wrote in his memoir.

Curry died at the age of 80 at his home in Los Angeles in August 2026.

Source: Entertainment