Company Press Release

SOURCE: People Magazine

People Exclusive; Michael J. Fox: The Fight Of His Life

The Star Tells All About His Secret Battle With Parkinson's Disease;
'I'm Not Crying 'What a Tragedy,' Because it's Not. It's a Reality.'

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 / 1998 PRNewswire/ -- In this week's PEOPLE, actor
Michael J. Fox, 37, talks publicly for the first time
about his very private struggle with Parkinson's Disease for the past
seven years.

Best known for his starring roles in ``Family Ties'' and ``Spin City,''
and film credits that include ``Back to the Future'' and ``The
American President,'' Fox breaks years of silence by talking to PEOPLE
candidly about his own experience with the disease --
including undergoing brain surgery, and his decision to go public:
``It's not that I had a deep, dark secret. It was just my thing to
deal with ... I think I can help people by talking. I want to help
myself and my family.''

In an exclusive eight-page spread, PEOPLE talks with Fox, his wife --
actress Tracy Pollan, 38 -- his physicians, his colleagues
and his mother in great detail about the actor's condition, his outlook
and prognosis. They also address the illness' impact on his
lifestyle, his family (son Sam, 9, and 3 year-old twin daughters
Aquinnah, and Schuyler) and the future of his career.

In 1991, Fox noticed a ``twitch'' in his left pinkie while on the set of
the film ``Doc Hollywood.'' After undergoing tests, he
received the succinct diagnosis. ``It was incomprehensible,'' he tells
PEOPLE. ``The doctor said I would be able to function for
years and years. But even talking in those terms was strange.'' Over the
next few years, the disease progressed and his entire
left side suffered from stiffness and tremors. ``And I mean big
tremors,'' Fox tells PEOPLE. He suffered a shaking of his left arm
so violent, ``I could mix a margarita in five seconds.''

Parkinson's Disease is a progressive degeneration of the central nervous
system that ultimately renders some patients unable to
walk, talk or care for themselves, and that has no known cause or cure.
The illness afflicts an estimated 1 million Americans.
Fox's neurologist, Dr. Allan Ropper tells PEOPLE that Fox is in the
``late mild'' stage of Parkinson's Disease (the doctor
divides the disease into mild, medium and severe stages): ``I don't
think anything made Michael especially susceptible to
Parkinson's. Among my patients, his case is not extraordinary.''

The actor goes into great detail with PEOPLE about the brain surgery he
underwent last March for which he was sedated but
awake. His neurosurgeon, Dr. Bruce Cook talks about the procedure --
called a thalamotomy -- and the risks that Fox faced:
``I told him that while the success rate was close to 90 percent, there
was some horrible risk -- like paralysis, coma, death.''
Undaunted, Fox went through with the procedure, which has almost
completely eliminated his worst tremors. It is uncertain
whether he will need further brain surgery. Fox tells PEOPLE he
continues to treat the disease with the drug Sinemet to control
the milder symptoms, including constant rigidity in his hips, tremors in
one or both hands and a ``tapping'' feeling in his feet. At
times his arms and wrists are so stiff he cannot even pick up the TV
remote control.

Until now, Fox had not let anyone other than a tight circle of family
and friends in on the illness. He tells PEOPLE of the time he
asked his limo driver to circle the block three times before pulling up
to the Golden Globe Awards last January, while he and
Pollan waited for his tremors to fully subside. He also recounts his
appearance on Letterman where he prayed that the trembling
in his arms would stop before he was introduced.

Before signing up for ``Spin City'' in 1996, Fox made sure the two men
in charge -- Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks and
ABC president Robert Iger -- understood his situation: ``I said it could
get very bad or not get bad,'' says Fox. ``They said,
'Let's go.''' Talking about his illness with his castmates has eased
life in other ways. Exhausted by 14-hour days on the
Manhattan ``Spin City'' set, Fox tells PEOPLE he now plans to be
teleconferenced into story meetings and he foresees fewer
physical stunts: ``I want to give myself permission to take it a little
easier, to dial it down to nine.'' Just getting through rehearsals
is tough: ``I can't do things a million times. I can only do them once
or twice.''

As a result of his troubles, Fox tells PEOPLE he has a new life vision:
``It's made me stronger. A million times wiser. And more
compassionate, I've realized I'm vulnerable, that no matter how many
awards I'm given or how big my bank account is, I can be
messed with like that. The end of the story is you die. We all die. So,
accepting that, the issue becomes one of quality of life.''
Pollan comments on her husband's optimism: ``He's truly remarkable. I
tend to worry about the future, and he's always saying to
me, 'Why are you living through something that might happen?' He lives
today. He lives the moment. And the moment is good.''

Michael J. Fox also shares with PEOPLE how Parkinson's Disease has
changed his lifestyle, the effects it has had on his family,
his hopes for a cure and more.

PEOPLE will be on sale Friday, November 27, 1998

Editors will not be available to comment on this story. Please refer to
http://www.people.com for more information, or contact
Ali Weisberg at PEOPLE Public Affairs: 212-522-0228.

SOURCE: People Magazine
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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