Michael J. Fox to appear on FX's "Rescue Me"

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Michael J. Fox will return to series TV with a four-episode guest role on FX's "Rescue Me," the network announced last week at the Television Critics Association summer tour.

"Rescue Me" stars Denis Leary as troubled firefighter Tommy Gavin.

Fox's character, who uses a wheelchair, is the new boyfriend of Tommy's estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), and will be introduced in the fifth-season premiere in spring 2009.

Fox, a friend of Leary's, was "really excited about the part," Landgraf said.

The star of TV's "Family Ties" and "Spin City" and the "Back to the Future" films was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 and revealed his condition publicly in 1998.

Fox, 47, quit acting full time in 2000 because of his symptoms, which for people living with Parkinson's — a chronic, progressive disorder of the central nervous system — can include muscle rigidity, tremor and slowness of movement.

He has acted sporadically in smaller roles, including a several-episode guest appearance in 2006 on ABC's "Boston Legal," playing a business tycoon with cancer.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, founded by the actor, has raised millions of dollars, and Fox has been a vocal supporter of stem-cell research.