Refusing to Yield Centre Stage

Tuesday 21 September 1999 - Michael J. Fox was a television star at 20, a
movie star at 25, supposedly washed up at 30 and a comeback sensation at
35. That would be enough drama for most people's whole lives, but at 38 the
actor is battling Parkinson's disease.

"It takes away a little of the arrogance of youth," Fox admits. "It's never
stopped me doing anything I wanted to do, but now I'm taking life one day
at a time."

Fox doesn't volunteer to discuss Parkinson's, a crippling and incurable
nerve disorder, but he doesn't mind talking about it and its implications
for his career -- and for his hit political comedy Spin City, which returns
to ABC tonight for its fourth season.

Although he admits that his illness makes him tire more easily, Fox insists
that he plans to continue working on the show for at least another two
years. After that, though -- which would give him six years on Spin City to
go with seven on his 1980s hit Family Ties -- he doesn't expect to tackle
another series.

"I'd love to do this show for as many years as I did Family Ties," Fox
says. "Then I want to write the great American novel and sit on a beach
somewhere. In terms of films, maybe I'll produce -- I'd love to do a series
for my wife."

The slender, 5-foot-4-inch, Canadian-born actor shows up for an interview
in Pasadena, California wearing a smart business suit, tie and heavy black
shoes.

He downplays his illness, but it obviously plays a major part in everything
he does these days. Always energetic, at moments he acts a bit overwrought,
and his left leg seems to have a will of its own -- perhaps from tremors,
perhaps simply from edginess.

But Fox isn't looking for sympathy. Never has, never will.

The terrible irony, of course, is that Fox, who complained for years that
he looked too much like a kid and even into his late 20s was too baby-faced
to land mature roles, is now suffering from the "old man's disease."

It's extremely unusual for men under 40 to contract Parkinson's, doctors
say, and most sufferers are at least 50. Fox was 37 in 1998, when he
publicly revealed that he had suffered from Parkinson's for seven years.

"This has been a kind of maturation for me," he says. "I was in my early
30s, my father had just passed away. There was a lot of other stuff it
hastened in terms of wanting to really plan life on a day-to-day basis and
make the most of a lot of things."

This new phase in his life began eight years ago, when he woke up one
morning with his little finger twitching and was unable to stop it. He
didn't think it was serious, but when it wouldn't go away he went to see a
specialist who gave him the brutal diagnosis.

He kept it quiet for years -- which, some friends say, may have contributed
to the severe drinking problem which resulted in his early-1990s stay in a
rehab clinic.

Now he's learning to live with the affliction, even though there has been
some deterioration since he went public in December. He underwent brain
surgery in 1998 to try to relieve some of the more severe symptoms, and
relies on various new drugs to retard the progress of the disease.

"I respect the fear of anyone who has it," he admits. "I had no problem
with the brain surgery. It was something I wanted. I had tremendous faith
in my doctor, faith in the science. I just knew it would be OK. Once you
make the decision to do it, I felt it was OK.

"I feel pretty good on a day-to-day basis," he says. "You monitor it daily
and treat it therapeutically. I can't treat it curatively at this point,
although I hope that happens.

"I'm following all the medical developments pretty closely," the actor
adds. "I think there will be a time in the future -- maybe two or three
years down the road, after Spin City -- when I think it will probably be my
sole concern and my sole activity.

"There's tremendous research being done, in surgery, in fetal-cell stuff
and genetic stuff. So you know something could pop at any moment."

Meanwhile, he says, Parkinson's has not yet significantly interfered with
his acting. He looks forward to the new season of Spin City, reinvigorated
by the arrival of Melrose Place's Heather Locklear. "I feel confident with
my ability to do my job," Fox says. "That was clear to me last year."

But Parkinson's has cost him what he calls his dream role. Producer Robert
Halmi Sr., a close friend of Hollywood legend James Cagney, wanted Fox for
a movie version of the actor/dancer's life.

"It would be hard to do now," Fox says regretfully. "But I never saw myself
as a good enough dancer to do it. I don't even know if I could handle the
rest of his persona -- but even if I could, dance was such a big part of
who he was that, if you don't know how to do it, then you feel like an idiot."

Fox has planned this season of Spin City to allow him a few days off in the
middle of the week to be with his wife of 11 years, actress Tracy Pollan,
their 10-year-old son Sam and their three-year-old twin daughters, Aquinnah
and Schuyler.

"My greatest accomplishment in my life is my children," he says proudly. "I
love doing the show, but I use every bit of my time off to be with them
from March until August. My life has been so filled with positives and
blessings and things I'd never ever trade."

And there's nothing like being diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease
to alter priorities, even those of an actor who was once notorious for his
drive and ambition, who leveraged his teen stardom on Family Ties into
big-screen success in three Back to the Future movies in 1985, 1989 and
1990, as well as such other films as Casualties of War (1989) and The
American President (1996).

"Obviously this has changed me a lot," he says. "I'm different from the way
I was 10 or 15 years ago. I don't have gigantic ambitions. I don't want to
take over the world, and I don't need to be the star of a huge-budgeted movie.

"I have a nice job I really love and it pays me well," Fox concludes. "It
allows me to be with my family and do things for my kids."

photo caption:
'My greatest accomplishment in my life is my children. I love doing the
show, but I use every bit of my time off to be with them from March until
August. My life has been so filled with positives and blessings and things
I'd never ever trade.' ~ Michael J. Fox


written by Ivor Davis  Citizen Special
Ivor Davis is a Hollywood-based reporter and columnist.
Copyright 1999 Ottawa Citizen
<http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/990921/2886028.html>

janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
613 256 8340 po box 171 almonte ontario canada K0A 1A0
a new voice: <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/>
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