Michael J. Fox always a Canadian at heart as he returns home for Walk of Fame
TORONTO – Michael J. Fox may have become a U.S. citizen a few years back, but when it came to the recent Beijing Olympics, the Edmonton-born actor was cheering for the Canucks all the way.
“In my heart, I’m a Canadian, I’ll always be a Canadian,” he said in a recent telephone interview from Long Island, New York.
“That was really evident the last couple of weeks watching the Olympics. Someone diving off a platform, if they had a Maple Leaf on them, I was all for them.”
Fox’s Canadian ties will be on full display this weekend when he is officially inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. The honour was initially announced in 2000 but Fox was not on hand for the ceremony.
“I’m most blown away by the company I’m in. It’s really cool. Steve Nash, kd lang, Bryan Adams,” he said, referring to fellow honorees.
“It’s just really exciting to kind of know that even though I don’t live in Canada anymore that it’s still my home and people still think of me as one of them.”
People also still think of him, of course, as young Republican Alex P. Keaton from the ’80s TV smash “Family Ties” and as Marty McFly, the time-travelling teen from the “Back to the Future” movies.
Although Fox also appeared on the popular TV comedy “Spin City” and in films including “Doc Hollywood,” “The Secret of My Success” and “Casualties of War,” he says people most remember him for his iconic teen roles.
“I am amazed when people with teenaged kids come up and tell you that they grew up watching you, you kind of check your watch and go, ‘oh yeah, I’m old,”‘ said Fox, 47.
“(Family Ties) was so ‘of its time,’ that when people think of it, they don’t just think of the show or the actors, they think of the time, they think of where they were, they think of what that period of their lives was. There’s a lot of emotion and memory mixed together with it.”
“Family Ties” also became the place where Fox met his wife of 20 years, Tracy Pollan, who played Alex’s girlfriend Ellen. The characters’ theme song was “At This Moment,” which became a hit for Billy Vera and the Beaters, a band Fox knew from the L.A. club scene.
The actor was glad the tune found an audience, but says it followed he and Pollan around for years.
“People would always play it, whenever we came into a room or something,” he said. “When you’d go to a wedding or something, people would throw it on and we’d kind of go ‘Oh, god, here’s the song again.”
In recent years, Fox has taken on a very different role. He’s become a high-profile advocate for stem cell research and a spokesman for Parkinson’s disease.
He was diagnosed with the condition in 1991, but did not make his illness public until seven years later. In 2000, he set up the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has funded $126 million in research.
Despite the tremors that accompany Parkinson’s, the actor says he’s feeling “great” and has been playing tennis and golf this summer.
In October, he’s set to guest star on “Rescue Me,” the dark firehouse drama that stars his hockey buddy Denis Leary.
“Denis is a good friend of mine,” said Fox. “I love the show, I love Denis and I love his edge and he had a great idea or a character and ran it by me and I thought: ‘Cool, that would be a fun thing to do’.”
Fox will play the boyfriend of the ex-wife of Leary’s character, Tommy Gavin.
For now, however, the actor is focused on the Walk of Fame – and on back-to-school activities.
He and Pollan have four children – Fox proudly mentions that his son is entering college, while his daughter is going into first grade and his twin girls are headed to junior high.
He says they get up to Canada at least once a year and cherish the visits to their father’s homeland.
“My kids love Canada,” said Fox. “They always talk about the Canadian relatives as the funny relatives, the laughing relatives.”
Other stars to be honoured at the Walk of Fame ceremonies this Saturday include comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, model Daria Werbowy, filmmaker James Cameron and actress Frances Bay.
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