Michael J. Fox is a Canadian actor well known to everyone. I mean, who could forget his part in the 1980s series “Back to the Future”?
The 57-year-old actor got his first role in a Canadian sitcom called “Leo and Me” when he was 15 years old. Since then, he has been in other sitcoms like “Family Ties” and “Spin City.”
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991. Since then, he has been fighting the disease himself and through the foundation he started. It gives money to research and develop new treatments for people with Parkinson’s. He also doesn’t eat meat. But what matters most is that he is Tracy Pollan’s husband.
They met more than 30 years ago, and on July 16, 1988, they got married. They have four children together.
Michael’s days in show business are mostly over, but he still makes guest appearances on TV and in documentaries now and then.
He met Tracy on the hit NBC comedy “Family Ties,” where Tracy played Michael’s on-screen girlfriend, Ellen. That was more than 30 years ago.
There was nothing going on at that time. But a few years later, when they were both in the movie “Bright Lights, Big City,” they began dating.
Since then, they started going out together. Ten months after they got married, they had their first child. Two years later, Fox was told he had Parkinson’s disease, which is a progressive disease that affects the nerves and makes people stiff and shaky.
He was told he had depression when he was 29, but he kept it a secret for 7 years, even though he was having very dark thoughts.
Pollan has been by her husband Michael’s side since she found out about his illness in 1991.
Fox told Willie Geist of Sunday TODAY in November 2020, ”We didn’t know what to expect,” Fox told Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist in November 2020. ”One of the things I’ll always love Tracy for is that at that moment, she didn’t blink.”
Like most couples, Michael and Tracy have some things in common and some things that make them different. But they all have a positive outlook, which is something they have in common.
Michael’s childhood was strange. He dropped out of high school and then got a job in the entertainment business. Tracy is from New York and went to school at the Lee Strasberg Institute. He grew up in Canada. In 2018, to mark their 30th wedding anniversary, the couple gave a major interview to People magazine.
Tracy says in the interview that they have always been there for each other. She says this is what makes them love each other and keeps their marriage strong.
“It was us against the world That’s exactly what we’ve created,” she tells People.
Tracy was thrilled when she saw that they were on the cover. The title is “Our 30-Year Love Story.”
Tracy Pollan has been a huge help over the years. We didn’t expect anything else.
“She’s there in the front lines with me every single day. She never pretends to know as much as I know. And the other thing Tracy does is, if there’s something funny, let’s get to the funny. We’ll deal with the tragic later,” Fox told Today.
After more than 30 years together, Michael writes that he is as happy as can be.
He stopped acting for good in 2020, when he was 60 years old and had just finished playing Louis Canning in “The Good Fight,” a spin-off of “The Good Wife” where his character was first seen.
“I reached the point where I couldn’t rely on my ability to speak on any given day, which meant I couldn’t act comfortably at all anymore. So, last year I gave it up,” he told Good Morning America about his decision to stop working.
Time magazine named Fox one of the 100 people “whose power, talent, or moral example is changing the world” in 2007. He did this by starting the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which brings attention to both Parkinson’s and possible treatments for it.
His foundation, which he set up in 2000, funds research to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
“We created what has become this giant network of patients, scientists and institutions. We’ve put more than a billion dollars into it,” he said.
When asked if he thinks there will be a cure in his lifetime, Fox says, “I’m 60 years old, and science is hard. So, no.”
Still, he is a father of four and a loving husband to Tracy Pollan, whom he married in 1988. He says, “I have things that I’ve been blessed with that are just incredible. Life is rich. Life is good.”