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Michael J. Fox<\/a> is the latest actor to play a character with his real-life diagnosis on TV. The Spin City star reunited with Bill Lawrence<\/a> on\u00a0Shrinking\u00a0Season 3<\/a>, playing a character connected to Harrison Ford<\/a>\u2018s Paul, whose Parkinson\u2019s disease symptoms are progressing.<\/p>\n Previously, The Sopranos<\/a> alum Jamie-Lynn Sigler<\/a> came to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for a guest role as Laura Kaplan on Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/a>. The character is a doctor who is living with Multiple Sclerosis. The role was designed with the actress in mind<\/a>, and it reflects her real life, as she has been open about her experiences living with the autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n Also, Eric Dane<\/a> previously returned to TV for a role where art imitated life, as his character on\u00a0Brilliant Minds<\/a> had ALS,\u00a0just as Dane does.<\/p>\n These three are far from the only TV actors whose real-life medical conditions became character traits, too.<\/p>\n In the photo gallery below, see a four-decade chronology of TV characters\u2019 conditions mirroring those of their portrayers.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n