Michael J. Fox
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series is one of several honors Fox has received across a career in film, television, and voice acting — a career that has also earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Fox was born on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, and holds citizenship in both Canada and the United States. He attended Widdifield Secondary School and Burnaby Central Secondary School before going on to work as a film actor, television actor, television producer, voice actor, and autobiographer. His work across those roles brought him recognition on both sides of the border and in multiple areas of the entertainment industry.
Among the other honors he has received is the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Fox has also worked as a blogger, extending his public presence beyond his screen and producing work. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the most formally significant honors in the United States, sits alongside the Order of Canada appointment as a marker of recognition that crosses national lines — a fitting reflection of a career built by someone who holds citizenship in both countries.
Quotes by Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox's insights on:
Zoos are becoming facsimiles – or perhaps caricatures – of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.
A lighthouse... speaks to the guiding nature of hope. By equal turns, it illuminates and darkens, so the way forward can be chosen in the light, and trusted in the darkness.
I have times when I’m off-balance. I have times when I slur my words. I have times when I walk into walls. I have times when I can’t remember somebody’s name.
The way life runs through everything, even the tiniest elements of nature – that makes me humble. It’s the same humility that causes people at a certain time every day to get on their knees and put their foreheads on the ground in honor of something or someone.
To be brutally honest, for much of that time, I was the only person in the world with Parkinson’s. Of course, I mean that in the abstract. I had become acutely aware of people around me who appears to have the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but as long as they didn’t identify with me, I was in no rush to identify with them. My situation allowed, if not complete denial, at least a thick padding of insulation.
I can say, “I don’t have anything I regret!” But I can also say, “I can go forward in my life the way it is and I don’t think I’ll accrue any future regrets.”
My notion of spirituality was different than it is now, but even if I’d been the most fundamentalist of believers, I would have assumed that God had better things to do than arbitrarily smite me with shaking palsy.