Some actors do more than simply memorize lines and hit their marks. Instead, they’re also dealing with things that the majority of people never see, and that includes surgeries between shoots or keeping a diagnosis secret from those around them. A lot of these physical issues only came out years later, once they were ready to talk about them. Here are nine actors who hid serious physical problems from Hollywood.
1. Mindy Cohn
It took Mindy Cohn surviving her five-year battle with breast cancer before she decided to publicly talk about it in 2017. She revealed that she only told her “family by choice,” aka her close group of loved ones, and kept the diagnosis itself out of the spotlight.
No matter how she seemed during her work & public appearances, most people had no idea about what she was dealing with privately. Breast cancer treatment usually involves surgery and radiation as well as medication, depending on the case.
2. Michael J. Fox
During the early ‘90s, Michael J. Fox was filming Doc Hollywood when he began noticing that he had a tremor in his finger. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at the young age of 29, but he decided to avoid telling the public for seven more years. He continued working the entire time.
Yes, he made films like Spin City while he was trying to manage his own symptoms in private, and Fox later confessed to PEOPLE magazine that he had used alcohol during that time to cope. Some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s include tremors & stiffness that gradually worsen. As such, it’s no surprise that Fox worked hard to keep his physical symptoms controlled on set.
3. Emilia Clarke
Game of Thrones actor Emilia Clarke collapsed at a gym in 2011, just as the show was taking off, with doctors later confirming she had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. That’s essentially bleeding around the brain. It was caused by an aneurysm, and in 2013, she had another aneurysm that required procedures.
Clarke later went on to say that she had lost the ability to remember her own name at one point, yet she continued filming without telling the public about her health issues. Aneurysms can rupture without warning, and they’re quite a serious medical condition.
4. Chadwick Boseman
Sadly, it wasn’t until Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 that his diagnosis of colon cancer came to light. He had been living with it since 2016, yet he continued to film major roles like Black Panther while undergoing surgeries & chemotherapy. Yes, really. He was taking on physically demanding roles that even healthy people would struggle to have the stamina to film.
According to the American Cancer Society, stage III colon cancer often spreads to nearby lymph nodes, and these require aggressive treatment to cure. But Boseman never shared the news publicly while he was working. Even his closest collaborators said they had no idea that he had been suffering from such an awful illness at the time.
5. Michael C. Hall
While working on Dexter, Michael C. Hall found out that he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a kind of cancer, but he chose to keep filming instead of stepping away. He said that he completed the filming for the show’s fourth season before starting chemotherapy. Why? Because he wanted to make sure that the show stayed on schedule, and most people around him had no idea what was going on.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma can affect the lymphatic system. Treatment usually involves chemotherapy, which can lead to fatigue & hair loss. It was only when he started appearing on the red carpet wearing a knit cap that Hall publicly revealed what was going on with his health.
6. Sarah Hyland
Sarah Hyland didn’t come out with her health story all at once but instead chose to reveal pieces about it over time. She was born with something called kidney dysplasia, which meant that her kidneys didn’t develop properly. Hyland had to have two transplants as a result and also went through dialysis & multiple surgeries, although she chose to keep it secret while working on Modern Family.
Kidney dysplasia can cause all sorts of long-term complications that require transplants and other medical procedures. Yet through it all, Hyland decided that she would keep the details private and avoid letting anybody know how she was suffering.
7. Mark Ruffalo
Even Mark Ruffalo’s own family didn’t know at first what he was going through, and he developed a kind of brain tumor called an “acoustic neuroma” around the time that his wife was pregnant. But he kept it from her. He told PEOPLE during an interview that he hid the news because he was worried about the stress it might cause to her & his unborn child.
Ruffalo later underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and this caused partial facial paralysis that affected his ability to move one side of his face. Thankfully, Ruffalo recovered from the whole ordeal. The Cleveland Clinic has stated that acoustic neuromas are often benign, but they are capable of affecting the nerves related to a person’s balance & facial movements.
8. Jamie-Lynn Sigler
The Sopranos actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler received a multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis at the tender age of 20 while she was still on the show, but avoided going public with it until she was in her 30s. She claims it was because someone in the Hollywood industry gave her advice to keep it quiet if she wanted to keep working. For years, only a small group of people around her knew about the diagnosis.
Sigler continued to appear on screen without discussing the news publicly, despite the fact that a disease like MS seriously affects the central nervous system. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society also states that it can cause issues for your movement & balance, as well as your energy levels, in ways that are very difficult to manage.
9. Emma Caulfield Ford
Emma Caulfield Ford is another MS sufferer who kept her diagnosis quiet for many years. She was diagnosed with it in 2010, yet only revealed it publicly in 2022 due to similar concerns about her employment. Apparently, Ford was worried that casting decisions would change because of her condition. She chose to keep it private.
During the decade when she remained silent, Ford continued acting and managed her condition without drawing any attention to it. One of the reasons that makes MS such a hard disease to live with is the fact that symptoms can vary quite a bit. It becomes rather difficult to predict how it might affect someone’s day-to-day life.
None of these situations necessarily played out in the same way, and some people waited years before saying anything. Others never got the chance to explain it themselves. Either way, each case was remarkably different from the others, despite the idea of the physical conditions sounding the same at first.
