9 Actors Whose Careers Came To A Tragic Halt Due To Health Issues

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Illness doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care how many films you've been in, awards you've won, or red carpets you've walked. It isn't concerned with how much money you have, or how many cars or houses you own. Even so, it still feels shocking when our favorite celebrities are diagnosed with a devastating disease — especially when it forces them to retreat from the spotlight. Some stars prefer to focus on their health issues in private. Take renowned author Jackie Collins, who kept her breast cancer diagnosis a secret until her final days. "I didn't want to make it public and I didn't want people's sympathy," she told People just days before her death. "I don't live my life that way. I like to be in control and so I took control of the situation." 

Others, however, choose to share the news, even when, as in the case of Selma Blair, they are advised not to. "My doctors urged me not to go public," she wrote in her book, "Mean Baby," of her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis (per The Guardian). "They worried I wouldn't get work." Roger Neal, an expert in celebrity PR and crisis management, said during an appearance on NewsNation's "Banfield" that he saw nothing wrong with celebrities revealing serious illnesses. "Because of reality television, we're so used to seeing every celebrity's life in the public, and I think they can help a lot of people going through the same thing," he said. "They're just like the rest of us," he added. "It humanizes them."

Few actors have been as transparent about their illness and its progression than Michael J. Fox. At the top of his game, the star of '80s hits like "Family Ties" and "Back to the Future" was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991. The actor kept it to himself for seven years, continuing to work on hits like "Spin City" before his full-time career came to a halt in 2000. Fox went on to make the occasional guest appearance on television shows, starred in his own series, started the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, and picked up an Emmy along the way. Eventually, however, Fox was forced to slow down. He announced his second retirement in his book, "No Time Like the Future," but the future had other plans. 

After a five-year hiatus from acting, Fox filmed a character living with Parkinson's for the hit show "Shrinking." Co-star Harrison Ford told Variety that Fox was "essential" to the show. "He's [a] very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we're facing Parkinson's or not," Ford said. Behind the scenes, Michael J. Fox's four children, along with his wife Tracy Pollan, are his biggest supporters. "If I'm reaching for something, they'll just do it and carry on," the actor said of his kids in an interview with Good Housekeeping (per People). He added, "[They have learned] empathy, resilience, and also sorting out what's important from what's not — things like vanity." 

Whether he's saving the world from a giant asteroid in "Armaggedon" or taking the law into his own hands in the "Die Hard" franchise, Bruce Willis has always been one of Hollywood's most beloved action heroes. His larger-than-life screen presence made the news that he had aphasia even more upsetting to his fans. The "Moonlighting" star's family shared the devastating diagnosis and the news that Willis was retiring from acting in a joint Instagram post in 2022: "With much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him." They also thanked his supporters for their "continued love, compassion, and support." 

However, the tragedy of Bruce Willis just keeps getting sadder. Roughly a year after the family announced Willis' aphasia diagnosis, they shared that Willis' condition had progressed and he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). "While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis," they said via Instagram. The entire family has had to adjust to the star's illness, which affects his ability to communicate, but Willis' relationship with his wife has changed significantly since his tragic diagnosis. "Early on, life felt very dark, very one-note of just grief and sadness," Emma Heming admitted to People, adding that she has learned to cope. "Sometimes, love does not need words," she said. "I can just sit there with Bruce, and we look at each other and we laugh and smile and that, to me, is more than anything."

As the beautiful Kelly Bundy on "Married With Children," Christina Applegate was a fan favorite and went on to enjoy a career that spanned decades. Then, the unthinkable happened and the Emmy-award winning actor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) during the third season of her Netflix hit, "Dead to Me." Suddenly, everything changed for the beloved star. There was talk of cancelling the show's final season, but Applegate, who was already experiencing mobility issues, wouldn't hear of it. "But I was like, 'No, no, no, no, no, no: We have to finish this story. It's too important to our hearts; too important to our souls,'" she said to Variety.

Applegate, who is also a breast cancer survivor, focused on taking care of herself after the final season, but she reemerged in 2022 to claim her spot on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. It was a lifelong dream realized, only it looked a little different than the "Bad Moms" star had imagined. "Now my life is a different story," she told Variety. "People are going to see me for the first time as a disabled person, and it's very difficult." The most heartbreaking confession Christina Applegate has shared about her health issues is how it has impacted not only her acting roles but her role as a mom to her teenage daughter, Sadie. "She'll come in the room, and if she sees that I'm laying on my side, she knows that she can't ask me to do anything," Applegate told People. "And that breaks me, breaks me."

Everything we know about Selma Blair's health issues we first learned via Instagram, where the "Cruel Intentions" star announced in 2018 that she had multiple sclerosis (MS). Since then, her life has been filled with ups and downs, but through it all Blair has been open about the journey, even starring in the Discovery+ documentary, "Introducing, Selma Blair." In a trailer for the film she revealed, "I was told to make plans for dying. Not because I have MS, but because I'm fighting MS." Unbeknownst to Blair, she had been living with MS for several years, she just didn't know it. She thought her symptoms were all in her head. One scary symptom Selma Blair had before being diagnosed with MS was losing the feeling in one of her legs moments before she was supposed to sashay down a catwalk. It was shortly after that incident that the "Legally Blonde" star learned her fate and took control of it. 

In addition to her documentary, where she shares every detail including chemotherapy and shaving her head, Blair has posted raw photos on social media, given numerous interviews, and shown up on red carpets, cane in hand, looking fabulous. She refuses to be defined by her diagnosis and, as of 2025, has taken advantage of her recent "relapse-free" phase to make the most of life, including a possible return to acting. "I am fascinated by this body and this life," Blair told Town and Country. "I am humbled and pleased to be any inspiration for people."

In 2025, "Hoosiers" star Gene Hackman died at 95 years old, but the two-time Oscar winner had been out of the spotlight for many years by the time of his death. Hackman, who narrowly avoided a heart attack in 1990 by having an angioplasty to relieve a blocked artery, stopped acting after his 2004 movie, "Welcome to Mooseport." Although there was some speculation as to why he left the industry, the real reason Gene Hackman didn't act anymore was literally a heartfelt decision for "The Birdcage" star. "The straw that broke the camel's back was actually a stress test that I took in New York," Hackman told Empire in 2020. "The doctor advised me that my heart wasn't in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress." 

Hackman might have disappeared from the spotlight, but he wasn't sitting at home twiddling his thumbs. Instead, he was focused on his other passion: writing. Hackman authored five books later in life, from Western tales to historical fiction, and found it less stressful. "I don't know that I like it better than acting, it's just different," he told Reuters. "I find it relaxing and comforting." Hackman had developed Alzheimers; though, it is unclear when or how long he had been living with it prior to his death. What we do know is that he was in the advanced stages of the disease and the medical examiner listed it alongside cardiovascular disease as a contributing factor in the beloved actor's death.

The late golden god Val Kilmer shot to fame as "Iceman" in the '80s hit "Top Gun," and then went on to play such iconic characters as Jim Morrison, Batman, and porn star John Holmes. However, somewhere along the way, the youngest actor to be admitted at the Juilliard School (at the time) lost his way. Some blamed the roles he chose, while others blamed his notoriously difficult personalty on set. The talented star might have bounced back, but a throat cancer diagnosis took Kilmer's career from idle to park. After two emergency tracheotomies, "The Doors" star's vocal cords were damaged beyond repair, and he was forced to use an electronic voice box to communicate. "I wasn't ready to die," he wrote in his 2020 memoir "I'm Your Huckleberry," per People. "Healing is not born of vanity, it is born of honesty."

Despite his difficult reputation, family and friends rallied behind him, including the two children he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley. Kilmer also had a past relationship with Cher, who offered her home to the actor when his health was failing. "Cher stepped in and stepped up." Kilmer wrote (via People). But she wasn't the only blast from his past. Former "Top Gun" costar Tom Cruise asked Kilmer to recreate "Iceman" for the hit film "Top Gun: Maverick," which released in 2022. "Tom called me," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I said yes immediately." Sadly, that was the last role Kilmer played. Although he had been declared cancer-free, the disease took a toll on his body. The actor died in 2025 at 65 years old from pneumonia. 

Jamie-Lynn Sigler grew up before our eyes on the hit (pun intended) mafia drama "The Sopranos," in which she played Meadow Soprano, the daughter of a New Jersey mob boss. Her on-screen family life was filled with tragedy, but off-screen, there were plenty of tragic details about Jamie-Lynn Sigler's real life, too, including a muscular sclerosis (MS) diagnosis. Sigler kept her news quiet for nearly two decades before she went public. "It was a big moment for me, because it was the beginning of this journey of self-reflection and self-acceptance," the mom-of-two told People. 

The disease affects Sigler's mobility, but she tries to not let it slow her down. She may not be acting in a regular series, but like Michael J. Fox, Sigler played a character with MS on an January 2026 episode of "Grey's Anatomy," and she had a recurring role on the now-cancelled show, "Big Sky." In her spare time, Sigler has partnered with her friend and fellow actor Christina Applegate to host the raw, real podcast "MeSsy." Although the former has been living with MS much longer than the latter, Sigler and Applegate share a relationship rooted in a mutual support system. "We have each other and that's helped us so much," Applegate told People. They hope to help other people, not just those with MS, through their podcast. "It's not about the specific experience we're having," Sigler said. "It's us facing something hard and it's about figuring out how to still push through." 

As the star of such smash hits as "Working Girl," "Milk Money," and "Nobody's Fool," Melanie Griffith has delighted audiences for decades. Once married to actor Don Johnson, she is the mother to actor Dakota Johnson and the ex-wife of Antonio Banderas. Much of her life has played out in front of the cameras, but the one detail she managed to keep hidden from the prying eyes of the public was the fact that she was diagnosed with epilepsy. The diagnosis came after Griffith experienced two seizures. "The last two that I had I was on a boat outside of Cannes — on a big yacht — and I was extremely stressed out," she told a crowd gathered for a Women's Brain Health Initiative Panel, per The Hollywood Reporter. "Every seizure that I had was at a point when I was extremely stressed."

Griffin, who has not appeared in a major movie role in nearly a decade, has never publicly claimed that retired, but the stress attributed to her seizures may have been caused by, among other things, her job — which could explain her absence. For her part, she credits the relief of getting out of her marriage to Banderas as contributing to her lack of seizures. "I got divorced, which is the real healer for me," she jokingly told the audience. On a more serious note, Griffith emphasized the importance of health care, making it easier for the average person to get an early diagnosis and the quality of care they need. 

If you're wondering whatever happened to Sharon Stone, you aren't alone. Fans of the blonde beauty were perplexed when the actor stepped away from the limelight, but she had a good reason. In 2001, at the height of her fame, Stone nearly died from a stroke and cerebral hemorrhage. The tragic truth about Sharon Stone's health issues is that they made her hyper aware of her mortality. "I had a massive, massive stroke and nearly died, so I couldn't work," she shared in an interview on "Today." That frightening event led the "Basic Instinct" star to reevaluate her life and her priorities. "When I reconsidered what value things had to me in life, I really wanted to have children and spend my time with them," Stone said. That decision cost Stone a lot, both professionally and personally — she even had to remortgage her home.

Today, the mom-of-three is an empty nester who is a strong advocate for brain-aging diseases, specifically those that affect women. She got back to work with roles in the film "Nobody 2" and the third season of "Euphoria," but the climb back up Hollywood's ladder hasn't been easy. "People treated me in a way that was brutally unkind," she told Variety. "From other women in my own business to the female judge who handled my custody case, I don't think anyone grasps how dangerous a stroke is for women and what it takes to recover — it took me about seven years."