Since his outing as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future film trilogy in the ’80s and early ’90s, Michael J. Fox has become one of the few actors with enduring popularity. Even today, fans remember his performances beyond Marty McFly, including Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties, Ben Stone in Doc Hollywood, and Mike Flaherty in Spin City. As Fox continues to appear in various talk shows and events, people are concerned about what happened to him and if he is suffering from a disease.
What disease does Michael J. Fox suffer from?
Michael J. Fox suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He was originally diagnosed back in 1991 during the production of Doc Hollywood after his little finger began to twitch (via BBC News). According to a 2020 interview Fox gave to The Guardian, the early symptoms also included a sore shoulder. At the time of the diagnosis, he was 29 years old.
“Oh yeah, I was a baby. It took me a long time to get my act together and start addressing it,” The Frighteners actor told the Guardian. “It’s such an insidious disease because when you’re first diagnosed, what you’re presenting is relatively minor. I had a twitching pinky and a sore shoulder. They said, ‘You won’t be able to work in a few years,’ and I’m thinking, ‘From this?'” he added.
Fox spoke about his diagnosis publicly for the first time in 1998. Two years later, he established The Michael J. Fox Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit organization committed to finding a permanent solution for Parkinson’s disease. Fox and his foundation have been collaborating with the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) on a $100-million observational study to locate the disease’s biological markers since 2010.
The disease severely impacted Fox’s career. However, he continued to act in the subsequent decades until retiring in 2020 because he was having difficulty recalling his lines (via Variety). In a 2023 interview with Empire Magazine, Fox revealed that watching Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood convinced him to make the decision about retirement.
“I thought of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” the Atlantis: The Lost Empire star said. “There’s a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character can’t remember his lines anymore. He goes back to his dressing room and he’s screaming at himself in the mirror. Just freaking insane. I had this moment where I was looking in the mirror and thought, ‘I cannot remember it anymore,’” he added.
However, Fox has since been involved in a few projects, including a 2023 documentary about him, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. He has also said that he could return to acting if “something came up that I could put my realities into it – my challenges – if I could figure it out.” (via Entertainment Tonight)
In 1998, Fox had a thalamotomy surgery to manage his condition (via Chicago Tribune). In June 2024, he appeared at Glastonbury Festival in England to play the guitar during a Coldplay concert. He was using a wheelchair at the time (via Rolling Stone). Fox continues to deal with the effects of Parkinson’s disease and remains one of the most prominent figures in humanity’s search for a cure for the condition.
