Who

Fox is an '80s movie icon and former sitcom star with a beautiful wife, four beautiful children, and loads of money. He's also afflicted with a crippling nerve disorder.

Backstory

The Canadian-born actor left his family behind at 18 and moved to Los Angeles to make it in Hollywood. Four years later, the pint-size thespian was about to move back home when he finally scored the TV role that would make his career (and which had been turned down by the similarly impish Matthew Broderick): Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. The show ran from 1982 to 1989 and made Fox a star (and landed him a wife). He quickly parlayed his TV fame into film roles, starring in the 1985 cult classic Teen Wolf and as Marty McFly in the blockbuster Back to the Future that same year. The three-part film franchise vaulted Fox to Hollywood's A-list, although his films of the late '80s and early '90s—Bright Lights, Big City and family-friendly comedies like Life with Mikey and Doc Hollywood—weren't quite as successful. In 1996, he returned to TV as Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty in the ABC sitcom Spin City. The advancing effects of Parkinson's forced him to retire from the hit show in 2000, and he was replaced by Charlie Sheen.

Of note

Fox was just 29 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, but it took years before he went public with his illness. He finally spoke out in 1998, when his tremors became too obvious to hide. Since retiring from Spin City, Fox has limited his acting work to the odd cameo and voiceover role, but he's been far from inactive. He now spends most of his time raising money for his foundation—which has raised close to $100 million for medical research—and lobbying politicians for stem cell research funding. Board members of his Michael J. Fox Foundation include Donny Deutsch, Eva Andersson-Dubin (wife of Glenn Dubin), Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lily Safra, and Donna Shalala.

In print

His 2002 memoir about living with Parkinson's, Lucky Man, became an instant best seller.

Drama

After Fox appeared in a 2006 Missouri political ad for stem cell research, Rush Limbaugh made the outrageous claim that Fox had exaggerated his symptoms for the sake of the commercial. Limbaugh later put down his giant bottle of OxyContin and publicly apologized.

Personal

Fox married his Family Ties costar Tracy Pollan (sister of author Michael Pollan) in 1988. They have four children—Sam, Aquinnah, Schuyler, and Esmé—and live on Park Avenue. Fox keeps a separate office in the same building.