‘This Is Us’ Star Reveals Double Lung Transplant

This Is Us has gotten one of its stars through serious health issues. Ron Cephas Jones opened up to his co-stars on the hit NBC show about going through a double lung transplant in a new cover story for Entertainment Weekly. The 65-year-old actor, who went through a double lung transplant in 2020 after battling pulmonary disease, won two guest Emmys for his work on the show.

“You cats held me when I was struggling and you didn’t let me go,” he told the cast and crew during his last day on set. “You’ve been there for a very difficult part of my life. I’m a walking miracle.” Jones previously shared his health journey in a 2021 interview with The New York Times, revealing that he had been dealing with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease before undergoing a transplant.

Jones then had to undergo months of physiotherapy to relearn basic tasks like breathing, eating and walking. When it comes to his desire to keep acting despite his pulmonary issues, Jones responded, “My whole life has been the stage. The idea of not performing again seemed worse to me than death.”

As This Is Us comes to an end, creator Dan Fogelman said the finale felt like “a time capsule” of a family. “It feels purposefully a little different, in a really good way,” he explained. “It is about a special day in the past of this family, and the simple things and the little things, as the adult family buries their mother. It will just be a very simple, quiet episode after a very big, loud one.”

“It feels complete,” added star Milo Ventimiglia. “It feels like there’s no more room for anything else, nor does it need anything else. It’s just full.” Mandy Moore also agreed, saying she thought Fogelman “stuck the landing” when she finished the final script. “No one’s going to be disappointed,” she said. “This is a really beautiful way to end this story.’” Fogelman said that in the end, the show’s message is that everyone lives on. “You never lose anyone, because you’re living in six different versions of your own life in a given moment, and you’re carrying the pieces of people forward,” he said. “That OG Pearson couple is being carried forward into the future generations of their family.”