He lived on the margins and ate food from dumpsters – yet he managed to become an iconic actor and a father of 4 heirs

Life hasn’t been easy for Michael J. Fox of late.

The much-loved actor has been locked in a battle with Parkinson’s disease for many decades now, and as one can imagine, that’s not a fight that gets easier with time.

But did you know that Michael’s childhood was quite tough – and he faced significant challenges when trying to break through in Hollywood.

Overall, Michael J. Fox’s life has been a great success – even though his Parkinson’s Disease has taken its toll on him.

First of all, Michael’s upbringing was pretty unusual.

Born on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, Canada, he grew up with a father who worked in the Canadian Armed Forces, and therefore, the family moved around a lot.

Michael’s mom was a payroll clerk, so she had a steady job – but Michael grew upp in a typical blue-collar home. Finally, the family settled in Burnaby, British Columbia, and Michael J. Fox found his passion for acting in junior high.

He joined the Drama division at school, and it was evident he was a talented actor. Per his website, his theater teacher encouraged him to audition for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation series, Leo & Me, and Fox got the part.

He got several roles on television and, at the same time, worked at the local theater in Vancouver. Michael J. Fox had decided that acting was his call in life at that point. At the age of 17, he packed his bags to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles.

“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.

Fox dropped out of high school, and his parents always supported his big dreams. His father even drove him all the way to Los Angeles. Speaking on LIVE with Kelly and Mark recently, Fox said he still doesn’t know how he convinced his father to do it.

Instagram / Michael J Fox

“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,” Michael J. Fox recalled.

Making it big in Tinseltown, though, was easier said than done. Michael didn’t have the best starting point; he came from a working-class family and didn’t have much wealth to his name.

“I was living on the margins. I was 18 years old, with no money, no connections, literally dumpster diving for food,” he told Variety in 2023.

Fox fulfilled his dream of becoming an actor, and after only a few years, he got one of his most memorable roles. He was cast as Alex P. Keaton on the comedy series Family Ties, which became one of the biggest comedy series on television.

Not long afterward, he landed other parts, including his legendary role as Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

In 2022, he revealed his mother never supported him taking on the role in Back to the Future. And it seems like she had good reason not to support it either.

When he got the role, he was already working during the day on Family Ties. He revealed when he told his mother about the role in the movie, she advised against it. The actor recalled their exchange, “I was 23 years old, and I called her, she was in Canada, and I said, ‘They want me to do this Steven Spielberg movie, but I have to do it at night and I have to do Family Ties in the daytime.’ And she said, ‘You’ll be too tired.’”

But he went on to admit that his mother might have been right, he said, “I live for this kind of tired. It’ll be okay,” he had said to his mom, “To this day — well, till two weeks ago — my mother thought it was a really bad idea for me to do Back to the Future. She loved the movie, [but she was right], I got tired.”

On the set of Family Ties, he met Tracy Pollan. They were cast as each other’s love interests on the show. Sparks were only on-screen at the time, but a few years later, they’d reunite and fall in love.

Even so, Michael J. Fox already had a crush on Tracy while working on Family Ties.

“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,’” Fox recalled in an interview with NPR.

Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan tied the knot in 1988. They welcomed four children: Sam Michael Fox (born in 1989), twins Schuyler Frances and Aquinnah Kathleen (1995), and Esmé Annabelle (2001).

By the way, did you know that Michael Fox didn’t initially have the “J” in his name? Once in Hollywood, he attempted to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the labor union for film and television workers worldwide. However, when applying, he saw that there was another member named “Michael Fox.” Therefore, Fox added a middle initial to his name, choosing “J” as an homage to his favorite actor, Michael J. Pollard.

Michael J. Fox, holding hands with his wife, Tracy Pollan, and his son, Sam, at the Kids for Kids benefit. (Photo by Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Michael J. Fox officially retired from acting in 2020 at 60 years old and having just starred as Louis Canning in CBS’s legal drama “The Good Fight”, a spin-off to “The Good Wife” where his character first appeared.

“I reached the point where I couldn’t rely on my ability to speak on any given day, which meant I couldn’t act comfortably at all anymore. So, last year I gave it up,” he said of his decision to retire, as per Good Morning America.

When Fox was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease he reportedly started drinking heavily. Thankfully, he stopped, sought help and was brave enough to disclose his condition in 1998. Since then he has been a strong advocate and inspiration to those battling with the disease.

Since 2000, the Michael J. Fox Foundation has raised more than $750 million to help find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Michael J. Fox attends red carpet for the Tribeca Talks – Storytellers – 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on April 30, 2019 in New York City.

Michael J. Fox’s life is a testament to the power of perseverance and resilience.

Despite hailing from a humble working-class background and facing numerous obstacles along the way, Fox rose to become an iconic figure in the entertainment industry. His story reminds us that with determination, hard work, and unwavering passion for our dreams, we can overcome any challenge.

So let’s celebrate Michael J. Fox not only for his remarkable talents but also for his inspiring journey that continues to inspire countless individuals worldwide.

Matt Heath: My parting message: Enjoy things while they are around

A lot of big, tragic and important things have happened to this wonderful country of ours since April 2014. None of which I have covered. I was too busy writing about hungover parenting, ancient philosophy and my dog Colin.

Out of the 536 columns I have written, 27 were about that guy. Far too few. He is such a good boy, he deserves an article a week.

Today is the end of an era for me, and whenever these final events pop up in our lives, we can’t help but think about the ultimate end.

Everything we do, we will one day do for the last time. That’s why you have to enjoy things while they are around. It’s not just big events like leaving a job, house or loved one either. Whatever moment you happen to be in now, you will never get it back, and you don’t know how many more you have.

Everything we do in life, from eating pizza to spending time with the people we love, to driving, writing, drinking or breathing, we will one day experience for the final time. It might happen tomorrow. This can be either a depressing or an inspiring thought, depending on how you look at it.

A few years back in this column, I interviewed professor of philosophy William B Irvine, of Wright State University, Ohio, on this very topic. He put it this way on a Zoom call: “Recognition of the impermanence of everything in life can invest the things we do with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent. The only way we can be truly alive is if we make it our business periodically to entertain thoughts of the end.”

Today’s column is very meaningful to me because it is my last. Like the last night with a lover before she goes overseas. And just like a lover, there have been some half-arsed efforts put in from me over the years. Last week, for example, I spent 750 words moaning about how bad my cricket team is. But the truth is that any of my columns could have been the final. If I had reminded myself every week for the past 10 years that the end is inevitable, I may have been more grateful for having a column and appreciated writing them all as much as I am this one.

While everything we do could have more meaning with a focus on finitude, some things are inherently more worthwhile than others. There is no doubt my column “The pros and cons of wearing Speedos” from November 2022 was less meaningful than most things in this world. That was a waste of everyone’s time. So, if we only have so much time, how do we pick the best things to do?

Well, Oliver Burkeman, the author of Four Thousand Weeks – Time Management For Mortals, suggested this to me in a 2022 column: “Ask yourself, does this choice enlarge me? You usually know on some unspoken level if it does. That’s a good way to distinguish between options.”

With that in mind, I don’t feel great about my 2018 article on “New Zealand’s best hole”. That didn’t enlarge anyone.

There will be people reading this column right now who have loved my writing in the Herald and are sad to see it end. Others will have hated it and are glad to see me go. Many won’t have any opinion at all. But for those in the first camp, I have good news. I have a book coming out on May 28 called A Life Less Punishing – 13 Ways To Love The Life You Got (Allen and Unwin Book Publishers). It’s a deep dive into the history, philosophy and science of not wasting our time lost in anger, loneliness, humiliation, stress, fear, boredom and all the other ways we find to not enjoy perfectly good lives. It’s available for pre-order right now (google it if you’re interested).

A Life Less Punishing took me two years to write and is equivalent in words to 100 of these columns. Which would be a complete nightmare for those in the hate camp, but as I say, great news for those who want more.

Anyway, thanks to the Herald for having me, thanks to the lovely people who make an effort to say nice things to me about my column nearly every day and thanks to the universe for every single second we get.

Bless!

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