Michael J Fox says he doesn’t want a “dramatic” death, as he contemplates the escalating toll of his Parkinson’s disease.

It came as the Emmy award-winner also revealed plans for a return to on-screen acting for the first time in five years, with a poignant guest role.

The Back To The Future star, 64, has battled Parkinson’s disease since he was in his late 20s .

The condition has left him prone to falling over and hurting himself – and he has said he hopes he will die in his sleep rather than tripping over and causing a fatal injury.

“There’s no timeline [with Parkinson’s disease], there’s no series of stages that you go through – not in the same way that you would, say, with prostate cancer. It’s much more mysterious and enigmatic,” Fox told Britain’s told The Sunday Times newspaper.

“There are not many people who have had Parkinson’s for 35 years. I’d like to just not wake up one day. That’d be really cool. I don’t want it to be dramatic. I don’t want to trip over furniture, smash my head.”

“That’s another thing too, about dying. I just haven’t had time”, he joked.

Fox also opened up about his recent injuries, saying he has cut back on walking so he can “take it easy”.

“It’s absolutely incredible the stuff I broke. In a three-year period I broke my elbow, I broke my hand, I got a big infection in my hand and I almost lost my finger,” he said.

“It’s terrible. I had all these little bones broken and it got infected and they had to cut the bones out because the bones got infected …

“I broke my other shoulder, had it replaced. I broke my cheekbone.

“I take it easy now. I don’t walk that much any more. I can walk but it’s not pretty and it’s a bit dangerous. So I just roll that into my life, you know – no pun intended.”

It’s not the first time Fox has opened up on the side effects of his condition. In May 2023, he revealed some of them and said:

“You don’t die from Parkinson’s, you die with Parkinson’s. So I’ve been thinking of the mortality of it. I’m not going to be 80.”

The Family Ties star said he had started to accept Parkinson’s could cause him to have a fatal accident at any time.

Fox recently ended his acting retirement to appear in comedy-drama series Shrinking. He admitted the experience reignited his love of the craft.

“I see other people’s work, and it makes me think that I might be able to find something that’s for me as an actor and as a writer. And as a parent, husband and friend, I have a lot left to do,” he told Variety.

Shrinking is an Apple TV+ comedy co-created by Fox’s former Spin City colleague Bill Lawrence. It stars Harrison Ford as therapist Dr Paul Rhoades, who has Parkinson’s.

Fox filmed a three-episode guest appearance earlier in 2025 for the show’s third series. While little has been publicly revealed about the role, it was Fox’s his first on-screen acting job since a 2020 guest role on The Good Fight.

Apple TV+ is yet to announce when Shrinking‘s third season will air.

-with AAP