Canadian-American actor, comedian, author, film producer, and activist with a film and television career spanning from the 1970s. He starred in the Back to the Future film trilogy in which he portrayed Marty McFly. On television, he played Alex P. Keaton on the American sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989) and Mike Flaherty on the ABC sitcom Spin City (1996–2000). He has won five Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at age 29, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. He semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of the disease worsened. He has since become an advocate for research toward finding a cure, and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Since 1999, Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire. On the CBS TV show The Good Wife (2010-2016), he earned Emmy nominations for three consecutive years for his recurring role as crafty attorney Louis Canning.
He was one of five kids, the son of a Canadian army officer so the family moved often. His first goal was to play hockey until he racked up 56 facial stitches from injuries in hockey and other adventures.
While still in school, he decided to try acting. He gained his first credits at age 15 in a Canadian series, Leo and Me, and at 18, dropped out of high school and moved to Hollywood. At that time he added the J. to his name to distinguish himself from another actor named Michael Fox. His youthful appearance led to his debut in a Disney stinker called Midnight Madness. He had several good TV credits by 1981, a good start, but he then hit a dry period. He was out of work and $30,000 in debt before he won the role of Alex in Family Ties, which ran from 1982-1989 and became a big hit. In November 1986, he was an Emmy winner, quipping with exuberance, “I feel four feet tall!”
His movie Back to the Future (1985) was a number one box office hit and by 1987 he was pulling in $2 million a picture, with two sequels to Future in 1989 and 1990. He was getting some 500 pieces of fan mail a week by then. Other successes included Teen Wolf (1985), The Secret of My Success (1987), Casualties of War (1989) amd Doc Hollywood (1991).
During the early ’90s he had something of a down period with several flops, such as The Hard Way, Life With Mikey, For Love or Money and Greedy. His best work during this period was in The American President (1995).
Actually five feet four inches tall (1.63 m), purely charismatic, he comes across with wit and sensitivity, beloved by the audience. The series Spin City premiered in 1996 and quickly became one of ABC’s viewer favorites.
Fox married Tracy Pollan on 16 July 1988 at a country inn in Arlington, Vermont; their son Sam Michael was born on 31 May 1989 and twin girls, Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances were born on 15 February 1995. Fox studied the required curriculum and became a U.S. citizen. He is quoted, “I pay a lot of taxes and I’d like to say where they go, and I’d like to be able to vote on my children’s issues and things that will affect them.”
In 1991, while on the set of Doc Hollywood, Fox noticed a tremor in his left pinkie finger; within six months it had spread to much of his left hand and his shoulder was achy and stiff. A neurologist diagnosed his condition as Parkinson’s, a progressive degeneration of the central nervous system that is characterized by tremors and muscle stiffening including facial rigidity. For seven years he was able to keep his condition a private matter, but in 1998 he announced his disease publicly. While appearing at the Golden Globe ceremony on TV, he stood with his hands behind him, or with his hand in his pockets, and usually is able to function well under medication. In March 1998, he had a four-hour brain surgery in an attempt to halt or slow the disability and it almost completely eliminated his most serious symptom, a shaking of his left arm so violent that, Fox said, “I could mix a margarita in five seconds.”
Of the one million Americans stricken with Parkinson’s, only 10 percent occur in those under the age of 40. Fox has no family history or any medical situation to make him susceptible, and it is particularly ironic that a man who looks so youthful has a disease that is associated with older people. His doctor was hopeful that he had another good ten years or more of being able to function well. He saves his difficult times for home and takes medication before going out, becoming a master of concealment. He did fewer sight stunts on Spin City but could still deliver as funny a line as ever. He may not be able to play hockey as he loves to do, but he can still read science books to his son Sam and take delight in watching his three-year old twins play dress-up.
Fox finally decided to leave the weekly pressure of Spin City to spend more time with his family and work toward a cure for Parkinson’s. He taped his final episode on 17 March 2000, a show that aired on 24 May 2000.
On 3 November 2001, Fox, 40, and his wife, Tracy Pollan, 41, welcomed their fourth child, Esme Annabelle Fox, weighing in at 7 lbs, 6 oz (3345 g).
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