The actor was diagnosed with the disease when he was just 29 years old
“I am not the story”says the actor Michael J. Fox in an interview with the “Guardian” newspaper.
“History is the power of optimism. That it really is a choice. That acceptance doesn’t mean you have to give something up. You look at it and say: “What does this truth require of me?”
“’I hate it. It sucks. But it didn’t defeat me’: Michael J Fox on pity, Parkinson’s – and a potential cure.” This is a great interview – intrigued to know what the potential breakthrough he mentions at the end is https://t.co/KGhYjXEL7z
— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) February 2, 2024
Fox’s story – and he is the story – is truly impressive. The actor drops out of school, moves to Los Angeles and then lands the role of a yuppie teenager in the hit sitcom ‘Family Ties’ and continues with ‘Back to the Future’. As of August 1985, it has the No. 1 movie in US theaters, as well as the longest-running TV series. It’s on every magazine cover, every chat show, every bedroom wall.
He is at the center of several films – ‘The Secret of My Success’, ‘The Hard Way, Casualties of War’ – and is married to ‘Family Ties’ favorite Tracy Pollan. One day in 1989, his little finger begins to twitch. At the age of 29, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Usual life expectancy: 10-20 years.
The actor begins to drink, becoming a “ghost” of himself until his wife tells him that she is not interested in raising children with an alcoholic. He “cleans up”, organizes another sitcom (“Spin City”) and in 1998, goes public with his diagnosis. In 2000, he established the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research.
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That’s broadly the story told in ‘Still: A Michael J Fox Movie’, Davis Guggenheim’s Bafta-nominated but not, somehow, Oscar-nominated documentary. “He did not bring me down under grief,” says Fox. “I think there might be something to the fact that he won four Emmys.” He’s no stranger to small-screen (or comedy) snobbery, and anyway, he says, “I already have an Oscar.” They gave him an honorary “and I can’t say I don’t enjoy it”points out.
In 2000, the actor created the Michael J. Fox Foundation, to research Parkinson’s disease and try to find a cure for the disease, while helping people who suffer from it like himself. So far, the initiative has raised $1 billion.
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Fox also cites the support he’s received from his wife of 34 years, Tracy Pollan, and his four children, ages 21 to 33. “My younger children have never known me without the disease“, he adds.
Source :Skai
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