In 1990, Michael J. Fox was basking in the success of his illustrious career in both film and television. At that time, the third Back to the Future film had just been released.
Fans were blown away by his performance as Marty McFly, and he had won many Emmys for his role in the comedy Family Ties. He should have been looking forward to a dazzling career as one of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities after all of his success.
However, only a year later, at the age of 29, he was given a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease that would completely transform his life.
The first sign of the sickness was a very little twitch in his little finger, but the doctors warned him that he only had ten years remaining of his acting career at most.
Since that time, he has been an incredible source of motivation, emerging as one of the world’s most outspoken advocates for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease while maintaining his position as a “optimist.”
Fox likewise ignored the prognosis from his physicians that he would only have 10 years of acting career left, and went on to work for several more decades before retiring lately.
Alongside his job as an actor, he has shown an unwavering commitment to alleviating the suffering caused by the condition, which affects him as well as a large number of other people.
In the year 2000, he established his own foundation, and ever since then, he has raised the truly incredible amount of over one billion dollars for research towards finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Despite the fact that he has stated that he does not believe the disease will be cured during his lifetime.
Last year, he shared: “I’m really blunt with people about cures. When they ask me if I will be relieved of Parkinson’s in my lifetime, I say, ‘I’m 60 years old, and science is hard. So, no’.”
He has acknowledged that his short-term memory is “shot,” which makes it impossible for him to learn his lines, and as a result, he has decided to retire from the acting profession.
Fox added that the sickness has gradually stopped him from engaging in several of his interests, such as playing the guitar or drawing.
Despite this, he continues to be an active writer and has published a series of autobiographies that recount his life as well as his experiences living with Parkinson’s disease.
As evidence that he is still very well loved by fans of his work, he brought a crowd to tears this past weekend at New York Comic Con when he reunited with Christopher Lloyd, who played his co-star in the film version of Back to the Future.
They began their conversation on their experience working on the legendary films by exchanging a loving embrace.
The Academy Awards have announced that Fox will receive an honorary award for his “tireless activism on research into Parkinson’s disease.” The actor will be recognized for his inspirational work.