Michael J. Fox accepted his honorary award with a humble and heartfelt 13-minute speech about how he overcame denial and depression following his diagnosis in 1991.
Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox opened up about how he and his career were affected by Parkinson’s disease in his acceptance speech for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 13th Governors Awards on Saturday.
‘I was on top of the world. I had a hit television show, two movies in the can and it was all good in the neighborhood,’
‘Somewhere in there around 29 I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I was told I only had 10 years left to work. That was s****y. That’s what happened. The hardest part of my diagnosis was grappling with the certainty of the diagnosis and the uncertainty of the situation. I only knew that it would get worse. The diagnosis was definite. The progress was indefinite and uncertain.’
Michael was diagnosed with the degenerative disorder of the central nervous system in 1991 while shooting Michael Caton-Jones’ rom-com Doc Hollywood in Florida, and he became so depressed he abused alcohol for the next year. He admits that it was upon seeing his wife’s (Tracey Pollan) indifferent face one morning, as he woke up on the sofa hungover as their baby son crawled on him.
‘Tracy made it clear that she was with me for the duration,’
‘Then I entered into seven years of denial, trying to make sense of it all. The kid who left Canada, convinced that he would make anything happen just by working hard and by believing, now had a tall order in front of him. I told very few people. And they kept my secret.’
Michael went public with his diagnosis in 1998 with an interview with Barbara Walters.
‘What happened next was remarkable. The outpouring of support from the public at large and the beautiful reaction from all of my peers in the entertainment business. All of you, thank you, and the people that I work with. It was transformative.’
‘It struck me that everything I had been given – success, my life with Tracy, my family – had prepared me for this profound opportunity and responsibility. It was a gift.’
In 2000, Michael officially launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has raised over $1.5B for Parkinson’s research, therapeutic programs, clinical trials, and a dataset/biosample library.
‘There was nothing heroic about what I did. I am so grateful to all these people and thousands more who will make a world without Parkinson’s a reality…It’s humbling in the deepest way to stand here today and accept your kindness and approbation when truly the effort is being driven by others so deserving of this attention.’
