Michael J. Fox Opens Up About Being Broke At Start Of Career & ‘Dumpster Diving For Food’

May 16, 2023

Michael J. Fox, 61, is a revered actor whose work goes back to the late 1970s. He rose to fame with his role on “Family Ties” before becoming a bonafide icon of the ’80s in the wildly popular “Back to the Future” film franchise.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at the age of 29 but only went public with the diagnosis seven years later. Acting took a backseat as his condition worsened, but he continued to take on roles every so often. He appeared on the small screen in shows such as “Scrubs,” “Boston Legal,” “Designated Survivor,” “The Good Wife,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Rescue Me” – even bagging an Emmy win for the latter in 2009. He even starred in his own short-lived sitcom, the “Michael J. Fox Show,” from 2013 to 2014. He officially retired from acting in 2021 due to his health issues. 

Over the course of his career, Fox has won numerous awards, including Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2022, Fox was awarded an honorary Oscar. 

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.  

Fox has endured a lot throughout his life, and much of it has now been detailed in the Apple+ documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” released in May 2023. While it does delve into Fox’s battle with Parkinson’s, it also sheds light on his early days as a rising star in Hollywood.

In 1998, rather than retreating from the public eye, Fox courageously decided to share his diagnosis with the world. Ahead of the release of “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” he told Variety: 

“I went online and initially I thought, ‘What have I done? My life is ruined, and I have little kids who are going to read this stuff.’ The New York tabloids had headlines about how my life was over.”

While his decision to become an advocate for Parkinson’s research and raise awareness about the disease was met with admiration and respect, that didn’t mean the day-to-day challenges of living with the disease got any easier. 

“I have aides around me quite a bit of the time in case I fall, and that lack of privacy is hard to deal with. … I lost freedom, I lost health. I hesitate to use the term’ depression,’ because I’m not qualified to diagnose myself, but all the signs were there,” he recalled.

The 61-year-old cited one thing for pulling him out of his funk. “My family,” Fox said. “My family pulled me out.” Fox has been married to actress Tracy Pollan since 1988, and the couple share four children.

He said despite his health challenges, he was adamant about never taking his blessings for granted.

“I’m still happy to join the day and be a part of things. I just enjoy the little math problems of existence. I love waking up and figuring that stuff out and at the same time being with my family. My problem is I fall down. I trip over things and fall down and break things. And that’s part of having this. But I hope that, and I feel that, I won’t break as many bones tomorrow. So that’s being optimistic,” he told the publication.

With his boyish charm and good looks, it hardly comes as a surprise that Fox became as wildly popular as he did in the ’80s and ’90s. However, the “Teen Wolf” star said he didn’t quite get the reception he was expecting early on in his career. He told Variety he discovered he had a talent for performing after participating in school plays as a way to meet girls. He then dropped out of high school and packed his bags for Hollywood.

“I knew I was more talented than a lot of people. And I knew that if I wanted to be someone, I couldn’t just sit on my parents’ porch and think, ‘Boy, if I was only born in the States and my parents had money and weren’t living paycheck to paycheck, I could do something with my life,’” he said.

Despite the overwhelming confidence in himself, times were hard for the young actor financially. He said at the start, he was “living on the margins. I was 18 years old, with no money, no connections, literally dumpster diving for food.”

Among his many failed auditions was one for “Ordinary People,” in which he recounted Robert Redford flossing his teeth while he read for the role. However, he kept at it knowing deep down that he was going to reach his goal one day. He said:

“I was sitting around with all these actors, and I remember thinking, ‘Why is this going to work for me and not for them?’ It’s not that I wished them unhappiness or bad luck — I wished them all the success in the world. But I knew I was going to make it. God knows why.” 

What are your thoughts on Michael J. Fox’s troubled start in Hollywood? Are you a fan of his films? Let us know and be sure to pass this on to friends and family, too.