DEADPOOL Star Recalls Tragic Side Effects to Father’s Parkinson’s Battle

Published: April 27, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

Ryan Reynolds recently called awareness to his father’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease and his little-known side effects.

“I look back and I think, ‘…he really was going through a lot, and must have felt very alone.’ Part of this, you know, ‘More to Parkinson’s’ campaign is about hallucinations and delusions,” he explained on a recent episode of the TODAY show. “And those are two things that my father very much experienced.”

The actor has partnered with Acadia’s More to Parkinson’s campaign to spread awareness for the disease. Reynolds and his family had no idea that Parkinson’s patients experienced delusion, and he knows there are other families who are in the same boat.

“There was nothing that could treat it at the time,” he explained. “…Nobody talked about it. People still don’t talk about it because 50% of people with Parkinson’s have this and you know, it really unraveled his life.”

To Reynolds, there is nothing more lonesome than not knowing reality.

“’He’s just kind of losing it.’ They would say things like that,” the GREEN LANTERN actor recalled. “It’s like, well, is he? There’s lucid moments and then there’s these other moments.”

Those side effects complicated his father’s disease more than he anticipated. His father, James Reynolds, died in 2015 after a 20 year battle with the disease.

Reynolds previously said, “It really destabilized my relationship with him because I didn’t really know what was happening. At the time I just thought, ‘My dad’s losing his mind.’”

“He started to have odd thoughts about our family and our intentions, and it was impossible to dissuade him from some of those beliefs,” Reynolds explained.

One of his motivations for sharing is to help others catch early signs of Parkinson’s in their family members.

“Parkinson’s can be devastating not just for the person who has it, but for their families as well,” Reynolds said. “…I wish I’d known Parkinson’s disease wasn’t limited to only motor symptoms.”

He credits his mom as she was the primary caregiver for his dad — which was no easy thing.

“Caregivers are sort of the unsung heroes, people that really go into the coal mine and do the really, really hard stuff,” Reynolds said. “And my mom was certainly one of those people. And I think they rarely stop and take a gauge of how they’re feeling, or take stock of what they’re going through.”

Hopefully, more people are aware of the symptoms of Parkinson’s and the dangers it presents, thanks to the new campaign.

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