Michael J. Fox and his family
Mayukh Saha
Mayukh Saha
July 11, 2024 ·  4 min read

Michael J. Fox’s Loving Kids Have Helped Him Battle Online Trolls Who’ve Made Fun Of His Condition

Michael J. Fox has countless fans from many generations, but if you were born in the 1970s and 80s, you were probably the perfect age really appreciate his talents. After being catapulted to fame for his role as Marty McFly in the Back To The Future franchise, one would assume that he would be an A-lister with hordes of fans. One would, of course, be correct. After going through teenage comedy movies, he moved on to serious, intense roles- which he played to perfection. Over the last four decades, Fox has been in several movies, TV shows, and even documentaries.

The man deserves all the respect that he gets, but not the trolls and the harmful words that come along with it. What makes it worse is that none of the trolls are aimed at his acting prowess. Rather- people on the internet make fun of him for deadline with Parkinson’s disease over the last three decades. Goes without saying, if you are a troll and your only job in life is to hurt someone for a condition that they have no control over you are simply the lowest of the low. But, as luck would have it, Fox is surrounded by his amazing children who always hit back at trolls. 

Michael J. Fox Deserves All The Respect and None Of The Hurtful Comments From Trolls

Michael J. Fox was born in Edmonton, Canada, in 1961. He had the acting bug bitten into him at quite an early age- which saw him get roles in the Canadian sitcom Leo and Me. After that, just like every Canadian actor ever, he moved toward Los Angeles to make it big in Hollywood in 1979. As it turns out, his genius wasn’t hidden for long, as he was soon cast as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties- a show that ran from 1982- 1989.

He also met his wife Pollan on the sets of this sitcom- where she played his love interest. His trajectory kept rising at a fast pace- but he truly faced stardom after acting in films like Back to The Future and Teen Wolf- among many more movies. Pollan and Michael J. Fox again reunited on the big screen for their 1988 flick, Bright Lights, Big City- and this time around, sparks flew in reality as well. Within seven months of being in a relationship together, they got engaged in the December of 1987.

Read: ‘Even as a Hollywood A-lister, Tom Cruise gives me the creeps’

Michael J. Fox on The Graham Norton Show
Michael J. Fox on The Graham Norton Show praising his children who helped him deal with online trolling. Image Credit: The Graham Norton Show. | YouTube

They decided to get married at the West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vermont in the July of 1988. Just a year later, the celebrity couple welcomed their first child- a son named Sam. But it was around this time that tragedy struck- as he got news about his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in 1991. Nevertheless, he didn’t inform Hollywood about it and acted in another show Spin City.

In 1995, his wife gave birth to twin daughters- Aquinnah and Schuyler. Maybe he got a premonition, or just a gut feeling- he decided to semi-retire from acting in 2000 after going public with the information in 1998. In 2001, Esme, his third daughter was born. 

In an interview with The Guardian in 2011, he spoke about his worsening condition since he got diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Michael J. Fox stated, “I used to walk fast, but every stop is now like a frigging math problem. If something changes, great, or maybe I can figure out how to do it a different way.” But what really affected him and his family were the awful words that he received- something he spoke of in his appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “Somebody said something nasty about Parkinson’s and I usually let that stuff just go by me. It doesn’t happen that often and when it does I don’t really care about it. But I wanted to answer this guy in some way.”[1]

In 2016, he was asked by a rude Instagram follower, “Yo @realmikefox you gon do the #MannequinChallenge or nah?” Needless to say- Michael J. Fox’s physical condition wouldn’t allow him to do that. “So my son said ‘Just do this. Do SMH’ and I went ‘What do you mean SMH?’ He said ‘Just trust me do SMH.’” So Fox replied: “SMH”. As it turns out, the clap back from Fox with just a single word was too much for the user who responded again. Fox recounted, “He answers me back ‘That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read in my life. You’re the king of the internet. I apologize for anything I said to you,’ blah blah blah.”[2]

Keep Reading: “Superman” Star Dean Cain Gave Up a Movie Career to Raise His Son Alone

Sources

  1. Michael J Fox: ‘Every step now is a frigging math problem, so I take it slow’.” The Guardian. Hadley Freeman. November 21, 2020.
  2. Twitter