Michael J. Fox on 30 years with Parkinson’s: ‘I’m kind of a freak’

“It’s weird that I’ve done as well as I have for as long as I have,” says Michael J. Fox, as Parkinson’s finally forces him to retire from acting.

Actor Michael J. Fox has opened up about his remarkable persistence in the face of his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis 30 years ago, labelling himself a “freak”.

The 60-year-old former Family Ties and Back to the Future star was diagnosed with the progressive disease back in 1991 – and told by his doctor he had just 10 years left to work, he reveals in a new interview with AARP Magazine.

But Fox didn’t slow down, starring in shows like sitcom Spin City and more recently The Good Wife. It was only in November 2020, 29 years after his diagnosis, that memory and speech issues forced him to finally retire from acting.

“I’m kind of a freak. It’s weird that I’ve done as well as I have for as long as I have,” he said of his ability to keep going. “People often think of Parkinson’s as a visual thing, but the visuals of it are nothing. 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.”

Fox had a starring role in The Good Wife.

Fox has had other health problems in recent years – in 2018 he had a benign tumour removed from his back and had to relearn how to walk. Four months later, a nasty fall at home left him with a badly broken arm. Despite all that, he told AARP he considered himself “lucky”.

“It’s hard to explain to people how lucky I am because I also have Parkinson’s. Some days are a struggle. Some days are more difficult than others,” he said. “But the disease is this thing that’s attached to my life – it isn’t the driver. And because I have assets, I have access to things others don’t. I wouldn’t begin to compare my experience to that of a working guy who gets Parkinson’s and has to quit his job and find a new way to live. So, I’m really lucky.”

But there’s one thing Fox admits he’s not optimistic about: Being cured of his Parkinson’s.

“I’m really blunt with people about cures. When they ask me if I will be relieved of Parkinson’s in my lifetime, I say, ‘I’m 60 years old, and science is hard. So, no,’” Fox continued. “I am genuinely a happy guy. I don’t have a morbid thought in my head – I don’t fear death. At all.”

Fox and wife Tracy Pollan. Picture: Peter Kramer/Getty

Fox revealed his retirement in his most recent memoir published in November last year, writing: “There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a 12-hour workday, and memorising seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me.

“At least for now … I enter a second retirement. That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.”

Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at 29, said that he had started to notice symptoms of the disease including memory loss, delusions and dementia, cognitive declines which he writes he had “rarely contemplated before now, much less spoke of”.

These have included confusing his twin daughters and searching for his car keys, despite the fact that he can no longer drive.

Originally published as Michael J. Fox on 30 years with Parkinson’s: ‘I’m kind of a freak’