I drank for distraction as my Parkinson’s got worse – I was an alcoholic and ruining my marriage, reveals Michael J Fox
AFTER Michael J. Fox stumbles on to the pavement, a kindly woman offers to help the Back To The Future star get up.
Determined to be self-sufficient in the face of Parkinson’s disease, the actor politely refuses her hand and jokes: “You knocked me off my feet.”
Michael clearly has not lost any of the charm that made him one of Hollywood’s biggest names in the 1980s.
But in new fly-on-the-wall-style documentary Still, he cannot always maintain that upbeat vibe.
When pressed, the 61-year-old, who called his autobiography Lucky Man, admits: “I’m in pain, intense pain.”
Michael was just 29 when he was diagnosed with the incurable condition, which is slowly robbing him of the ability to control his body.
Even though he has broken his arm, elbow, hand, cheekbone and shoulder, he continues to make his feet — which often trail behind him — walk.
While most people would cry, “Why me?”, Michael is willing to consider that he might have played a part in his own fate.
With brutal honesty he admitted last week that “damage” he did through excessive drinking during the Eighties might have brought on Parkinson’s.
Spinal-fluid test
The star said: “There’s so many ways that I could have hurt myself.
“I could have hit my head. I could have drunk too much at a certain developmental period.”
In Still, he talks candidly about becoming reliant on booze — a situation that only got worse after doctors told him in 1991 he had Parkinson’s.
He recalls his wife looking at him with disdain as he lay on the floor following a heavy night out, and needing to have his minder open the front door for him.
He confesses: “I drank to distraction, to escape my situation. I was an alcoholic.”
Scientists think, however, that the brain disease is brought on by a mix of “environmental factors”, such as concussion, and genetic ones.
Finding an answer to why an estimated 137,000 people in Britain have Parkinson’s came a step closer last month — thanks to the actor.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation announced the discovery of the first spinal-fluid test able to detect the presence of the disease in humans.
It can even find signs before any symptoms develop.
Michael, whose foundation has raised an astonishing £1.2billion in a bid to cure the disease, said: “This will crack wide open our ability to develop next-generation drugs that will benefit everyone who is living with the disease.”
With bold optimism, he even adds: “We are standing on the threshold of being able to prevent it altogether.”
But Still is not about Parkinson’s.
The Apple+ documentary, which is shown on the streaming platform and in cinemas from May 12, is about a man who has displayed resilience and determination throughout his life.
The Canadian was picked on in school by bullies because he was the shortest person in class.
He recalls: “I got stuffed in lockers.”
But at 5ft 4in, Michael’s diminutive stature proved a big advantage for landing movie roles, as he was able to play characters much younger than he was.
Aged 16, he headed to Los Angeles to see if he could make it in television.
But his dad William, a retired police dispatcher, and mum Phyllis, a payroll clerk, were unable to financially support his ambitions for long.
He struggled to pay the rent for the tiny flat he lived in while hoping to secure a well-paid part.
Michael recalls: “I sold off my sofa. I was down to days — I had no money, I was living beat to beat, I was ducking the landlord.”
But his persistence paid off.
In 1982, Michael was cast in the role of high school student Alex P Keaton in sitcom Family Ties, even though powerful producer Brandon Tartikoff reckoned the newcomer did not have the “kind of face you’ll ever find on a lunchbox”.
The American show was such a hit, though, that creator Gary David Goldberg refused to let Back To The Future director Robert Zemeckis speak to Michael about playing Marty McFly in the time-travel comedy.
Zemeckis’s second choice, Eric Stoltz, proved to be too serious for the role and after around a month of filming he tried for Michael again.
There’s so many ways that I could have hurt myself. I could have hit my head. I could have drunk too much.
Michael J. Fox
This time Goldberg relented, on the condition that Michael continued recording Family Ties during the day and only filmed Back To The Future in the evenings.
That meant the young star often slept in his car while being driven from one production to the other.
In 1985, the sci-fi classic went to No1 at the box office and Michael’s other movie that year, supernatural thriller Teen Wolf, took the runner-up spot.
Michael says: “I was bigger than bubblegum.”
He bought a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce and went out partying with pals, including close drinking buddy Woody Harrelson.
During a trip to Thailand the pair drank a mix of cobra blood and whisky prepared by the locals.
Michael recalls: “The booze was free and I was usually guest of honour.”
Over the next decade he made 16 more movies, including two Back To The Future sequels and the rom-com Doc Hollywood.
Flutter in pinky finger
It meant he spent little time with his actress wife Tracy Pollan, 62, who he had fallen for when they were co-stars on American show Family Ties and married in 1988.
The first sign that something was wrong with his health was “an innocent-seeming flutter in my right pinky finger”.
Michael thought: “I was in my late twenties. How could I possibly have this old person’s disease?”
As it got worse, so did his drinking.
Michael says: “I intended to pretend as if this wasn’t happening to me. I drank to disassociate.”
His marriage was also stretched to breaking point by the boozing.
The father of four admits: “Tracy got to the end of her rope because now we had twins.”
A dawning realisation that their relationship was on the line helped to convince Michael to sober up, and he quit alcohol in 1992.
Beating Parkinson’s
Beating Parkinson’s would not be so easy, though.
He popped prescribed pills so that his hand shakes were not obvious to his co-stars and audiences.
But performing in front of live audiences while recording the hit US sitcom Spin City proved to be stressful.
Michael admits he “would spruce up the walls with fist-sized holes” in between filming.
For seven years he kept his health condition secret from colleagues — only going public in 1998 after two years of filming Spin City.
Since leaving the show in 2001, Michael has provided the voice of Stuart Little in the animated movies and appeared in hit sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, drama The Good Wife and TV comedy series Boston Legal.
He has defied medical predictions by continuing to work for three times as long as medics expected.
But Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, which gradually gets worse.
Now the star does not expect to live beyond the age of 80.
Michael says: “If I’m here 20 years from now I’m either cured — or I’ll be a pickle.” Much of Michael’s time nowadays is dedicated to his family and work on his foundation.
He has spoken to US politicians, at the Senate, and appeared in a political advert calling on people to vote for a candidate who favoured vital research into stem cells.
It is perhaps his tireless work helping the search for a cure for Parkinson’s that will be his greatest legacy.
Michael concludes: “Some people would see my diagnosis as an ending, but I viewed it as a beginning.”
- Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is in selected UK cinemas and on Apple TV+ from May 12.
His best hit roles
MICHAEL has continued working in TV and film for much longer than his doctors imagined following his 1990s Parkinson’s diagnosis.
Here are just some of his best-loved roles . . .