CELEBRITIES
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox says Parkinson’s made Hollywood dreams seem ‘silly’ | Exclusive
Michael J. Fox retreated from society after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 29. Now, he’s “thrilled” to be an advocate through his foundation, which was recognized at the Social Impact Summit
KiMi RobinsonUSA TODAY
July 24, 2026, 7:02 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES – When a 29-year-old Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease just as his acting career was in full swing, suddenly everything else seemed “silly.”
It had been a little more than a decade since he’d arrived in Hollywood at 17, and Fox made the decision to shift his focus from acing auditions to recognizing he had “a unique opportunity to make a difference and do something bigger than just telling a joke.”
“You think about a 19-year-old, 17-year-old kid, you want to be rich and famous and change the world, and you want to be the big ‘it’ thing,” the 65-year-old tells USA TODAY. “And when you start to search for a cure for a disease, that stuff is just so silly.”
“The point where it got boring and tedious turned into a lever to operate a much bigger machine,” he adds
On July 22, the actor’s Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research was one of three honorees at The Hollywood Reporter and Social Impact Fund’s third annual Social Impact Summit, alongside John Mayer’s Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health and Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation
Fox and his foundation’s CEO, Deborah W. Brooks, spoke with USA TODAY backstage before his “Shrinking” costar Harrison Ford presented the two with the Philanthropic Organization of the Year award
“These approbations are always humbling,” Fox says. “It’s great attention for our foundation; it’s great attention for the progress that’s been made.”
His latest accolade, which arrives on the heels of his 19th Emmy nomination, comes courtesy of the Social Impact Fund, a nonprofit organization that “helps overcome common administrative barriers” for philanthropic endeavors in the entertainment industry and beyond by providing a “legal structure” for organizations, including those whose tax-exempt status is pending
Since 2000, his foundation has reportedly funded $3 billion in Parkinson’s research while also successfully advocating for rentific discoveries, such as a “crucial” spinal fluid test for those exhibiting symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease. Ultimately, they are working toward a goal of eliminating the disease “in our lifetime.”
“What we’re doing isn’t happening at them or for them,” Fox says of people with Parkinsonism symptoms. “It’s happening with them.”
How Michael J. Fox went from hiding his Parkinson’s to becoming ‘part of the answer’
Fox wasn’t always accepting of his diagnosis, discovered after he noticed a tremor in his pinky finger in 1991. It took some time to become, as Ford described his costar in his onstage speech, “the most stubborn optimist I know.” But by the time he let the world in on his chronic condition, he’d had the revelation that “I want to be part of the answer.”
The fastest-growing neurodegenerative condition in the U.S., Parkinson’s is an incurable brain disorder, a progressive disease “that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination,” according to the National Institute on Aging
“I was diagnosed, and I went into a hidden retreat and hid for seven years, didn’t tell anyone about it. And then when it occurred to me that I might go public with it, I weighed that with my wife [Tracy Pollan] and myself, [had] a lot of conversations about it,” Fox says. “And I realized it was a unique opportunity.”
Less than a decade after receiving his diagnosis, the “Family Ties” actor came to embrace the role of being the face of Parkinson’s
“I would’ve been thrilled if you’d told me when I was 17 that I’d be well known as a disease advocate for something I was diagnosed with,” Fox says
Brooks, the foundation’s CEO, has been equally as proud of Fox’s impact
“I remember the first day of my job, he said, ‘People may come here just because of me. It’s your job to build something that brings them back,'” Brooks says. “Objectively, we have not cured Parkinson’s. But there is so much that has been accomplished. … Today, it’s a field transformed from where it was when we started, and that’s not everything about us, but it has a lot to do with almost everything we do. That keeps us motivated.”
Fox’s expletive-laden motto for Parkinson’s patients
Beyond finding a cure – “science is hard,” Fox quips – he hopes to give “the patient community a say and a presence.”
“They’re scared to death,” he says. “That’s a freaky diagnosis that rocks your world.”
The average Parkinson’s patient is in their early to mid-60s, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. A “small percent” of those diagnosed have early onset Parkinson’s, which begins before age 50. Symptoms of the progressive movement disorder typically include tremors, muscle stiffness, balance issues and slowed movement
Parkinson’s has taken a toll on the “Back to the Future” star over the decades. He developed – and recovered from – alcohol addiction while coping with his diagnosis in the early years. He’s broken a number of bones. He is “in pain all the time,” he confessed in his 2023 documentary, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.”
When asked about representation of Parkinson’s patients in Hollywood, Fox brings up Apple TV’s “Shrinking,” in which Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhoades, a therapist diagnosed with Parkinson’s in Season 1, gets the ensemble cast on board with the motto “f— Parkinson’s.” (Fox, playing a patient named Gerry, eventually becomes part of Paul’s journey.)
Echoing Paul’s refrain, Fox says, “For a long time I’ve been saying ‘f— vanity.’ It’s not about vanity. It’s not about how you look. And that’s the thing that helps patients move forward in their minds; they say, ‘This is what it is.'”
