Michael, A Fox! - sure is

My choice for this week would have to be Michael J Fox. Born Michael Andrew Fox on June 09, 1961, he is married to actress Tracy Pollan and has 4 kids.

His best known roles include Marty McFly in the trilogies for Back to the Future (1985-1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982-1989), for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996-2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actor Guild Awards. In 1998 he reaceived a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

At the age of 15 he made his television debut in "Letters from Frank" and was credited under the name "Michael Fox". He intended to continue to use the name, but when he registered with the Screen Actors Guild, which does not allow duplicate registration names to avoid credit ambiguities, he discovered that Michael Fox was already registered. As he explained in his autobiograpgy, Lucky Man, he needed to come up with a different name. He did not like the sound of "Andrew" or "Andy" Fox. He decided against using his middle initial because he didn't want to fit into a Canadian stereotype, as in Michael "Eh?" Fox, and because he did not want teen fan magazines referring to him as "Michael, A Fox!". He decided to adopt a new middle initial and settled on "J" in reference to character actor Michael J. Pollard. Sometimes he jokes that the J stands for "Jenius" or "Jenuine".


Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. As the symptoms of his disease worsened, he retired from full-time acting in 2000. Since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson's disease research, especially embryonic stem cell research, which many in the scientific community believe may one day help sufferers of Parkinson's and other debilitating illnesses.