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The “Family Ties” actor was diagnosed with the neurological disorder when he was 29 years old.
Key Points
- Michael J. Fox revealed the devastating effect Parkinson’s disease has on his loved ones.
- The actor was diagnosed with the neurological disorder when he was 29 years old and was told he would only have 10 more years to act.
- “I needed to normalize it and just be that all the time. I said, ‘I have to not hide this. F--- vanity,’” he said.
Michael J. Fox is getting candid about the effect Parkinson’s disease has on his loved ones.
The Back to the Future star explained how his diagnosis with the neurological disorder and decision to go public about the effects of the disease affected his wife Tracy Pollan — and still does.
“It was hell on Tracy, it was really hard on her — and it still is because it’s always changing,” Fox told The Hollywood Reporter.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that “damages dopamine-producing neurons,” per the Parkinson’s Foundation website. It progresses slowly over time with symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, slow movement and balance problems, along with psychological symptoms such as sleep issues and depression. The cause is unknown and there is no cure, but treatment options are available including medication, therapy, lifestyle changes, and surgery.
“I said to her, ‘I have to go all the way here. No half measures,’” Fox said. “I started to understand what it was like for these people who didn’t have the options or the choices I had, didn’t have the connections and the reason to be optimistic.”
He added, “I needed to normalize it and just be that all the time. I said, ‘I have to not hide this. F--- vanity.’”
The actor, who was just nominated for the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy for his performance in Shrinking, and Pollan met on the set of Family Ties, where they played boyfriend and girlfriend on the show. They wed in 1988, three years before Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at 29 years old.
Fox was told he would only have about 10 years left to continue acting, but has appeared in shows as recently as 2025. His appearance on Shrinking marked the first time he “played someone interacting with someone else who had Parkinson’s.” Other recent credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife.
After keeping the diagnosis to himself for years and working on several movies through the ‘90s, the Emmy-nominated actor went public with his diagnosis in 1998. Since, he has been public about living with the disease. He launched the nonprofit group, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, two years later in 2000.
Since its inception, it has funded $3 billion in research helping guide the work needed to better understand the neurological disorder.
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“We have to find a way to get through every day, and if we can find a way to get through every day and at the same time be fueling for our actions and our deeds and our philanthropy, then that’s a great thing,” he told The Hollywood Reporter about his namesake foundation.
“It’s individually elevating lives. So it’s not just the money, it’s not just the science — it’s the humanity.”
Throughout his career, he had been open about living with the disease and even testified before the Senate to show how important and needed research into the neurological disorder is. He and director Davis Guggenheim collaborated on the 2023 Apple TV documentary Still about his life.
While promoting the movie, Fox told Entertainment Weekly about the war on Parkinson’s disease and the phrase “gratitude feeds optimism,” which has guided him.
“It somehow came in my head. Everyone asks me, ‘How can you be optimistic?’ I can be optimistic as long as I’m grateful. And I can be grateful if I really think about it because I wouldn’t have had the rest of my life if it weren’t for so many things that Tracy, chief among them, came in and intervened in.”
Added Fox, “And it sounds hokey, but to this day, if I can find one little thing to be grateful for, I can be optimistic about it.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
