Michael J. Fox: Difference between revisions

Michael J. Fox (born Michael Andrew Fox on June 9, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)^[1] is an Emmy Award-winning ^[2] actor who has had success both in television and in film. Some of his most famous roles include Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy, Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties, and Mike Flaherty from Spin City.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. As the symptoms of his disease worsened, Fox's role on Spin City was becoming exceedingly difficult for him to keep up with. In 2000, he retired from full-time acting and has since been an outspoken advocate of stem cell research.

Since his father was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Michael and his family lived in various cities and towns across Canada, including North Bay, Ontario. The family finally settled in the Vancouver, British Columbia suburb of Burnaby when William retired in 1971.

Fox co-starred in the Canadian television series Leo and Me at age fifteen and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of 16 to pursue an acting career. He made his American television debut in the television movie Letters from Frank, where he was credited under the name "Michael Fox", which he intended to keep using. However, when he registered with the Screen Actors Guild, which does not allow duplicate registration names due to crediting procedure, he discovered that Michael Fox, a veteran character actor, was already registered under the name. In trying to decide how to differentiate his name, the younger Fox decided to add a middle initial. However, he forewent the seemingly obvious choice of his birth-name, Michael A. Fox, and registered as Michael J. Fox instead. Fox has given several reasons for the choice over the years, with varying degrees of seriousness. He has stated that the "J" was an homage to character actor Michael J. Pollard, while joking at other times that it stands for 'Jenius' or 'Jenuine'. He has also claimed that he didn't want his name to become a cheesy catch-phrase, as in the possibility of magazines like Tiger Beat using the headline "Michael, a Fox!"^{[citation needed]}

Stardom in his chosen career did not come easily for Fox. Although he landed a series of parts in rapid succession after Letters from Frank (in the films Midnight Madness and Class of 1984, as well as guest roles on Lou Grant, and Trapper John M.D.), he then hit a dry spell. At one point, the young actor was actually forced by necessity to sell off pieces of his sectional couch, which went to actor Lance Guest. Fox has called this period his "macaroni days," jokingly referring to the fact that he ate so many cheap macaroni and cheese dinners.

Fox auditioned for the role of Alex P. Keaton, the arrogant, wise-cracking Republican teenager on the television series Family Ties. The first audition did not go very well, as creator Gary David Goldberg did not think he was right for the part. But casting director Judith Weiner convinced Goldberg to give Fox another shot. Goldberg had a change of heart at the next audition, but now Fox faced opposition from NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff. Goldberg tried to convince Tartikoff that Fox would be good for the role, and Tartikoff finally relented, famously commenting, "Go ahead if you insist. But I'm telling you, this is not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunch box". A few years later, after Back to the Future opened to big success, Tartikoff received a lunch box in the mail that had Fox's picture on it. There was a note inside that read, "To Brandon: This is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox." Tartikoff kept the lunch box in his office for the rest of his career.

Family Ties struggled out of the gate, barely getting renewed in its first season. But in 1984, it was paired up with The Cosby Show on Thursday nights, and the two shows ranked in the top two for the Nielsen ratings until 1987, when Family Ties was moved to Sunday nights. Fox won three Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe for his portrayal of Alex P. Keaton. A famous episode in 1987, called "A-A--My Name is Alex" was directed like a theatrical play, with Alex seeing a psychiatrist to cope with the death of his best friend. This episode was picked as the 68th best in television history in a 1997 issue of TV Guide. In a 1999 issue, Alex P. Keaton was ranked #27 on their list of the 50 Greatest TV Characters Ever. Fox also met his future wife Tracy Pollan, when she portrayed Alex's girlfriend Ellen Reed in the 1985–1986 season. The couple met again on the set of his 1988 movie, Bright Lights, Big City.

Some other notable productions Fox has been a part of include the Back to the Future movies, Mars Attacks!, Teen Wolf, For Love or Money, and The Secret of My Success. He is also the voice of Stuart Little in the movies based on the popular book by E. B. White, Chance in the Homeward Bound series, and Milo Thatch in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Fox has also guest starred in the comedy Scrubs as a doctor suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In 2006, Fox guest starred in four episodes of Boston Legal as a lung cancer patient who used his influence in an experimental drug test to ensure he received the real drug instead of a placebo. The show plans on bringing him back in a recurring role for season 3 this fall, beginning with the season premiere September 24. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award for best guest appearance in this role.

Fox married actress Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988. The couple have four children: Sam Michael (born May 30, 1989), twins Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances (born February 15, 1995), and Esmé Annabelle (born November 3, 2001).

In 1991 he was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease, but didn't go public until 1998. Since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson's disease research, especially stem cell research, which many in the scientific community believe may one day help sufferers of Parkinson's and other debilitating illnesses. His foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, was created to help advance this research.

In 1998 the Alberta native was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

In 2000, he announced that he would be retiring from the lead role of Spin City due to his illness. (A new lead character was created for Fox's replacement, Charlie Sheen.)

In 2005, he opened the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, United States as a tribute to boxer Muhammad Ali, fellow Parkinson's sufferer.

Fox has campaigned for one Republican and several Democrats who support stem cell research.

Fox appeared in a television commercial for Republican Arlen Specter's 2004 Senate campaign.^[3] In the commercial, sponsored by Arlen's reelection campaign, Fox comments that Specter "gets it" and Arlen's voice is heard saying "there is hope."

On July 18, 2006, Fox appeared in a taped interview on ABC's Good Morning America, defending a Senate bill (Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act) that would have expanded federal funding for stem cell research.^[4]

In late October 2006, Fox appeared in a television campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri attacking incumbent Jim Talent for his opposition to federal funding of embroynic stem cell research. Fox has been filmed in similar ads in Wisconsin, supporting Governor Jim Doyle and in Maryland, endorsing senatorial candidate Congressman Ben Cardin. Fox has also appeared at events for Democrats including New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, Iowa Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver,^[5] Illinois congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth and Ohio senatorial candidate Congressman Sherrod Brown.

In response, actors Jim Caviezel, Kurt Warner, Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeney, and Patricia Heaton all participated in a counter-ad stating that Amendment 2 in Missouri, which related to government funding of embroynic stem cell research would be costly without producing results, legalize cloning, and that it would be harmful to women.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh caused controversy by claiming Fox was "either off his medication or acting" in the ad for McCaskill, calling Fox "really shameless". ^[6][7] According to the Washington Post, Limbaugh also told his listeners that Fox was "exaggerating the effects of the disease... He's moving all around and shaking, and it's purely an act." ^[8][9] Limbaugh offered to apologize to Fox later in the broadcast, ". . .So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act. . ."^[10][11] Elaine Richman, a neuroscientist in Baltimore who co-wrote Parkinson's Disease and the Family has stated "Anyone who knows the disease well would regard his movement as classic severe Parkinson's disease. Any other interpretation is misinformed."^[8]

Limbaugh has not yet apologized.[1]

Fox responded to Limbaugh's comments, "It is hard for people and I understand, it‘s difficult for people who don‘t have Parkinson‘s, or don‘t know about Parkinson‘s, to understand the symptoms and the way they work and the way medication works. You get what you get on any given day."^[12]

Parkinson's disease is a chronic neurological disorder which causes involuntary tremors and movements in the patient. At present, there is no cure, but medications provide some relief from the symptoms. Fox manages his symptoms using Sinemet,^[13] a commercial form of Levodopa (L-dopa). L-dopa treatment decreases in effectiveness as it is used over a long period of time, so Fox like many PD sufferers, extends the life of its effectiveness by using it as little as possible.

In his memoir, Lucky Man, Fox wrote that he did not take his medication prior to his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1998. "I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling." ^[14]

After years of L-dopa treatment, new symptoms may develop called dyskinesia, which are different than that of PD. In an April 2002 NPR interview,^[13] Fox explained what he does when he becomes symptomatic during an interview:

Well, actually, I've been erring on the side of caution--I think 'erring' is actually the right word--in that I've been medicating perhaps too much, in the sense times the symptoms that people see in some of these interviews that have been on are actually dyskinesia, which is a reaction to the medication. Because if I were purely symptomatic with Parkinson's symptoms, a lot of times speaking is difficult. There's a kind of a cluttering of speech and it's very difficult to sit still, to sit in one place. You know, the symptoms are different, so I'd rather kind of suffer the symptoms of dyskinesia. . .this kind of weaving and this kind of continuous thing is much preferable, actually, than pure Parkinson's symptoms. So that's what I generally do... ...I haven't had any, you know, problems with pure Parkinson's symptoms in any of these interviews, because I'll tend to just make sure that I have enough Sinemet in my system and, in some cases, too much. But to me, it's preferable. It's not representative of what I'm like in my everyday life. I get a lot of people with Parkinson's coming up to me saying, 'You take too much medication.' I say, 'Well, you sit across from Larry King and see if you want to tempt it.'

• Leo and Me (1976) (TV) - Jamie
• Letters from Frank (1979) (TV) - Ricky Miller Jr.
• Lou Grant (1979) (TV) (guest appearance) - Paul Stone
• Midnight Madness (1980) - Scot Larson
• Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1980-1981) (TV) - Willy-Joe Hall
• Class of 1984 (1982) - Arthur Summers
• Family Ties (1982-1989) (TV) - Alex P. Keaton
• High School U.S.A. (1983) (TV) - Jay-Jay Manners
• Night Court (1984) (TV) (guest appearance) - Eddie Simms
• Poison Ivy (1985) (television) - Dennis Baxter
• Teen Wolf (1985) - Scott Howard
• Back to the Future (1985) - Marty McFly
• Family Ties Vacation (1985) (TV) - Alex P. Keaton
• Light of Day (1987) - Joe Rasnick/The Barbusters
• The Secret of My Success (1987) - Brentley Foster/Carlton Whitfield
• Bright Lights, Big City (1988) - Jamie Conway
• Casualties of War (1989) - Erikkson
• Back to the Future Part II (1989) - Marty McFly, Marty McFly Jr., Marlene McFly
• Back to the Future Part III (1990) - Marty McFly, Seamus McFly
• Tales from the Crypt (1991) (TV) (guest appearance) - Prosecutor
• Doc Hollywood (1991) - Dr. Ben Stone
• The Hard Way (1991) - Nick Lange
• For Love or Money (1993) - Douglas the Concierge
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) (voice) - Chance
• Life with Mikey (1993) - Michael "Mikey" Chapman
• Where the Rivers Flow North (1994) - Clayton Farnsworth
• Greedy (1994) - Daniel McTeague
• Don't Drink the Water (1994) (TV) - Axel Magee
• Blue in the Face (1995) - Pete Maloney
• Coldblooded (1995) - Tim Alexander
• The American President (1995) - Lewis Rothschild
• Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) (voice) - Chance
• The Frighteners (1996) - Frank Bannister
• Mars Attacks! (1996) - Jason Stone
• Spin City (1996-2000) (TV) - Michael "Mike" Flaherty
• Stuart Little (1999) (voice) - Stuart Little
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) (voice) - Milo Thatcher
• Interstate 60 (2002) - Mr. Baker
• Stuart Little 2 (2002) (voice) - Stuart Little
• Clone High (2002) (TV) (guest appearance) (voice) - Gandhi's Remaining Kidney
• Scrubs (2004) (TV) (guest appearance) (2 episodes) - Dr. Kevin Casey
• Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2005) (voice) - Stuart Little
• The Magic 7 (2006) (TV) (voice) - Marcel Maggot
• Boston Legal (2006) (TV) (guest appearance) (5 episodes) - Daniel Post
• Ray Gun (2007) (voice)

• Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease (2001) (foreword only, book by Morton Kondracke)
• Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002) (autobiography)
• Always Looking Up (2008)

• Tracy Pollan
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
• Back to the Future trilogy
• Family Ties
• Spin City

• Michael J. Fox at IMDb
• Template:Nndb name
• Template:Tvtome person
• Michael J. Fox's federal campaign contributions
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
• The Michael J. Fox Database
• La Place de Mike
• Michael J. Fox in Pro-Stem Cell Research Ad (video)
• Archive of American Television interviews with Michael J. Fox (in 5 parts)
• July 19, 2006 abc news, goodmorning america, interview with Michael J Fox on the George Bush stem cell veto (video on Youtube)
• May, 2006 NBC Today Show segment with Katie Couric with Muhammad Ali & Michael J. Fox (annotated video)
• Historical Videos - Includes an interview with Michael J. Fox on stem cell research, from John Kerry campaign (2004 Presidential elections)
• Michael J. Fox Records TV Ad for Cardin - Washington Post Article about his Maryland ads.
• Michael then and now 2002 article from Maclean's online magazine.
• "Michael J. Fox Fires Back at Critics." ABC News, ThisWeek with George Stephanopoulos, video and transcript. Air date October 29, 2006, accessed on October 30, 2006.