Even with his struggle of Parkinson’s Disease, when he was diagnosed with it back in his 20s, he had received support of hise wife of 35 years, whenever he needed.
Michael was born in 9th of June, 1961, in Edmonton, Canada. Back in his childhood, he had moved around a lot, because his father was in the Canadian Armed Forces.
In the end, they had stopped in Burnaby, British Columbia, where he attended high school. And at there, he had took drama classes, which he proved that he would be a great actor as he is.
As with his teacher’s persuasion, he had took the part in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation series, Leo & Me.
As he continued to work for TV shows, he also pursued a career in theater. And later on, at the age of 17, he moved to Los Angeles, for a better acting career.
“I told him that I wanted to go to Los Angeles, I knew I wanted to go to the United States, I knew I wanted to be an actor. My father, I know, thought I was a hippie. He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘If you want to be a lumberjack, you might as well go to the forest.’ So he got me in the car and drove me to California,” Fox had explained the support he got from his parents.
While he was working at the set of, Family Ties, Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox had met, and after a few years, they had started their relationship.
As Michael J. Fox stated, “I developed a crush on her right away. When she left the show – the day she left the show, we were in the parking lot getting into our respective cars. She was getting into a rented Volkswagen, and I was getting into my Ferrari. And she called me over and said she wanted to play me a song. She played me a James Taylor song called That’s Why I’m Here, which was ostensibly about John Belushi. And one of the lines was, ‘John’s gone, found dead, died high. He’s brown bread, later said to have drowned in his bed. After the laughter, the wave of dread, it hits us like a ton of lead. That’s why we’re here,’”
“And I instantly knew what she meant,”
“She had only known me for a short time, but I was partying too hard. And I was really on a crash course to something bad happening. And as I got back in my Ferrari and got on my cellphone, and turned on my quadraphonic stereo, I realized she was right. I was going down the wrong road. And I ran into her a year later. She auditioned for a film I made called Bright Lights, Big City. And I said, how’s so-and-so, your boyfriend? And she said, ‘We’re not going out anymore.’ And I said, ‘You want to have lunch?’ And within two years, we were married.”
After their marriage in 1988, the couple had welcomed their son Sam Michael Fox, in 1989, and their twins Schuyler Frances and Aquinnah Kathleen in 1995, and their daughter, Esme Annabelle in 2001.
As he was happy with his life and his son, back in 1991, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 29. At the beginning, he had thought that he was struggling from a sports accident, as he was having problems with his pinky. But it turned out that the real reason was Parkinson’s.
“I had made my way shellshocked back to the apartment and met Tracy and told her, admittedly somewhat tearfully, this had been pronounced. And she didn’t blink. I could tell right away she was with me, and she was with me through whatever happened,”
“And, you know, what was tough about it was, with Parkinson’s, you don’t know what to expect because it was a twitching pinkie and a sore shoulder that brought me in there, and that was the basis of the diagnosis,”
“I had press, and media people at my heels. And besides, I just wanted to relax — as much as that doesn’t make sense with Parkinson’s — I wanted to just give myself a break and see what happened. So I did. And I told Barbara Walters and People magazine, and everybody in the world knew,” he stated recently.
“I shared with Gary – at that point, I was very comfortable. I could hide symptoms in a number of ways that I developed. So I felt confident that I could do it. And he said he would know – if I hadn’t told him, he wouldn’t have known that I had it. It was still very – I was a little stiffer, a little slower, a little less facial expression, but still a viable version of Michael Fox that could be put to work. And so we really began to do the show with confidence that I’d be OK. And I really was OK when I left the show,” he explained how he talked with creator of Spin City, Gary David Goldberg.
As in the website of Michael J. Fox Foundation written, “The assay, which targets a protein found in the nervous system called alpha-synuclein, can detect the disease in both people with Parkinson’s and individuals not yet diagnosed or exhibiting symptoms of the disease, but who are at a high risk of developing it.”
“I’m moved, humbled and blown away by this breakthrough, which is already transforming research and care, with enormous opportunity to grow from here,”
“I’m so grateful for the support of patients, families and researchers who are in it with us as we continue to kick down doors on the path to eradicating Parkinson’s once and for all.”
“I think we really listen to each other, we are there for each other when we need each other,”
“And then we also give each other space when that’s needed. Just feeling off of what’s needed at the moment and trying to be there.”
“Tracy gives our family everything that we need. Any good in our family, anything good that we do, comes from her.” he continued.
“I had spinal surgery. I had a tumor on my spine. And it was benign, but it messed up my walking,” he had stated.
“And then started to break stuff. Broke this arm, and I broke this arm; I broke this elbow. I broke my face. I broke my hand.”
“You got a stake in the (poker) game, you won’t last long, but you got a shot theoretically,” Fox concluded.
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