Michael J. Fox faces his own mortality: ‘I don’t fear that’
Michael J. Fox is acutely aware of his own mortality — but he doesn’t fear it.
The “Back to the Future” star, 62, who suffers from Parkinson’s, told Town & Country matter-of-factly that “one day I’ll run out of gas.
“One day I’ll just say, ‘It’s not going to happen. I’m not going out today,'” said the five-time Emmy winner, who was diagnosed in 1991.
“If that comes, I’ll allow myself that. I’m 62 years old. Certainly, if I were to pass away tomorrow, it would be premature, but it wouldn’t be unheard of. And so, no, I don’t fear that.”
That doesn’t stop Fox from fearing the ways in which wife Tracy Pollan or their four adult children could come to harm.
“Anything that would put my family in jeopardy,” the “Spin City” alum said when asked what scares him.
Fox and his Parkinson’s battle were front and center in this year’s Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ documentary, “Still.”
Following his diagnosis, Fox in 2000 launched The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which “is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today,” according to the mission statement on the foundation’s website.
Nearly a year ago, Fox received an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for the $1.5 billion his foundation had raised.
“It is humbling in the deepest way to stand here and accept your kindness,” he said at the time.
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