Michael J. Fox opens up about Parkinson’s progression: ‘I won’t be 80’
Global News
Beloved Canadian actor Michael J. Fox got candid in a recent interview about aging with Parkinson's disease and his own mortality.
Beloved Canadian actor Michael J. Fox has always been honest about his struggles with young-onset Parkinson’s disease.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning — teasing the upcoming documentary about his life, Still — Fox said the degenerative condition has made aging a challenge. He described Parkinson’s as a “gift that keeps on taking.”
“It sucks, having Parkinson’s,” Fox, 61, told interviewer Jane Pauley. “It’s getting tougher, it’s getting harder, every day you suffer but that’s the way it is.”
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1990, the year following the release of Back to the Future Part III. He was 29.
Parkinson’s is a disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects one’s motor functions. The condition causes gradual damage to parts of a person’s brain, resulting in a number of symptoms including tremors, slow movement and stiff and inflexible muscles. There is no cure for the condition.
Fox said Parkinson’s has led to several injuries over the years, including breaking bones in his face and other parts of his body, and the discovery of a benign tumour on his spine.
He clarified that people do not die directly of Parkinson’s disease — but Fox wasn’t naive to his own mortality either.
