Background

Michael Andrew Fox was born on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Fox began using the middle initial "J." professionally because he wanted to distinguish himself from another actor named Michael Fox and didn't like the play on words that "Michael A. Fox" lent itself to; his stage name is also reportedly a tribute to American actor Michael J. Pollard.

Education

Michael J. Fox attended Burnaby South Secondary School and Burnaby Central Secondary School in Burnaby, Canada, he also studied at the Widdifield Secondary School in North Bay, Canada. Fox struggled in school and was too small - growing to a height of 5'4" - to compete in his favorite activity, ice hockey. He found an outlet in drama class, and in 1976, at the age of 15, he made his professional acting debut on the TV series Leo and Me, playing a 10-year-old.

Although he never received a real high school diploma, Fox was given an honorary high school diploma from John Dewey High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, when he spoke at their graduation in 1984.

Career

Michael Andrew Fox’s love for acting was so strong that at the age of 15 he auditioned for a Canadian television series Leo and Me produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC), and got the part as well. He continued to do roles in local theatre and sitcoms along with roles in American movie shootings in Canada for the next three years.

After starring in the CBS movie Letters from Frank (also filmed in Canada), Fox dropped out of high school and drove to Los Angeles, California, with his father. There, he landed a role on the series Palmerstown, United States, before being cast as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties (1982-1989), where he would woo audiences with his confident charm and impeccable comedic timing for the next seven years.

The character Keaton was a young conservative often spouting viewpoints at odds with his progressive parents Elyse and Steven (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) while also contending with sisters Mallory and Jennifer (Justine Bateman and Tina Yothers) and becoming a nurturing figure to little brother Andy (Brian Bonsall). Family Ties is considered one of TV's enduring sitcoms, and Fox won a Golden Globe and three consecutive Emmys for his role as Keaton.

Fox also met enormous success on the big screen, most notably playing Marty McFly in Robert Zemeckis' zany romp Back to the Future (1985), co-starring Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Christopher Lloyd. Traveling back to the 1950s, McFly threatens the possibility of his own existence when he inadvertently gets in the way of his teenage parents becoming a couple. Back to the Future was a pop-culture phenomenon that earned more than $380 million worldwide and received raves from critics and audiences alike for its thoughtful humanism, sporting a No. 1 Huey Lewis & the News hit to boot.

Another comic role with fantastic themes followed shortly for Fox when he appeared in Teen Wolf (1985), which had a far more modest box office performance than Back to the Future. The actor was next seen on the big screen in the rock-oriented Light of Day, co-starring Joan Jett, and the comedy The Secret of My Success (both 1987), with the latter earning $110 million worldwide.

Fox took on dramatic roles in subsequent films. He played a factory worker in Light of Day (1987) and a cocaine-snorting fact-checker in Bright Lights, Big City (1988), later earning acclaim for his starring role alongside Sean Penn in Brian De Palma's Vietnam saga Casualties of War (1989). Showing a lighter side, Fox lent his voice to Chance, a Bulldog, in Disney's family film, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993).

Audiences applauded Fox's return to Back to the Future for the second and third installments of the film series, released in 1989 and 1990, respectively. His pitch-perfect portrayal of a George Stephanopoulos-type character in The American President (1995), starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening, also earned Fox accolades, but it was his ceremonious return to prime-time TV with a role on the sitcom Spin City, launched in 1996, that put Fox back where he belonged: delighting audiences on a weekly basis with a schedule that allowed him more time with his family. The series saw Fox playing deputy mayor Mike Flaherty opposite co-stars Barry Bostwick and Connie Britton.

In 1999, Fox contributed his trademark voice and comic flair as the title character in the film adaptation of E.B. White's Stuart Little. The actor was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December 2002.

Fox left Spin City following his fourth season - and 100th episode - on the show and, in May 2000, launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today." Today, the foundation is credited as the world's largest nonprofit funder of drug development for Parkinson's disease.

Fox won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his final season on Spin City, along with the respect and support of the Hollywood community.

In 2004, Fox guest-starred on the TV comedy Scrubs as Dr. Kevin Casey, a surgeon with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2006, he appeared in a recurring role on the drama Boston Legal, for which he earned an Emmy nomination for the best guest appearance. Then in 2009, Fox appeared on the dark drama Rescue Me. That same year, his TV special Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, based on his bestselling book of the same title.

Fox went on to make guest appearances on such TV series as Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife, before finally returning to a starring role with The Michael J. Fox Show. The sitcom, which co-starred Betsy Brandt, premiered in 2013. But despite receiving a fair share of positive reviews, it was canceled after just one season.

Fox nonetheless proved he could still make an impact with more limited screen time, snagging Emmy nominations in 2013 and '15 for his work on The Good Wife, appearing throughout its final season.

Achievements

• Michael J. Fox is best known for his role in the popular series "Family Ties" (1982-89) and "Spin City" (1996-2000). While the former established him as an actor with versatile gifts, the latter led him to massive fame and success.
  
  His role as Marty McFly in Robert Zemeckis’s ‘Back to the Future’ movie trilogy was also much appreciated by the audience and also won him several accolades.
  
  He has been an active member of society and has become an iconic model for the fight against Parkinson’s disease. He established the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research for finding a cure for the disease and to enable those suffering from it to live a dignified life.
  
  He received an honorary degree (Doctor of Fine Arts) from New York University in May 2008 and an honorary degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of British Columbia on May 22, 2008.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lucky Man: A Memoir

    (A funny, highly personal, gorgeously written account of w...)

    2003
  • No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality

    (A moving account of resilience, hope, fear, and mortality...)

    2020
  • Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

    (There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. H...)

    2008
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned

    (Michael J. Fox abandoned high school to pursue an acting ...)

    2010

• movie

  • Back to the Future Part III

    (They've saved the biggest trip for last as the most popul...)

    1990
  • The American President

    (An environmental lobbyist (Annette Bening) becomes romant...)

    1995
  • Mars Attacks!

    (Superstar Jack Nicholson as the President of the United S...)

    1996
  • Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

    (Drew Struzan, the legendary artist behind the iconic post...)

    2013
  • Interstate 60

    (When golden boy Neil Oliver (James Marsden) is granted on...)

    2002
  • Blue In The Face

    (In the uproarious follow-up to the hit comedy Smoke, Harv...)

    1995
  • Class Of 1984

    (A new teacher at a troubled inner-city high school soon e...)

    1982
  • The Hard Way

    (A hard-nosed cop's hunt for a serial killer is impeded by...)

    1991
  • Teen Wolf

    (An ordinary high school student discovers that his family...)

    1985
  • Annie

    (Quvenzhané Wallis stars as Annie, a happy foster kid who'...)

    2014
  • Stuart Little 3: Call Of The Wild

    (Stuart Little's back in an all-new, all-animated movie! F...)

    2003
  • For Love or Money

    (Doug is a lowly Manhattan hotel concierge, but he's got b...)

    1993
  • Casualties Of War

    (From visionary director Brian De Palma, war is war, but m...)

    1989
  • Light of Day

    (Light of Day is a 1987 American musical drama film starri...)

    1998
  • Homeward Bound II - Lost in San Francisco

    (Three lost pets must navigate through San Francisco to ge...)

    1996
  • Life With Mikey

    (A former child star is struggling in his new role as a ta...)

    1993
  • Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

    (Two dogs and a cat set out across America to find their o...)

    1993
  • Watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Prime Video

    (Explorers journey to the center of the earth to find Atla...)

    2001
  • Midnight Madness

    (A genius grad student organizes an all-night treasure hunt.)

    1980
  • Stuart Little 2

    (The brave and pint-sized hero Stuart Little (Michael J. F...)

    2002
  • A.R.C.H.I.E. 2: Mission Impawsible

    (In this outrageous family comedy-adventure, Michael J. Fo...)

    2018
  • A.R.C.H.I.E.

    (Meet ARCHIE - with the voice of Michael J. Fox and good l...)

    2016
  • The Frighteners

    (Down-on-his-luck ghost buster Michael J. Fox must stop an...)

    1996
  • Back to the Future

    (Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is blasted to 1955 in the ti...)

    1985
  • The Secret of My Success

    (Michael J. Fox plays an ambitious Kansas youth who comes ...)

    1987
  • Bright Lights, Big City

    (Michael J. Fox plays a would-be writer who supports himse...)

    1988
  • Doc Hollywood

    (Michael J. Fox stars in this romantic comedy about a Beve...)

    1991
  • Greedy

    (Michael J. Fox and Kirk Douglas star in this wickedly fun...)

    1994
  • Stuart Little

    (E.B. White's family classic about the mouse who came to s...)

    1999

• muvie

  • Back to the Future Part II

    (Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher L...)

    1989

Religion

Michael J. Fox hasn't been known necessarily as a religious man, but his marriage to former Family Ties co-star Tracy Pollan has gotten him involved with Reformed Judaism. While he hasn't converted, he attends Synagogue regularly and helps his kids with their Torah homework.

He also said: "I don't subscribe to any particular orthodoxy, so I don't define it and I don't put it into a definition that other people have to conform to. An expression I always use is, there is a God and it's not me."

Politics

In 2017 Michael J. Fox had led an anti-Donald Trump protest in Los Angeles, California, United States. He told the crowd "we are the lucky ones" and that he wanted to "share a bit of that luck" with refugees who want to enter the United States. "I believe that when so much good has been done unto you it's natural to feel a sense of civic or even global responsibility," he told the Beverly Hills rally.

Views

Fox is also recognized worldwide as the face of Parkinson’s disease, a condition he has lived with since 1991. A committed activist and the founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Fox lends much of his time to speaking passionately and publically about the disease, from the need for more scientific research into the condition to the need for more support for those coping with it.

Quotations: "I think the scariest person in the world is the person with no sense of humor."

"My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations."

"Acceptance doesn't mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there's got to be a way through it."

"Parkinson's has made me a better person - a better husband, father and overall human being."

Membership

• 

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation , United States

Personality

Michael J. Fox is a very kind and optimistic person. He also has a great sense of humor.

He received his first guitar for Christmas when he was 8. He taught himself how to play.

Physical Characteristics: In late 1999, Fox made the startling announcement that he had been battling Parkinson's disease since 1991, and had even undergone brain surgery to alleviate tremors caused by the condition. Despite Spin City's incredible success and showering of Emmy and Golden Globe awards, Fox announced in early 2000 that he would be leaving the show, which he also executive produced, to spend time with his family and concentrate on raising money and awareness for Parkinson's disease.

"I refer to Parkinson’s and the effect it’s had on my life as a gift - and people are completely dubious of that and kind of wonder how I could say that," he told CNN in 2010. "I... qualify it by saying it’s a gift that keeps on taking, but it is a gift because it’s really opened me up to more kind of compassionate, curious, risk-taking person."

Interests

• writing

• Writers

  "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon, "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, "The Stranger" by Harlan Coben

• Sport & Clubs

  ice hockey, lacrose, Boston Bruins

• Athletes

  Cam Neely

• Music & Bands

  Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page

Connections

Fox married actress Tracy Pollan (who played Ellen, Alex Keaton's girlfriend, on Family Ties) in 1988. The couple has four children: son Sam, twin girls Aquinnah and Schuyler, and daughter Esmé Annabelle.

Spouse:

Tracy Pollan

Son:

Sam Michael Fox

Daughter:

Aquinnah Kathleen Fox

Daughter:

Esmé Annabelle Fox

Daughter:

Schuyler Frances Fox

colleague:

Christopher Lloyd

colleague:

Robert Zemeckis

colleague:

Sean Penn

colleague:

Peter Jackson

References

• The Michael J. Fox Foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today.