Michael J. Fox Earns Iconic Honorary Achievement Award From The Academy Awards

Jun 24, 2022

Michael J. Fox is a retired actor who first rose to fame playing Alex Keaton on the TV series "Family Ties." Fox starred on the show from 1982 to 1989 and became a household name during that time. In 1985, at the same time as he was filming "Family Ties," Fox filmed the hit movie "Back to the Future" at night while acting on the show during the day. 

Working twice as much in a day was exhausting, and Fox said at the time he was just trying to make it through the day. In December 2021, Fox shared that he had rewatched "Back to the Future," and his performance during that hectic time in his life was surprising to him.
In 1998, Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He continued to make movies and star in TV shows until 2014, when his series "The Michael J. Fox Show" ended. He officially retired from acting in 2020 due to his health issues. Throughout his career, Fox earned five Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. 

Since being diagnosed with Parkinson's, Fox has become an advocate for research and the development of a cure for the disease. In 2000 he founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research and therapies for people diagnosed with Parkinson's. For his work, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Karolinska Institute in 2010. 

In 2022, news broke that Fox would be honored again in a large and significant way. The Academy announced that he would be receiving the iconic Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The award is known as a very prestigious award in the entertainment industry. 

The Academy's President, David Rubin, said, "The Academy's Board of Governors is honored to recognize four individuals who have made indelible contributions to cinema and the world at large," in a statement released. "Michael J. Fox's tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson's disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions," the statement also said. 

The award ceremony is set for November 2022. The star's battle with Parkinson's has never been easy. In 2020, the star wrote a book called "No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality." In the book, he shared details about his life with Parkinson's and other challenges he has faced in his life. 

Speaking with NPR, Fox shared how his outlook as an optimist has changed over the past three decades since his diagnosis. He said: 

"That's the crux of the book, is that with Parkinson's, I kind of, after 30 years, had - have established kind of a detente - like, an agreement. It takes up the space it takes up - and then allowing that it gradually was increasing overtime in its dominance or its majority over my situation. But Parkinson's itself, I had figured it out. I'd found a way to let it take up the space it took up and to use the other space to drive in and to do other things and to live my life. And although it wasn't ideal, it was working."

Fox continued: "And in that, I gained a certain amount of optimism and comfort, and security and confidence because I was doing well. And then I had this accident with - when I had the spinal cord - I had a tumor on my spinal cord, had that operated on."

The actor added, "And it had to - I had to do it in order to avoid paralysis, which was certain without surgery."

After a bad fall, Fox was left with a broken arm that threw off his balance while walking. Because of this, his doctors suggested he have "around-the-clock aides." According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said in his memoir, "Counterintuitively, Parkinson's and the tumor on my spine were easier to accept than the broken arm. They had been there for years; stealthy and insidious, they crept up on me. The arm crisis was there in an instant, an explosion. A cataclysm."

Even though he is retired, Fox still looks back fondly at his incredible career. One milestone is certainly "Back to the Future." Fox shared, "Putting the lights on the tree, decorations on the tree, and my son was down and two of my daughters. I went to get something in the other room and it was on, (the) TV was on. It was 'Back to the Future,' it was right at the beginning, I think the car in the parking lot."

What a gift that Fox can look back at that time in his life and feel proud of what he accomplished. He said, "My performance in that movie was just trying to be alive… I was doing "Family Ties" in the daytime and "Back to the Future" at night. It was just this real experience. So I had this moment, now, wham, with all this stuff I had in my life, where I could sit and look at this kid and say, 'Wow, he did alright. He had a lot to deal with and he was dancing as fast as he could, but he fulfilled the role and did a good job.'"

We couldn't think of a more deserving person to receive such a prestigious award than Michael J. Fox! His life-long career as well as activism makes him more than worthy! Is there any other actor you would like to see honored in such a way? If you are inspired by this article— send it to someone who is a Michael J. Fox fan too!