A former child star reveals why he stepped away from Hollywood after a series of high-profile roles in the 1990s.

Brandon Hammond, a child actor known for ’90s films like Space Jam, Waiting to Exhale, Menace II Society, and Mars Attacks!, seemingly vanished from screens by the decade’s end, still in his teens.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Hammond revealed that at age 13, during the success of Soul Food, he received alarming health news.

“I was diagnosed with this super, super rare, autoimmune condition called Castleman disease,” he told the outlet.

The Mayo Clinic defines Castleman disease as a group of disorders involving an overactive immune system.

“I had all these chest pains, and my eye was flushed out red, just all types of physiological things were happening to me that we co

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