Michael J. Fox to return to TV on "Rescue Me"

Actor Michael J. Fox campaigns for stem cell research in Wheaton, Illinois, October 24, 2006.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Michael J. Fox, semi-retired from show business due to Parkinson's disease, will return to television next spring as a guest star on the firefighting drama "Rescue Me," the FX cable network said on Tuesday.

Fox, 47, will portray the wheelchair-bound boyfriend of the ex-wife of the show's lead character, New York City firefighter Tommy Gavin, played by Denis Leary, said FX spokesman John Solberg.

Canadian-born Fox has signed on to appear in four episodes of the upcoming fifth season, starting with a premiere episode in the spring.

"It's terrific news, he's a phenomenal actor," Solberg said. "He and Denis have been friends for a long time and it's a great fit and should be very funny as well."

Fox last appeared on prime-time TV in 2006 for an Emmy-nominated turn as a corporate executive with lung cancer in six episodes of the ABC courtroom drama "Boston Legal."

Fox won fame in the 1980s as the politically conservative teenager Alex Keaton on the popular TV sitcom "Family Ties" and as star of the "Back to the Future" time-travel movies.

He later starred as a wisecracking deputy mayor on the ABC comedy "Spin City." But he bowed out of the series in May 2000, saying he wanted to dedicate his time to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease and to leave the show on his own terms, before the illness debilitated him.

Reuters/Nielsen