In “Back to the Future,” Marty McFly stands up to the bully Biff over and over again — including in a thrilling scene where he trips Biff, flees on a skateboard across the town and leads the bully straight into a truck of manure.
The film starring Michael J. Fox turned 40 this year, and remains wildly popular — just two years ago, when Fox visited Salt Lake City’s FanX convention, several fans spent thousands of dollars on their “Back to the Future” fandom.
Part of the movie’s enduring impact, Fox recently said, is its portrayal of bully culture — an issue that persists from one generation to the next.
“We live in a bully culture right now. We have bullies everywhere — you don’t need me to point the finger at who, but there are all these bullies,” Fox recently told Empire. “In this movie, Biff is a bully. Time is a bully.”
And then Fox named a real-life bully — one he’s been fighting for nearly as long as “Back to the Future” has been around.
“For me personally, Parkinson’s is a bully,” the 64-year-old actor said, referencing the progressive neurodegenerative disease he was diagnosed with at the shockingly young age of 29. “And it’s all about how you stand up to them and the resolve that you take into the fight with them. It’s about your resilience and your courage.”
How Michael J. Fox fights Parkinson’s disease
Fox has been fighting Parkinson’s since his 1991 diagnosis — “There are not many people who have had Parkinson’s for 35 years,” the actor recently told People.
In the early days of the diagnosis, Fox turned to alcohol to dissociate. He altered his course when his wife, Tracy Pollan, confronted him and inspired him to change, as the Deseret News previously reported.
While sobriety initially brought him to an even lower point because he couldn’t escape himself, Fox said, he eventually confronted his reality head-on by going public with his diagnosis and founding the Michael J. Fox Foundation to contribute to research efforts, per Deseret News.
The actor has called it a “privilege” to be able to use his name to help researchers receive funding to seek answers.
”That’s such a privilege, such a gift that I have nothing else to complain about,” he said at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, per Deseret News.
After 35 years with Parkinson’s, Fox has discovered the best way to live with the disease: “Gratitude is the way to go,” he recently told USA Today, adding that he chooses to “be grateful for everything.”
“I want to be around for everything. I want to be active at everything, keep working, keep my partnerships going, my good friends, and enjoy my time with my family,” he continued. “And it’s all good; it’s so much better than it could be.”
Michael J. Fox releases memoir, returns to acting
It’s a busy season for Fox.
The five-time Emmy winner recently released the memoir “Future Boy,” which recounts the frenetic time in his career when he simultaneously filmed “Back to the Future” and the sitcom “Family Ties.”
Earlier this year, he also filmed a three-episode guest arc for the Apple TV+ comedy-drama series “Shrinking.” The role marks his return to acting after a five-year hiatus — and it’s a pivotal one, because he doesn’t have to worry about his disease interfering with the show.
In the early years of his diagnosis, Fox would mask his tremors by holding objects in his left hand. On “Shrinking,” he plays someone with Parkinson’s, per People.
“It was the first time ever I get to show up on set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” he told People. “I just do it. It was really good, because for the moments when I say, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this,’ then I say, ‘Well, I’ll just deal with how I can’t do it in the scene.’ And you get through it.”
The new season of the show comes out in January.
Part of the show’s storyline centers on therapist Dr. Paul Rhoades (played by Harrison Ford), who learns he is in the early stages of Parkinson’s.
“Shrinking” co-creator Bill Lawrence, who had his breakthrough with the 1990s sitcom “Spin City,” starring Fox, has said Ford’s character was inspired by the “Back to the Future” star.
“I found the first mentor in my life and career, Michael J. Fox, to be so inspiring with the way he took it in stride and continues to work harder than anybody I know,” Lawrence said, per People. “And we want to kind of carry that spirit if we can into the show.”