Michael J. Fox

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For other people named Michael Fox, see Michael Fox (disambiguation).
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox and his wife Tracy Pollan, 1989.
Born
Michael Andrew Fox
Height5'4 1/2" (1.64 m)
SpouseTracy Pollan

Michael J. Fox (born June 9, 1961) is a Canadian-born American, with dual citizenship. [1]. An Emmy award-winning actor, he is famous for his roles as Marty McFly (Back to the Future trilogy), Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties), and Mike Flaherty (Spin City). He suffers from Parkinson's disease (PD) and is an advocate for stem cell research.


Early life

Michael J. Fox was born Michael Andrew Fox in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Sgt. William Fox and Phyllis Fox.

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. He 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. He was credited under the name of "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 (1921-1996), 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, with varying degrees of seriousness, over the years. 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.

Acting success

He then 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 was convinced on the next audition, but now there was opposition from NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff. Goldberg was now fighting for Fox, and Tartikoff eventually 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 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. He would later re-meet her on the set of his 1988 movie, Bright Lights, Big City.

Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) from the movie Back to the Future.

Notable roles since then include the Back to the Future movies, Mars Attacks!, Teen Wolf, For Love or Money, and The Secret of My Success. He is 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. He also guest starred in the comedy Scrubs as a doctor suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In 2003, he wrote a pilot episode for a sitcom entitled Hench at Home, but it was not picked up.

In 2006, he 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.

Private life, illness and advocacy

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 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.

Stem Cell Research Advocacy

This sub-section concerns only Michael J. Fox's advocacy of stem cell research. For more information see
Main article: Stem cell controversy

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.[1] 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 that would have expanded federal funding for stem cell research.

2006 political advertisement controversy

In late October 2006, Fox appeared in a television campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri. Fox has been filmed in similar ads in Wisconsin, supporting Jim Doyle and in Maryland, endorsing Ben Cardin. Fox has also appeared at events for Democrats Robert Menendez and Tammy Duckworth.

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". [2] [3]

Limbaugh was speculating that Fox may have intentionally not taken his medication. Fox wrote in his memoir, Lucky Man, 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." [4]

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." [5][6]

Fox responded to Limbaugh's comments, "It's hard for people, and I understand this, to go 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 the medication works...you get what you get on any given day." [7]

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 followed up on October 25, 2006 saying "When you wade into political life you have every right to say what you want, but you cannot in turn argue that no one has the right to take you on." While he did state that Michael J. Fox was off his medication, a majority of Limbaugh's broadcast focused on his disagreement with Fox over the medical promise of embryonic stem cell research. Limbaugh described the Democrats' behavior towards Fox as "cruel", because it gives people with Parkinson's "false hope".[9]

Contrary to reports including ones by ABC News, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press, Limbaugh has not apologized for attacking Fox. [2]

Fox on living with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a chronic disorder. At present, there is no cure, but medications can provide relief from the symptoms. In a National Public Radio Fresh Air interview (April 2002), Fox states that he manages his symptoms using Sinemet, 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. When on the medication, the symptoms shown (dyskinesia) are different than that of PD. In the NPR interview, 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.'

The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Team Fox

File:Michael j. fox foundation.jpg
The MJFF logo.
File:TEAM-FOX.gif
The Team Fox logo.
Main article: The Michael J. Fox Foundation

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research was established in 2000 by Fox to fund the development of a cure for Parkinson's disease by 2010 through an aggressively funded research agenda.

Team Fox for Parkinson's Research is the grassroots community project of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Team Fox allows people to turn their next special event, with an emphasis on athletic events, into an opportunity to support The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Filmography

File:Luckmancover.jpg
The cover of Michael J. Fox's first book, Lucky Man.

Bibliography

  • 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)

See also

References

  1. ^ Campaign 2004: Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race provides clear choices Post-Gazette. October 18, 2004
  2. ^ CNN, The Situation Room accessed Youtube on Oct. 27, 2006
  3. ^ Limbaugh: Fox `shilling' in stem cell ad, Chicago Tribune, accessed on Oct. 27, 2006
  4. ^ From michaeljfox.org, Excerpt from Lucky Man, Chapter 8: Unwrapping the Gift accessed on Oct. 28, 2006
  5. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102400691.html
  6. ^ http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/25/olbermann-gives-us-the-visual-to-limbaughs-attack-on-michael-j-fox
  7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvFlUJc2QW0&NR
  8. ^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15408508/
  9. ^ http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/eibessential3/mjf0.guest.html
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