The Full Biography
Michael J. Fox. Actor. The Edmonton kid who made a sitcom conservative and a time traveler into the same American weather, then built a second career out of a diagnosis he would not hide.
This is his story.
The image most people still carry is a teenager in a puffy vest on a skateboard, a DeLorean with a lightning rod, or a young Republican in a tie at a Keaton dinner table. The year is 1985, or 1982, depending on the room. What the still cannot show is Michael Andrew Fox of Edmonton, Alberta, a Canadian Forces child who added a middle initial because the union already had a Michael Fox, a man who shot a movie at night after a sitcom all day, and a living advocate whose Parkinson’s, diagnosed at twenty-nine, became not a eulogy but the larger job.
He was born on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton. His father, William, served in the Canadian Forces. His mother, Phyllis, kept the house through the postings. They landed, for the useful years, in Burnaby, British Columbia. He was small, quick, and already working. He left high school for the job. He went to Los Angeles as a teenager with more nerve than padding. Early parts were thin. Money was thinner. The first pressure was not fame. It was to stay in the city long enough for a room to need him.
The door was Family Ties, which premiered on NBC in 1982. The show had been built around the liberal parents. The audience moved, almost at once, to the son. Alex P. Keaton, in a tie and a briefcase, was a joke that became a person. Fox played the conservatism as appetite, not as a lecture. He won three Primetime Emmy Awards for the role and a Golden Globe. The country, in the Reagan years, recognized the kid at the table. That would have been a career. Then Robert Zemeckis needed a Marty McFly.
Eric Stoltz had already been shooting Back to the Future when the part was recast. Fox was still under contract to Family Ties. The solution was a double shift that sounds, in the retelling, like a stunt and was, in the living of it, a body going without sleep. He worked the sitcom in daylight. He worked Hill Valley at night. The picture opened in 1985 and became the year’s top-grossing film. The same summer, Teen Wolf put him in a high-school gym in makeup. He was, overnight, the face of a kind of American boy who had in fact been born in Alberta. Light of Day (1987), for Paul Schrader, put him in a Cleveland bar band opposite Joan Jett — a picture that asked for sweat, not a vest. The Secret of My Success (1987) kept the climb going. Bright Lights, Big City (1988), from Jay McInerney, used the speed as a young man coming apart in Manhattan. Casualties of War (1989), for Brian De Palma, put him in Vietnam beside Sean Penn. Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Part III (1990) finished the time-travel loop. He had the thing every young star is told to want. He also had, by 1991, a tremor he could not talk himself out of.
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business.Michael J. Fox
The diagnosis was Parkinson’s disease. He was twenty-nine. He told his wife. He kept working. Doc Hollywood (1991) was shot as the symptoms began. The Hard Way (1991) put him beside James Woods in a New York action comedy. The American President (1995), for Rob Reiner, from Aaron Sorkin, gave him a White House aide with the old speed. The Frighteners (1996), for Peter Jackson, and Mars Attacks! the same year, used the instrument as a last stretch of movie-star velocity. In 1996 he went back to weekly television as Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty on Spin City, in New York, closer to the children. He won another Emmy and another Globe. In 1998 he went public. The announcement was not a collapse. It was a decision to stop spending energy on the camouflage. In 2000 he left Spin City and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. That is the turn. The sitcom and the DeLorean are the first career. The foundation is the second, and the larger one. It has since moved more than two billion dollars toward research. He has said gratitude is not a mood but a decision. The sentence is a method. The foundation is the proof.
The 1980s still need the specific work named. Family Ties premiered on NBC in 1982 and ran until 1989. Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross were the liberal parents. The audience moved, almost at once, to the son in the tie. Three Primetime Emmys. A Golden Globe. Back to the Future opened in July 1985: a DeLorean, a clock tower, Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown, Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover in the 1955 living room. Stoltz had been Marty first. The recast is the fact. The double shift — sitcom by day, Hill Valley by night — is the cost. Teen Wolf the same summer. The Secret of My Success in 1987. Parts II and III in 1989 and 1990, the third of them a Western loop through Hill Valley’s past. He was, for a stretch, the face of a kind of American boy who had in fact been born in Edmonton and raised in Burnaby. The tremor arrived while the face was still the country’s idea of youth. Doc Hollywood was shot as the symptoms began. Spin City brought him home to New York. The foundation is the larger job. The diagnosis stays factual. It is not a eulogy.
He left high school for the job. He went to Los Angeles as a teenager with more nerve than padding. Early parts were thin. Money was thinner. The Screen Actors Guild already had a Michael Fox, so Michael Andrew Fox added a J and went to work. He married Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988. She had played Alex Keaton’s girlfriend on Family Ties, which is the sort of sitcom fact that becomes, in a long marriage, merely how two people met. Sam was born in 1989. The twins in 1995. Esmé in 2001. The diagnosis in 1991, at twenty-nine, is the medical sentence. Seven years of camouflage. Then a public sentence in 1998. Then a foundation in 2000 that outgrew the movies. Parkinson’s is in the file as a fact, not as a eulogy. Edmonton is the birthplace. Burnaby is the useful city. Hill Valley is the civic fiction. The New York office among the Emmys and the Hersholt is the last shop. He has not asked to be pitied. He has asked for the work.
He did not vanish from the work. He took guest parts that used the shake instead of hiding it — Louis Canning on The Good Wife and The Good Fight, a lawyer whose tremor was part of the tactic. He wrote books that belong on the shelf with the good American memoirs, not with celebrity souvenirs: Lucky Man (2002), then Always Looking Up, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, No Time Like the Future. Davis Guggenheim’s 2023 film Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie let the camera stay on the instrument as it is. In 2022 the Academy gave him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. On January 4, 2025, President Biden put the Presidential Medal of Freedom on him at the White House. He accepted it as a patient among patients, not as a retired Marty McFly collecting a civic gold watch.
Canadian Forces postings made the childhood a sequence of rooms. Edmonton. Then Burnaby, British Columbia, for the useful years. Los Angeles as a teenager. NBC in 1982. Universal and Amblin in 1985. ABC in 1996 for Spin City. A foundation office in New York after 2000. That is the geography. Five Emmys and four Golden Globes sit on the shelf. The Hersholt and the Medal of Freedom sit beside them. The tremor is on the instrument. The foundation’s ledger is the civic fact that outgrew the vest and the clock tower.
Six things most people never knew
- The J is a union initial. Another Michael Fox already held the name. Michael Andrew Fox added a letter so he could work. It is not a family middle name.
- He shot Back to the Future at night after Family Ties all day. Stoltz had been Marty first. The recast is the fact. The double shift is the cost.
- The diagnosis was 1991, at twenty-nine; the public sentence was 1998. Seven years of camouflage. Then a decision to stop spending the day on it.
- The foundation, not the sequel, is the second career. Founded in 2000. Billions toward a cure. He has treated it as a shop, not as a ribbon.
- He used the tremor on screen instead of waiting it out off screen. Canning on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. The shake as part of the instrument.
- The Medal of Freedom arrived in January 2025. The Hersholt Oscar in 2022. He took both as a patient who still had a job, not as a man being retired by ceremony.
He married Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988. She had played Alex Keaton’s girlfriend on Family Ties, which is the sort of sitcom fact that becomes, in a long marriage, merely how two people met. Their son, Sam, was born in 1989. Twin daughters, Aquinnah and Schuyler, arrived in 1995. A fourth child, Esmé, was born in 2001. Pollan sits on the foundation’s board. Friends from the Ties years describe a professional who was first into the joke and last to leave a scene unfinished. The man in the New York office, among the Emmys and the Hersholt, has kept the same dislike of a false note. Four children. One marriage. The household is the other proof, quieter than a skateboard but longer.
The later years
Home, after he left Spin City, has been New York: Tracy Pollan, four children, a foundation office that looks like a shop and not a ribbon factory. Sam, the twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, and Esmé have had to share a father the culture still files as a skateboard. Pollan sits on the foundation’s board. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, founded in 2000, has moved more than two billion dollars toward a cure. He has treated it as a job with a ledger, not as a farewell tour with a logo. He still appears when the appearance will move money or law. He still writes as if a sentence could be revised into honesty.
The books belong on the shelf with the good American memoirs, not with celebrity souvenirs. Lucky Man (2002) put the 1991 diagnosis and the 1998 announcement on paper. Always Looking Up (2009). A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future (2010). No Time Like the Future (2020). On screen he used the tremor instead of waiting it out: Louis Canning on The Good Wife and The Good Fight, a lawyer whose shake was part of the tactic; guest runs on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rescue Me, Boston Legal, Designated Survivor. The Michael J. Fox Show (2013) was a sitcom that tried to make the diagnosis a weekly premise and did not last. Davis Guggenheim’s 2023 film Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie let the camera stay on the instrument as it is. In 2022 the Academy gave him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. On January 4, 2025, President Biden put the Presidential Medal of Freedom on him at the White House. He accepted it as a patient among patients, not as a retired Marty McFly collecting a civic gold watch.
He is in his sixties. The shake is visible on purpose. Edmonton is the first city. Burnaby is the useful one. Hill Valley is the civic fiction. The foundation’s ledger is the civic fact. He has not asked to be pitied. He has asked for the work. Parkinson’s, diagnosed at twenty-nine, is the medical sentence. Gratitude as a decision is the method. The household is the other proof, quieter than a DeLorean and longer.
After the spotlight moved
It moved to the next boy on a skateboard and then came back every time a cable channel needed 1985. Family Ties still teaches a civics joke about a generation. The DeLorean still teaches a Saturday afternoon. The larger remaining thing is a research shop that did not exist before a thirty-nine-year-old left a sitcom, and a man who would not let a diagnosis become a closed door. Tracy remains. The children remain. The tremor is on the instrument. He has not asked to be pitied. He has asked for the work.
He came out of Edmonton, added a letter, made Alex Keaton and Marty McFly in the same exhausted decade, took a diagnosis at twenty-nine, went public at thirty-seven, built a foundation that outgrew the movies, wrote the life down, and is still, in his sixties, visible on purpose. If you only remember the vest and the clock tower, you have the picture. If you remember the night shoots, the 1991 sentence, and gratitude as a decision, you have him.
Portrait: Thomas Atilla Lewis · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons