Michael J. Fox Is ‘Proud’ Of His Lookalike Son And Shared Pictures After His Health Confession

Dec 08, 2023 by apost team

Few actors are as well-known and well-liked as Michael J. Fox. The legendary actor is also an author, producer and activist. He is best known for his role as Marty McFly in the hugely popular film series “Back to the Future.” He was also the star of the television series “Family Ties” for seven seasons from 1982 to 1989. Michael is Canadian-American and holds dual citizenship.

Michael is also a philanthropist and has started his own charity, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has earned over a billion dollars to fund research to help cure Parkinson’s disease. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 at the age of 29 and spoke publicly about the disorder for the first time in 1998. At the time, he was appearing in the series “Spin City,” but he later decided to stop filming to focus on his health. 

Despite his diagnosis, Fox has grown both professionally and personally. He has been married to Tracy Pollan, his “Family Ties” co-star, since 1988, and the couple has four kids: Sam, who is 34; twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, who are 28; and Esme, who is 21. Michael has been a devoted father and husband and speaks very highly of his loved ones in all four of his memoirs. 

Michael is best known for his iconic 1980s movie roles that took him back to the future and turned him into a teenage werewolf. But this ’80s star, who we all might still imagine as a teenager, now has a son who is all grown up and looks exactly like his famous father. The two have shared an extraordinary bond, considering he is the only son of the veteran actor. Read on to learn more about Fox, Sam, and the actor’s health condition. 

Michael was born Michael Andrew Fox on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His mother is Phyllis Piper, a retired actress and payroll clerk, and his father was William Fox, a police officer and Canadian Forces member. Michael told Inside the Actor’s Studio that he got his interest in acting from his mother. He is of English, Irish and Scottish heritage.

Michael’s family moved around often due to his father’s career. After his father retired in 1971, the family moved to Burnaby, which is a large suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. According to Michael’s biography on his foundation website, his father died from a heart attack on Jan. 6, 1990, just a few days before Michael’s birthday. 

Michael graduated from Burnaby Central Secondary School and now has a theater named after him at Burnaby South Secondary. When he was 15, Michael starred in the Canadian TV series “Leo and Me.” At age 18, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time. He gained the attention of producer Ronald Shedlo, who helped Michael make his American TV debut.

Michael got his first big break in the industry after he appeared in the American television film “Letters from Frank.” It was after this movie that Michael went to register with the Screen Actors Guild and discovered that his name was already registered to another person named Michael Fox. According to his memoir “Lucky Man,” Michael did not like the sound of his middle initial, A for Andrew, so he decided to change it and go by Michael J. Fox professionally. This was a nod to fellow actor Michael J. Pollard, who was famous in the 1960s and ’70s.

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According to Biography.com, Michael first came to fame with his starring role on the hit 1982 TV show “Family Ties,” where he played Alex P. Keaton, the slightly uptight, conservative, ambitious son who often argued with his ex-hippie, liberal parents. His performance was so outstanding he earned multiple Emmy Awards during his stint on the show. He also won a Golden Globe award for the role in 1989. Slate reported that “Family Ties” was President Ronald Reagan’s favorite show. 

In 1985, Michael starred in the major blockbuster “Back to the Future,” where he played Marty McFly, that wayward time traveler who almost erased himself from existence. For scheduling reasons, Michael filmed the movie and the show “Family Ties” at the same time. 

Michael spoke to The Guardian about the experience and his relationship with castmate Christopher Lloyd. “We were both so focused on what we were doing, and I was also making ‘Family Ties’ at the same time, so we didn’t really hang out. But we became close after the movies, and now we’re really tight,” Michael said. 

Fox also starred in several other hit films, including “Teen Wolf,” where, yes, he played a teenager who turns into a werewolf, and in “The Secret of My Success” which is a comedy about a young man who pretends to be a big business executive. After this, more “Back to the Future” movies followed, all of which were box office smashes.

The success of “Back to the Future” was life-changing. Michael had become a household name before reaching the age of 30. He told Deadline in 2019: “We couldn’t believe it worked out so well. Now that I’m 57, It’s like I had been in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” 

Michael mentioned in the same interview that a few of his castmates from the show “Leo and Me” also developed early-onset Parkinson’s, but there is not enough evidence to prove any cause. Michael said that since there are only four people from the show who developed the disorder, there is not enough to claim a “cluster,” so no research has been done.

In 1999, Michael gave testimony before the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee to advocate for Parkinson’s research. In his memoir “Lucky Man,” Michael explained: “I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling.”

Throughout his battle with Parkinson’s, Michael has stayed incredibly positive. He said about the experience: “Some of those changes are hard. But as limited as I am in some regards, if you’d told me when I was diagnosed that I’d have this life now and do the things that I do, I’d have said, ‘I’ll take it.’ I can move around – it takes some planning, but I can move. I can think, I can communicate and I can express affection. What else do you want?”

He continued: “When I broke my arm, it was relatively minor, but that was the thing that destroyed me. I thought, what further indignity do I have to suffer? What have I done? Maybe I was wrong to think I couldn’t complain before, maybe optimism doesn’t work. Then I came to a place of gratitude. Finding something to be grateful for is what it’s about.”

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Fox said he feels humbled to start a game-changing opportunity to help find a cure for Parkinson’s.

“For so long, the patients were the neglected part of the process and it happens in all kinds of disease studies and disease research, that they tend to hurry past the patient to try to find the answer,” he said.

In an interview with NPR, he also recalled what he felt following his diagnosis.  

“It was shocking when I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed completely out of the blue, unexpectedly,” he said.

Then again, he knew he had his wife’s back the moment he told her about his condition.

“And 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,” he said.

Over the years, Fox has continued to dismiss the stigma that comes with Parkinson’s disease, saying it’s more than what people can see on the outside.  

“People often think of Parkinson’s as a visual thing, but the visuals of it are nothing. On any given day, my hands could be barely shaking or they could be,” he told AARP in an interview in 2021. “It’s what you can’t see — the lack of an inner gyroscope, of a sense of balance, of peripheral perception. I mean, I’m sailing a ship on stormy seas on the brightest of days,” he added.

In an interview with People Magazine in October 2022, he admitted it worsened over the previous two years. Fox went on to share how the situations he had been in recently – including injuries – affected his happy attitude.  

“I was never really a cranky guy, but I got very cranky and short with people,” he said. “I try to nip it in the bud. I always think of these aides who work with me. And I often say to them, ‘Whatever I say, just imagine I said “please” at the beginning and “thank you” at the end. Just take a second and absorb that I might have said that if I was more myself, but I didn’t, so I apologize.’”

Fox also elaborated on his grueling journey in the Apple TV+ documentary “Still,” which was released in May 2023. According to reports, Fox revealed in the film that he is in “intense pain” as “each tremor is like a seismic jolt.”

Fox also told The Los Angeles Times that the pain was not caused by the movement but the lack thereof. 

“It’s when you freeze, and in that freezing that not-movement becomes infused with all this energy and it becomes this burning, impending thing that never happens,” he added. “I don’t want to get the violins out. I’ve broken my hand, my elbow, my humerus, my other humerus, my shoulder, my face and some other s— too. And all that stuff is amplified by the electricity of the tremors. So, yes, it hurts a lot. But what you learn is that nobody gives a s—. It’s just life. It doesn’t matter. You suck it up and you move on.”

Despite this, Michael has chosen to live life to the fullest. He shares four beautiful children with his wife, Tracy. Although we’re sure that Michael loves all his kids equally and is proud of them, one kid stands out due to the fact that he looks almost identical to his famous father. Sam Michael Fox, who is just about the mirror image of his father, has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.

However, he was chosen to serve as “Mr. Golden Globes” at the 70th Golden Globe Awards alongside Francesca Eastwood, the daughter of Clint Eastwood, who served as “Miss Golden Globes.” These roles are usually filled by the kids of famous actors and actresses who have a desire for the spotlight, just like their parents. According to IMDB, Sam also graduated from Stanford University in 2012, which means he’s probably as smart as his dad, too!

Michael’s children just see him as their dad instead of an international superstar. After he tried to tell his children that he used to be a teen heartthrob, they did not believe him, except Sam. Michael told The Guardian: “‘Thirty years ago, that was me!’ What did they do? They would roll their eyes. But my son, Sam, he gets it. He knows all about filmmakers and films, so he really understands my career.” 

Michael got the chance to spend plenty of quality time with his family during quarantine. “We were always linger-after-dinner people anyway, and now we were lingering and talking about what people were going through. Doing jigsaws, Tracy cooking up a storm, everyone there, these wonderful children and this great wife,” he added.

Michael’s love for Sam was on full display when he wished his only son a happy birthday via social media on May 30, 2023. Sam turned 34, and his father celebrated him by sharing a series of images of the pair alongside the heartwarming caption:

“Happy Birthday to my big bouncing baby boy @palekidd you are the best. Proud to be your pops. Love you!”

The post was tagged in Vancouver, British Columbia, and featured an image of Sam blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, as well as two photos of father and son in front of a beautiful waterfall as Michael embraced and kissed Sam.

Fans in the comment section couldn’t help but gush about their relationship. Many of them pointed out how much they look alike as Sam continues to grow. 

“Actually he looks just like his daddy. And he’s gorgeous,” a fan wrote. 

“Gosh, he looks SO much like you at that age!” another fan echoed.

“Such a mini you Sam is❤️Happy Birthday,” a fan said. 

“Never realized how much he looks like you until now!” a fourth person chimed in. 

Meanwhile, Pollan didn’t miss out on sharing the birthday love for her only son either. She shared a series of photos, including one of Sam riding a horse and multiple shots of her and Sam on a boat. She wrote:

“Happy Birthday to the absolute best son ever! You fill my life with so much joy, humor, kindness, and random information that I never knew! I love you!”

For Sam’s 33rd birthday in 2022, Michael shared an adorable throwback photo of his son donning an ice hockey uniform with the caption:

“Happy 33rd, Sammy. Unlike hockey player’s teeth, yours grew back. Love you, buddy. Happy happy. I’m proud to be your Pops.”

Are you a fan of Michael J. Fox? Do you agree with other fans that he and Sam look alike? What can you say about his health confession? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends, and other Michael J. Fox fans out there!