Michael Fox’s name will forever be associated with Marty, that teenager who rode a skateboard while going back and forth in time thanks to the invention of a crazy scientist. For years he was pigeonholed into eternal adolescent roles and when he thought that this was his worst problem, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. What seemed like an end for him became a beginning. Having just turned 63, he continues fighting to find a cure for his condition while, through his networks and together with Christopher Lloyd, he promotes and sells health products. Back to the Future.
Michael Andrew Fox was born in Edmonton, a Canadian city. His mother, Phyllis, was an actress and his father, William, a police officer. His father’s job forced the family to move constantly. Who knows if because he didn’t like moving or his father’s job, Michael decided that he would not be a police officer like his father but an actor like his mother. Friendly, joking and indefatigable – “I don’t know how to sit still, I never did,” he often remembers – he had not finished high school when, at the age of 15, he got his first job in Leo and me, a Canadian television series. Although his country is immense, Michael knew that the great entertainment industry was crossing the border: he decided to try his luck in Hollywood.
At 18 years old and with three thousand dollars in his pocket, he said goodbye to his parents and went to Los Angeles. But the “great American dream” had nightmarish beginnings. For two years he failed to get even a gig. His five-foot-three and boyish face did not attract the attention of producers. “We will never see her face on a poster,” said Brandon Tartikoff, president of the NBC network. Bouncing from test to test and with his accounts in the red, he was about to return to his country when Fox decided to attend one last test. It was for the television comedy family entanglements. When he was elected he borrowed money and celebrated by eating a modest meal alone in a restaurant.
Fox didn’t know it but that series would change his life. He played Alex Keaton, the conservative and dapper son of a progressive ex-hippie couple. “It was like the fairy godmother had touched me with a magic wand,” he admits of that program. His face began to be known and recognized and Tartikoff’s prediction became unsuccessful. Fox was already a poster boy.
While Fox shined on Tanglesthe American director Robert Zemeckis obtained the endorsement of Universal Studios to film Back to the Future. When the project began, only one actor seemed suitable for the role of Marty: Michael J. Fox. His eternal adolescent features allowed him, at 24 years old, to embody a 16-year-old boy. But it was not only his face but also his talent. “He’s a great actor, he has a fabulous sense of comedic timing,” Zemeckis explained, “he’ll be perfect for the role. He is a common man. He is accessible as an actor. He is nice. He is funny “. The actor accepted the proposal but the one who did not accept it was David Goldberg, the executive producer of the series, because he wanted his star to only focus on his show.
Discarded by Fox, Eric Stoltz was chosen, an actor with a rebellious appearance who had achieved considerable recognition. They started filming but three weeks later they discovered that Stoltz was destroying Marty. “He acted very dramatically and believed the film was actually a tragedy, not a comedy,” Gale would explain. Although he was a good actor, he lacked that fun, mischievous and cheeky wink that Fox exuded.
With the release date approaching, the filmmakers fired Stoltz and hired him back. In order for the producers of the series to authorize him, the actor agreed to work when the filming of Tangles. At five in the afternoon I left the television set and at six I was already in the of Return where he worked until two in the morning. During the weeks that filming lasted, he slept only four hours a day.
What follows is known. Back to the Future It took him non-stop to global fame and transformed his handsome bank account into a fortune. Movies like The secret of my success and wolf boy that did not break lockers. “It’s ridiculous to think that all my movies will gross $500 million,” he defended himself. She tried to leave the comedy tone to get into dramatic roles and so she was in Sins of war, Lights of the big city and destiny of glory that went almost unnoticed.
At 29 years old, Fox seemed to join the group of old-fashioned actors that already included Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe. Given the lack of interesting proposals and since money was not a problem in his life, he decided to retire to live in a 50-hectare field with his wife Tracy and his son, Sam. “It’s the lifestyle I want,” he stated, and perhaps because there was a surplus in his account, he concluded with “I’m not at all interested in running after the dollar.”
In 1991, Fox was filming Doctor Hollywood and noticed an unknown tremor in his left little finger. He attributed the shaking to a hangover from too much alcohol the night before but the next few days continued. He decided to consult a neurologist. After a series of consultations with specialists, she heard the devastating diagnosis: Parkinson’s disease, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that usually appears in elderly people.
Fox felt the anguish drowning him and decided to drown it with what he already knew: a lot of alcohol. One morning he woke up on the couch surrounded by beer cans and reeking of alcohol. His son invited him to play, he tried to get up but couldn’t and not because of Parkinson’s. Leaning against the door frame, Tracy watched him. There was no pain or compassion in her eyes, nor fury or anger. There was disinterest and it is already known that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference.
His wife’s indifferent look caused him to break. As he himself said, that same day he entered alcohol treatment, began therapy and began to come to terms with his illness. Years later he would de-dramatize: “Because of my disorder, I sometimes lose my balance and slur my words. Sometimes I hit the wall and I don’t remember people’s names. “Why would I want to drink to be in a state I already live in?”
For seven years he continued working and hiding his condition. She was part of the movies Stuart Little, The President and Miss Wade and for seven years he starred in the series Spin City. Not only did she dedicate herself to working, she also decided to expand the family and in 1995 the twins Aquinnah and Schuyler were born. “They grew up with this. “It’s the only thing they know, and I think if you asked them to describe me, the fact that I have Parkinson’s would be the ninth thing they would name.”
To improve his condition he agreed to undergo brain surgery called thalamotomy. If it went right she had a 90 percent chance of reducing the tremors, but if it went wrong she had a 10 percent chance of falling into a coma or dying. The operation was successful and Fox confirmed it with humor. “Before having surgery I could shake a drink of margarita in five seconds,” he said, referring to the decrease in tremors.
Little by little he was encouraged to talk about his illness in different interviews. “I don’t want to complain. At this point I wish someone would give me a magic pill that would make it go away. I know that’s impossible now, but I think by the time I’m 50 there will be a cure. Now I’m 38, so I have 12 years to win this bet” and she assured that what she was most afraid of was not pain or oblivion but “people’s pity.”
Convinced that “pity is a form of abuse” he decided that no one would look at him with pity. He headed up The Michael J. Fox Foundation to try to find a cure. Far from hiding, he continued working. in the series The Good Wife was the scheming Louis Canning. In 2013 he surprised everyone when he announced that he would star in The Michael J Fox Show a sitcom that took a humorous look at his condition. When asked if her intention was to laugh at him, she replied that “I simply want to show a guy capable of looking at his life with humor.” Or simply externalize “deep anger in a good way.” He assures that he can play any character “as long as he has Parkinson’s.”
Turning 63 last Sunday, his dream of having found a cure at 50 was not fulfilled. But he doesn’t lower his arms. As he once said, “The ending won’t be very pretty, but I’m still grateful. All of this made me stronger, a million times wiser and also more compassionate. Now I know I’m vulnerable, no matter how many awards I’ve won or how big my bank accounts are. In the end, we all die. Once we accept that, we only have to live.”
