Michael J. Fox OC | |
|---|---|
 Fox at the Lotusphere in 2012 | |
| Born |
Michael Andrew Fox June 9, 1961 |
| Citizenship | Canada, United States[1] |
| Occupation | Actor, author, producer, activist |
| Years active | 1973–2020 |
| Height | Template:Infobox person/height |
| Spouse(s) | Tracy Pollan (m.1988) |
| Children | 4 |
_(2).jpg){kind=link}
Michael Andrew Fox, OC (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor, author, film producer, and activist.[1] Beginning his career in the 1970s, he first rose to prominence for portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). Fox achieved further recognition as protagonist Marty McFly in the Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–1990). The trilogy's critical and commercial success led to Fox headlining several films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Teen Wolf (1985), The Secret of My Success (1987), Casualties of War (1989), and The Frighteners (1996). He returned to television on the ABC sitcom Spin City, where he portrayed the lead role of Mike Flaherty from 1996 to 2000.
In 1998, Fox publicly disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease seven years earlier. Fox subsequently became an advocate for research toward finding a cure and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research. Although the disease's worsening symptoms forced Fox to have a less active career, he continued to make guest appearances on television, including recurring roles on the FX comedy-drama Rescue Me (2009) and the CBS legal drama The Good Wife (2010–2016) that garnered him critical acclaim. He also worked in voice-over, voicing the title character in the Stuart Little films (1999–2005) and the lead of the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). His final major role was on the NBC sitcom The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–2014). Fox retired from acting in 2020 due to his declining health.[3]
During his career, Fox has won five Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010, along with being inducted to Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. For his work advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease, he received an honorary doctorate in 2010 from the Karolinska Institute.
Early life[]
Michael Andrew Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on 9 June 1961 to Phyllis (née Piper), an actress and payroll clerk, and William Fox, a police officer and Canadian Forces member. He is of Irish, English and Scottish descent.[4][5][6] His family lived in various cities and towns across Canada because of his father's career.[4] They finally moved to Burnaby, a large suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, when his father retired in 1971. His father died on January 6, 1990 from a heart attack.[7] Fox attended Burnaby Central Secondary School, and now has a theatre named for him at Burnaby South Secondary.[8] At age 15, Fox starred in the Canadian television series Leo and Me, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and in 1979, at age 18, he moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career. Shortly after his marriage, he moved back to Vancouver.[4]
Fox was discovered by producer Ronald Shedlo and made his American television debut in the television film Letters from Frank, credited under the name "Michael Fox." He intended to continue to use the name, but when he registered with the Screen Actors Guild, which requires unique registration names to avoid credit ambiguities (and the possibility that royalty checks would be sent to the wrong actors), he discovered that Michael Fox, a veteran character actor, was already registered under the name.[4] As he explained in his autobiography, Lucky Man: A Memoir and in interviews, he needed to come up with a different name. He did not like the sound of "Michael A. Fox" during a time when "fox" meant "attractive" and because his "A" sounded too much like the Canadian "eh?" Fox disliked the sound of "Andrew" or "Andy," so he decided to use a different middle initial and settled on "J," as a tribute to actor Michael J. Pollard.[7]
Acting career[]
Early career[]
Fox's first feature film roles were Midnight Madness (1980) and Class of 1984 (1982), credited in both as Michael Fox. Shortly afterward, he began playing "Young Republican" Alex P. Keaton in the show Family Ties, which aired on NBC for seven seasons from 1982–89. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon in April 2014, Fox stated he negotiated the role at a payphone at Pioneer Chicken. He received the role only after Matthew Broderick was unavailable. Family Ties had been sold to the television network using the pitch "Hip parents, square kids", with the parents originally intended to be the main characters. However, the positive reaction to Fox's performance led to his character becoming the focus of the show following the fourth episode. At its peak, the audience for Family Ties drew one-third of America's households every week. Fox won three Emmy awards for Family Ties in 1986, 1987, and 1988. He also won a Golden Globe Award in 1989.
Brandon Tartikoff, one of the show's producers, felt that Fox was too short in relation to the actors playing his parents, and tried to have him replaced. Tartikoff reportedly said that "this is not the kind of face you'll ever find on a lunch-box." After his later successes, Fox presented Tartikoff with a custom-made lunch-box with the inscription "To Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox." Tartikoff kept the lunch-box in his office for the rest of his NBC career.
While filming Family Ties, Fox met his wife Tracy Pollan, who portrayed his girlfriend, Ellen. When Fox left the TV series Spin City, his final episodes made numerous allusions to Family Ties: Michael Gross (who played Alex's father Steven) portrays Mike Flaherty's (Fox's character's) therapist, and there is a reference to an off-screen character named "Mallory". Also, when Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he meets a conservative senator from Ohio named Alex P. Keaton, and in one episode Meredith Baxter played Mike's mother.
As a result of working on Family Ties, as well as his acting in Teen Wolf and Back to the Future, Fox became a teen idol. The VH1 television series The Greatestlater named him among their "50 Greatest Teen Idols."
Film career[]
In January 1985, Fox was cast to replace Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time from 1985 to 1955 in Back to the Future. Director Robert Zemeckis originally wanted Fox to play Marty, but Gary David Goldberg the creator of Family Ties, which Fox was working on at the time, refused to allow Zemeckis even to approach Fox as he felt that as Meredith Baxter was on maternity leave at the time, Fox's character Alex Keaton was needed to carry the show in her absence. Eric Stoltz was cast and was already filming Back to the Future, but Zemeckis felt that Stoltz was not giving the right type of performance for the humor involved. Zemeckis quickly replaced Stoltz with Fox, whose schedule was now more open with the return of Meredith Baxter. He was considered for the role of Mark Kendall in Once Bitten, but it eventually went to Jim Carrey. During filming, Fox rehearsed for Family Ties from 10 a.m to 6 p.m, then rushed to the Back to the Future set where he would rehearse and shoot until 2:30 a.m. This schedule lasted for two full months. Back to the Future was both a commercial and critical success. The film spent 8 consecutive weekends as the number-one grossing movie at the US box office in 1985, and eventually earned a worldwide total of $381.11 million. Variety applauded the performances, opining that Fox and his co-star Christopher Lloyd imbued Marty and Doc Brown's friendship with a quality reminiscent of King Arthur and Merlin. The film was followed by two successful sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990).
During and immediately after the Back to the Future trilogy, Fox starred in Teen Wolf (1985), Light of Day (1987), The Secret of My Success (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), and Casualties of War (1989).
In The Secret of My Success, Fox played a recent graduate from Kansas State University who moves to New York City, where he has to deal with the ups and downs of the business world. The film was successful at the box office, grossing $110 million worldwide. Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun Times wrote; "Fox provides a fairly desperate center for the film. It could not have been much fun for him to follow the movie's arbitrary shifts of mood, from sitcom to slapstick, from sex farce to boardroom brawls."
In Bright Lights, Big City, Fox played a fact-checker for a New York magazine, who spends his nights partying with alcohol and drugs. The film received mixed reviews, with Hal Hinson in The Washington Post criticizing Fox by claiming that "he was the wrong actor for the job". Meanwhile, Roger Ebert praised the actor's performance: "Fox is very good in the central role (he has a long drunken monologue that is the best thing he has ever done in a movie)". During the shooting of Bright Lights, Big City, Fox co-starred again with Tracy Pollan, his on-screen girlfriend from Family Ties.
Fox then starred in Casualties of War, a dark and violent war drama about the Vietnam War, alongside Sean Penn. Casualties of War was not a major box office hit, but Fox, playing a private serving in Vietnam, was praised for his performance. Don Willmott wrote: "Fox, only one year beyond his Family Ties sitcom silliness, rises to the challenges of acting as the film's moral voice and sharing scenes with the always intimidating Penn."
In 1991, he starred in Doc Hollywood, a romantic comedy about a talented medical doctor who decides to become a plastic surgeon. While moving from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, he winds up as a doctor in a small southern town in South Carolina. Michael Caton-Jones, from Time Out, described Fox in the film as "at his frenetic best". The Hard Way was also released in 1991, with Fox playing an undercover actor learning from police officer James Woods. After being privately diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 and being cautioned he had "ten good working years left", Fox hastily signed a three-film contract, appearing in For Love or Money (1993), Life With Mikey (1993), and Greedy (1994). The mid-1990s saw Fox play smaller supporting roles in The American President (1995) and Mars Attacks! (1996).
His last major film role was in The Frighteners (1996), directed by Peter Jackson. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he uses his new abilities by cheating customers out of money for his "ghost hunting" business. However, a mass murderer comes back from Hell, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence. Fox's performance received critical praise, Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times wrote; "The film's actors are equally pleasing. Both Fox, in his most successful starring role in some time, and [Trini] Alvarado, who looks rather like Andie MacDowell here, have no difficulty getting into the manic spirit of things."
He voiced the American Bulldog Chance in Disney's live-action film Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and its sequel Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, the titular character in Stuart Little and its two sequels Stuart Little 2 and Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild, and Milo Thatch in Disney's animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Later career[]
Spin City ran from 1996 to 2002 on American television network ABC. The show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, originally starring Fox as Mike Flaherty, a Fordham Law School graduate serving as the Deputy Mayor of New York. Fox won an Emmy award for Spin City in 2000, three Golden Globe Awards in 1998, 1999, and 2000, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1999 and 2000. During the third season of Spin City, Fox made the announcement to the cast and crew of the show that he had Parkinson's disease. During the fourth season, he announced his retirement from the show. He announced that he planned to continue to act and would make guest appearances on Spin City (he made three more appearances on the show during the final season). After leaving the show, he was replaced by Charlie Sheen, who portrayed the character Charlie Crawford. Altogether, 145 episodes were produced. Fox also served as an executive producer during his time on the show, alongside co-creators Bill Lawrence and Gary David Goldberg.
In 2004, Fox guest starred in two episodes of the comedy-drama Scrubs as Dr. Kevin Casey, a surgeon with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. The series was created by Spin City creator Bill Lawrence. In 2006, he appeared in four episodes of Boston Legal as a lung cancer patient. The producers brought him back in a recurring role for season three, beginning with the season premiere. Fox was nominated for an Emmy Award for best guest appearance.
In 2009, he appeared in five episodes of the television series Rescue Me which earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Since 2000 Fox has released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002), Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned(2010). Starting in 2010, Fox played a recurring role in the US drama The Good Wife as crafty attorney Louis Canning and earned Emmy nominations for three consecutive years. In 2011, Fox was featured as himself in the eighth season of the Larry David vehicle, Curb Your Enthusiasm. David's character (also himself) becomes a temporary resident of the New York City apartment building that Fox resides in and a conflict arises between the two, whereby David believes that Fox is using his condition (Parkinson's disease) as a manipulative tool. On August 20, 2012, NBC announced The Michael J. Fox Show, loosely based on his life. It was granted a 22-episode commitment from the network and premiered on NBC on September 26, 2013.
Fox also made several appearances in other media. At the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he delivered comedy monologues, along with William Shatner and Catherine O'Hara, in the "I am Canadian" part of the show. Along with Tatjana Patitz, Fox appears in the 2011 Carl Zeiss AG calendar, photographed by Bryan Adams in New York City in the summer of 2010.
Despite a sound-alike, A.J Locascio, voicing his character of Marty McFly in the 2011 Back to the Future episodic adventure game, Fox lent his likeness to the in-game version of Marty alongside Christopher Lloyd. Fox made a special guest appearance in the final episode of the series as an elder version of Marty, as well as his great-grandfather Willie McFly. In 2018, Fox was cast in the recurring role of Ethan West on the second season of the ABC political drama Designated Survivor.
Filmography[]
Film[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Midnight Madness | Scott Larson | |
| 1982 | Class of 1984 | Arthur | |
| 1985 | Back to the Future | Marty McFly | |
| 1985 | Teen Wolf | Scott Howard | |
| 1987 | Light of Day | Joe Rasnick | |
| 1987 | The Secret of My Success | Brantley Foster | |
| 1988 | Bright Lights, Big City | Jamie Conway | |
| 1989 | Casualties of War | PFC. Max Eriksson | |
| 1989 | Back to the Future Part II | Marty McFly / Marty McFly Jr / Marlene McFly | |
| 1990 | Back to the Future Part III | Marty McFly / Seamus McFly | |
| 1991 | The Hard Way | Nick "Nicky" Lang | |
| 1991 | Doc Hollywood | Dr. Benjamin "Ben" Stone | |
| 1993 | Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey | Chance (voice) | |
| 1993 | Life with Mikey | Michael "Mikey" Chapman | |
| 1993 | For Love or Money | Doug Ireland | |
| 1994 | Where the Rivers Flow North | Clayton Farnsworth | |
| 1994 | Greedy | Daniel "Danny" McTeague | |
| 1995 | Coldblooded | Tim Alexander | |
| 1995 | Blue in the Face | Pete Maloney | |
| 1995 | The American President | Lewis Rothschild | |
| 1996 | Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco | Chance (voice) | |
| 1996 | The Frighteners | Frank Bannister | |
| 1996 | Mars Attacks! | Jason Stone | |
| 1999 | Stuart Little | Stuart Little (voice) | |
| 2001 | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Milo James Thatch (voice) | |
| 2002 | Interstate 60 | Mr. Baker | Cameo |
| 2002 | Stuart Little 2 | Stuart Little (voice) | |
| 2005 | Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild | Stuart Little (voice) | Direct-to-DVD |
| 2013 | Drew: The Man Behind the Poster | Himself | Documentary |
| 2014 | Annie | Himself | Cameo |
| 2015 | Being Canadian | Himself | Documentary |
| 2015 | Back in Time | Himself | Documentary |
| 2015 | Mr Calzaghe | Himself | Documentary |
| 2016 | A.R.C.H.I.E. | A.R.C.H.I.E. (voice) | |
| 2018 | A.R.C.H.I.E. 2 | A.R.C.H.I.E (voice) | |
| 2019 | See You Yesterday | Mr. Lockhart |
Television[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | The Magic Lie | Nicky | Episode: "The Master" |
| 1979 | Letters from Frank | Ricky | Television film |
| 1979 | Lou Grant | Paul Stone | Episode: "Kids" |
| 1980–1981 | Palmerstown, U.S.A. | Willy-Joe Hall | 11 episodes |
| 1980 | Family | Richard Topol | Episode: "Such a Fine Line" |
| 1980 | Here's Boomer | Jackie | Episode: "Tell 'Em Boomer Sent You" |
| 1980 | Trapper John, M.D. | Elliot Schweitzer | Episode: "Brain Child" |
| 1981 | Leo and Me | Jamie | Television film |
| 1982 | Teachers Only | Jeff | Episode: "The Make Up Test" |
| 1982–1989 | Family Ties | Alex P. Keaton | 176 episodes |
| 1983 | The Love Boat | Jimmy | Episode: "I Like to Be in America" |
| 1983 | High School U.S.A. | Jay-Jay Manners | Television film |
| 1983–1984 | The $25,000 Pyramid | Himself | 30 episodes |
| 1984 | Night Court | Eddie Simms | Episode: "Santa Goes Downtown" |
| 1984 | The Homemade Comedy Special | Host | Television special |
| 1984 | Don't Ask Me, Ask God | Future Son | Television special |
| 1985 | Family Ties Vacation | Alex P. Keaton | Television film |
| 1985 | Poison Ivy | Dennis Baxter | Television film |
| 1987 | Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam | Pfc. Raymond Griffiths (voice) | Television documentary film |
| 1990 | Sex, Buys, & Advertising | Himself | Television special |
| 1991 | Saturday Night Live | Host | Episode: "Michael J. Fox/The Black Crowes" |
| 1991 | Tales from the Crypt | Prosecutor | Also director Episode: "The Trap" |
| 1992 | Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories | Narrator | Episode: "There's a Nightmare in My Closet" |
| 1994 | Don't Drink the Water | Axel Magee | Television film |
| 1996–2000, 2001 | Spin City | Mike Flaherty | 103 episodes |
| 1997 | The Chris Rock Show | Himself | Episode: "Jesse Jackson/Rakim"; Uncredited |
| 2002 | Clone High | Gandhi's Remaining Kidney (voice) | Episode: "Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand" |
| 2004 | Scrubs | Dr. Kevin Casey | 2 episodes |
| 2005 | Saving Milly | Himself | Television film; Uncredited |
| 2006 | Boston Legal | Daniel Post | 6 episodes |
| 2009 | Rescue Me | Dwight | 5 episodes |
| 2009 | The Magic 7 | Marcel Maggot (voice) | Television film |
| 2010–2016 | The Good Wife | Louis Canning | 26 episodes |
| 2011 | Phineas and Ferb | Michael (voice) | Episode: "The Curse of Candace" |
| 2011, 2017 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Himself | 2 episodes |
| 2013–2014 | The Michael J. Fox Show | Mike Henry | 22 episodes |
| 2016 | Nightcap | Himself | Episode: "The Cannon" |
| 2018 | Designated Survivor | Ethan West | 5 episodes |
| 2019 | Corner Gas Animated | Himself (voice) | Episode: "Dream Waiver" |
Video games[]
| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Back to the Future: The Game | William McFly, Future Marty McFly | Episode: "Outatime" |
| 2015 | Lego Dimensions | Marty McFly |
Director[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The Iceman Hummeth | None | Also writer; Short film |
| 1991 | Tales From The Crypt | Prosecutor | Episode: "The Trap" |
| 1992 | Brooklyn Bridge | None | Episode: "Rainy Day" |
Producer[]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Coldblooded | Producer |
| 1996–2000 | Spin City | Executive producer |
| 1999 | Anna Says | Executive producer |
| 2002 | Otherwise Engaged | Executive producer |
| 2003 | Hench at Home | Executive producer |
| 2013–2014 | The Michael J. Fox Show | Executive producer |
Awards and nominations[]
Honors[]
- 2000: Honored by the Family Television Awards for Acting.
- 2000: Inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, located in Toronto, Ontario, that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of successful Canadians.
- 2002, December 16: Received the 2209th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution of Motion Picture presented to him by the Chamber of Commerce.
- 2011: Honored with the Golden Camera Award for Lifetime Achievement – International.
- 2010: Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada – Officer O.C. recognizes national service or achievement.
- 2013: Honored with the Golden Apple Award by the Casting Society of America.
- 2013: Inducted into the Actors OFTA Television Hall of Fame by the Online Film & Television Association.
Accolades[]
Books[]
- Fox, Michael J. (2002). Lucky Man: A Memoir. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6764-6.
- Fox, Michael J. (2009). Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-0338-9.
- Fox, Michael J. (2010). A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-2386-8.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Template:Cite news
- ↑ Michael J. Fox Biography: Producer (1961–). Biography.com.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Michael J. Fox Biography. The Michael J Fox Foundation.
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