LOS ANGELES: Actor Michael J Fox, semi-retired from show business due to Parkinson’s Disease, said it was ironic that his latest television role was playing a paralysed man in a wheelchair.

Fox, 47, will appear in four episodes of the fire fighting drama Rescue Me early next year — his first prime-time TV role since 2006. “The funny part is me playing a paralysed guy because I am the opposite of paralysed. It’s tricky just to even be still,” Fox told Entertainment Tonight in an interview.

Fox, best known for starring in the Back to the Future movies in the 1980s, bowed out of full time acting in 2000. He said he wanted to spend his time trying to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system that is characterised by tremors.