diff --git a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/dispatch/ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec.scala b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/dispatch/ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e3e0d48880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/dispatch/ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+package akka.dispatch
+
+import akka.actor.{ ActorRef, Actor, Props }
+import akka.testkit.{ ImplicitSender, AkkaSpec }
+import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
+
+object ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec {
+  val config = ConfigFactory.parseString(
+    """
+      |actorhang {
+      |
+      |  task-dispatcher {
+      |    mailbox-type = "akka.dispatch.SingleConsumerOnlyUnboundedMailbox"
+      |    throughput = 100
+      |    fork-join-executor {
+      |      parallelism-factor = 2
+      |      parallelism-max = 2
+      |      parallelism-min = 2
+      |    }
+      |  }
+      |}
+    """.stripMargin)
+
+  class SelfBusyActor extends Actor {
+    self ! "tick"
+
+    override def receive = {
+      case "tick" ⇒
+        self ! "tick"
+    }
+  }
+
+  class InnocentActor extends Actor {
+
+    override def receive = {
+      case "ping" ⇒
+        sender ! "All fine"
+    }
+  }
+
+}
+
+class ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec extends AkkaSpec(ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec.config) with ImplicitSender {
+  import ForkJoinPoolStarvationSpec._
+
+  val Iterations = 1000
+
+  "AkkaForkJoinPool" must {
+
+    "not starve tasks arriving from external dispatchers under high internal traffic" in {
+      // Two busy actors that will occupy the threads of the dispatcher
+      // Since they submit to the local task queue via fork, they can starve external submissions
+      system.actorOf(Props(new SelfBusyActor).withDispatcher("actorhang.task-dispatcher"))
+      system.actorOf(Props(new SelfBusyActor).withDispatcher("actorhang.task-dispatcher"))
+
+      val innocentActor = system.actorOf(Props(new InnocentActor).withDispatcher("actorhang.task-dispatcher"))
+
+      for (_ ← 1 to Iterations) {
+        // External task submission via the default dispatcher
+        innocentActor ! "ping"
+        expectMsg("All fine")
+      }
+    }
+
+  }
+}
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/AbstractDispatcher.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/AbstractDispatcher.scala
index e8d0601175..095c4f2aac 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/AbstractDispatcher.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/AbstractDispatcher.scala
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import akka.event.EventStream
 import com.typesafe.config.{ ConfigFactory, Config }
 import akka.util.{ Unsafe, Index }
 import scala.annotation.tailrec
-import scala.concurrent.forkjoin.{ ForkJoinTask, ForkJoinPool, ForkJoinWorkerThread }
+import scala.concurrent.forkjoin.{ ForkJoinTask, ForkJoinPool }
 import scala.concurrent.duration.Duration
 import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext
 import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContextExecutor
@@ -377,16 +377,8 @@ object ForkJoinExecutorConfigurator {
                                threadFactory: ForkJoinPool.ForkJoinWorkerThreadFactory,
                                unhandledExceptionHandler: Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler)
     extends ForkJoinPool(parallelism, threadFactory, unhandledExceptionHandler, true) with LoadMetrics {
-    override def execute(r: Runnable): Unit = {
-      if (r eq null) throw new NullPointerException("The Runnable must not be null")
-      val task =
-        if (r.isInstanceOf[ForkJoinTask[_]]) r.asInstanceOf[ForkJoinTask[Any]]
-        else new AkkaForkJoinTask(r)
-      Thread.currentThread match {
-        case worker: ForkJoinWorkerThread if worker.getPool eq this ⇒ task.fork()
-        case _ ⇒ super.execute(task)
-      }
-    }
+    override def execute(r: Runnable): Unit =
+      if (r eq null) throw new NullPointerException else super.execute(new AkkaForkJoinTask(r))
 
     def atFullThrottle(): Boolean = this.getActiveThreadCount() >= this.getParallelism()
   }
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/Mailbox.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/Mailbox.scala
index f95c188ad6..b7c1d7104c 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/Mailbox.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/Mailbox.scala
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import akka.event.Logging.Error
 import scala.concurrent.duration.Duration
 import scala.concurrent.duration.FiniteDuration
 import scala.annotation.tailrec
-import scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinTask
 import scala.util.control.NonFatal
 import com.typesafe.config.Config
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger
@@ -54,7 +53,7 @@ private[akka] object Mailbox {
  * INTERNAL API
  */
 private[akka] abstract class Mailbox(val messageQueue: MessageQueue)
-  extends ForkJoinTask[Unit] with SystemMessageQueue with Runnable {
+  extends SystemMessageQueue with Runnable {
 
   import Mailbox._
 
@@ -229,21 +228,6 @@ private[akka] abstract class Mailbox(val messageQueue: MessageQueue)
     }
   }
 
-  override final def getRawResult(): Unit = ()
-  override final def setRawResult(unit: Unit): Unit = ()
-  final override def exec(): Boolean = try { run(); false } catch {
-    case ie: InterruptedException ⇒
-      Thread.currentThread.interrupt()
-      false
-    case anything: Throwable ⇒
-      val t = Thread.currentThread
-      t.getUncaughtExceptionHandler match {
-        case null ⇒
-        case some ⇒ some.uncaughtException(t, anything)
-      }
-      throw anything
-  }
-
   /**
    * Process the messages in the mailbox
    */