Michael J. Fox’s Life Is Not a ‘Sad-Sack Story’: ‘That’s Boring’
In 1998, Michael J. Fox publicly disclosed his Parkinson’s diagnosis for the first time, shocking his millions of fans.
At the time, he was starring on one of the biggest hits on TV, Spin City, which heralded a new, triumphant phase of the career of the beloved and successful star. He was also so young, at just 37. But part of the revelation was that Fox had actually received his diagnosis seven years prior, when he was only 29. Twenty-nine-year-old movie stars aren’t supposed to be battling a progressive disorder so often associated with the elderly. There was a palpable air of public grief that followed the headline-making astonishment.
In the nearly three decades since, Fox has become an activist and an open book, continuing his acting career in between his groundbreaking work lobbying for Parkinson’s research, especially with his Michael J. Fox Foundation.