Michael J. Fox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Michael J. Fox in his earlier days.

Michael J. Fox (born June 9, 1961) is a Canadian-born actor, made famous by his roles as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy and as Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties.

Born Michael Andrew Fox in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he adopted the J as a homage to character actor Michael J. Pollard. Since his father was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Michael and his family lived in various cities and towns across Canada including North Bay, Ontario, before finally settling in the Vancouver, British Columbia suburb of Burnaby after his father retired in 1971.

Notable roles include the Back to the Future movies, Mars Attacks!, Teen Wolf, and the TV series Family Ties and Spin City. He is the voice of Stuart Little in the series of movies based on the popular book by E. B. White, Chance in the Homeward Bound series, and Milo Thatch in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He also guest starred in the comedy Scrubs, rather poignantly, as a doctor suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Michael J. Fox testifying in the United States Congress.

Fox has also written an autobiographical book, called Lucky Man, about his experience of young-onset Parkinson's disease, with which he was diagnosed in 1991. Since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson’s disease research, especially stem cell research, which he believes may one day help sufferers of Parkinson's and other debilitating illnesses.

In 2000, he announced that he would be retiring from the lead role of Spin City due to his illness. (A new lead character would be created for Fox's replacement, Charlie Sheen.)

In 2003, he wrote a pilot episode for a sitcom series entitled Hench at Home, but a full series was not produced.

Fox married actress Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988. The couple has four children.