10 Times Actors Hid Illnesses While Filming

10 Actors Who Hid Illnesses While Filming

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at actors who refused to disclose to their colleagues that they were seriously sick during film productions.

Matt Damon

“Courage Under Fire” (1998)

Even though he only filmed for two days as the traumatized soldier Andrew Ilario, an up-and-coming Matt Damon had something to prove. He reportedly dropped around 50 pounds in three months, consuming about 100 calories and running up to 13 miles in Texas heat every day. Authentically representing his character's intense emaciation wrecked his adrenal glands. Still, Damon powered through the disorientation and hot flashes to keep from passing out, never mind tipping off the crew of “Courage Under Fire.” Doctors later told him that he could have caused permanent heart damage, and put him on medication for a year-and-a-half. That kind of unsupervised method acting wasn't so much courage under fire, literally, as it was careless.

Richard Pryor

“See No Evil, Hear No Evil” (1989)

We all got our morbid laughs at Richard Pryor’s pratfalls as the sight-impaired Wally Karew in “See No Evil, Hear No Evil.” Really, the physical commitment was no joke. Pryor had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986, and underwent treatment for years before even his colleagues knew it. They really put his deteriorating physicality through the ringer on this production, though it did allow him to study cane technique at the Braille Institute. Gene Wilder actually rewrote comedy beats to cover Pryor’s slowed delivery, plausibly perceived as character work. Certainly, the legendary comedian was serious enough about acting to not let his condition disrupt even the wackiest art.

Anton Yelchin

“Star Trek Beyond” (2016)

This tragically brief yet prolific acting career is all the more impressive for the underlying secret throughout it. Anton Yelchin was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, but never even disclosed it in professional confidence to avoid being limited. His condition became debilitating by the time he shot “Star Trek Beyond,” which featured particularly demanding stunt work for Ensign Pavel Chekov. Yelchin secretly underwent daily airway treatments in his trailer, and would time nebulizers to conceal labors in his breathing. His mother would later say this convinced him to finally go public with his CF after landing the TV series “Mr. Mercedes.” Instead, Yelchin died in a car accident on June 19, 2016, aged 27.

Tom Hanks

“Cast Away” (2000)

To be recognized as one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Tom Hanks hasn't had much luck with method performances. He was so dedicated to Chuck Noland’s transformative island stranding that he downplayed a cut on his left from coral. He figured the diet was behind the fatigue that underscored the intensity of his Golden Globe-winning performance. Eventually, though, he had to talk to director Robert Zemeckis, who sent Hanks to emergency surgery. Production on “Cast Away” was paused for three weeks while the lead actor recovered from a near-fatal brush with sepsis. Even an artist of Hanks’s caliber needs to learn his limitations. Unfortunately, he would later attribute his dramatic weight changes on this and other projects to his onset of Type 2 diabetes.

Raúl Juliá

“Street Fighter” (1994)

The revered Raúl Juliá suspected that a film adaptation of the “Street Fighter” video games would end up a critical disaster. Still, he took the project for his young sons – who loved the games – after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. This allowed him to spend more time with family while researching the role of the villainous M. Bison. Juliá confided in director Steven E. de Souza, but accepted the brutal conditions and physical demands of an action blockbuster like any other actor. After a while, however, it was hard to miss his dramatic weight loss. After giving a commanding performance in the otherwise maligned “Street Fighter,” Juliá succumbed to a stroke during cancer treatment before the film’s release.

Anthony Perkins

“In the Deep Woods” (1992)

Horror icon Anthony Perkins spent much of his career experiencing the real horror of hiding, and occasionally suppressing, his sexuality. This continued even after he learned he was HIV positive in 1990, from reading about the diagnosis leak in the newspaper. Perkins did not inform his colleagues that the condition had escalated to AIDS by the time he did the TV movie “In the Deep Woods.” The gaunt role of private detective Paul Miller allowed him to mask his deterioration, though he was frequently absent with “the flu.” Perkins sadly had to struggle with stigma even on-set to the end of his life, one month before “In the Dark Woods” aired on NBC in 1992.

Alan Rickman

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007)

It wasn't unprecedented for an iconic “Harry Potter” character to be recast under tragic circumstances. Richard Harris managed to conceal his Hodgkin’s disease for two films before Michael Gambon took over Dumbledore. So Alan Rickman considered turning down “The Order of the Phoenix,” only to realize that he couldn't abandon fans’ incomparable image of Severus Snape. He underwent surgery to remove his prostate, then endured a long recovery throughout production, with cast and crew being none the wiser. Ten years later, the cancer reached his pancreas, but he kept this private while filming “Eye in the Sky.” Rickman passed away shortly thereafter, his robust legacy enriched by a clear dedication to his art.

Michael J. Fox

“The Frighteners” (1996)

It was seven years before prolific TV and movie star Michael J. Fox told the public about his Parkinson's disease. He didn't even disclose it to colleagues, though that wasn't too much of a problem before he played ghost hunter Frank Bannister in “The Frighteners.” Peter Jackson’s extensive New Zealand night-shoots and demanding horror-comedy set pieces took a heavy toll. Fox successfully hid his tremors, but his condition could no longer be reconciled with the stress of high-concept projects without accommodation. It was with his return to a long-form format with “Spin City” that he decided to come forward about his Parkinson’s in 1998. And the health advocate has been courageously fighting it beyond any expectations ever since.

Yūsaku Matsuda

“Black Rain” (1989)

The distinguished career of Japanese actor Yūsaku Matsuda was poised to break into Hollywood through the Ridley Scott action thriller “Black Rain.” But shortly after landing the coveted role of yakuza Koji Sato, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Matsuda would not tell his colleagues about this, or his decision to postpone chemotherapy for fear that it would compromise his domineering performance. Scott and company would eventually become aware of the cancer, but not the degree of its severity, until it escalated beyond treatment by the end of production in 1989. Matsuda died in November, and “Black Rain” was dedicated to his memory as a professional to a tragic fault.

Chadwick Boseman

Various (2016-20)

It wasn't just audiences who were shocked by Chadwick Boseman’s death from colon cancer in 2020. Not even his Marvel bosses and co-stars knew he was diagnosed after originating the role of T’Challa in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” then continued playing Black Panther throughout treatment. He kept this policy while also starring in “21 Bridges,” “Da 5 Bloods” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” That last performance would win Boseman scores of accolades, all of them posthumous. His widow Taylor Simone Ledward would assert that this secrecy was not about protecting his reputation, but protecting the work. That said, those undoubtedly challenging four years were enough to turn Boseman’s career from exceptional to immortal.

What were some other on-set illnesses that actors kept under wraps? Disclose in the comments below.