Michael J. Fox is one of the most beloved actors of his generation, known for his roles in Family Ties, Spin City and of course the Back to the Future trilogy. Even after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s, he continued his acting career before finally announcing his retirement in 2021.
But Fox, 62, may not have entirely ruled out a potential return to the screen.
Fox, who was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, has always tried to balance his love for acting with the realities of living with his disease. He retired from starring on Spin City in the show’s fourth season due to his health, but it wasn’t the end of his acting career.
His later roles include voiceover performances in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the Stuart Little films, and guest-starring roles in shows like Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rescue Me and The Good Wife, receiving acclaim and many Emmy Award nominations, including a 2009 win for Rescue Me.
But in later years, Fox began to feel his health taking a toll on his acting career. In his 2020 memoir No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, he wrote “not being able to speak reliably is a game-breaker for an actor.”
“There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a twelve-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me,” Fox wrote. “At least for now.”
“I thought of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. There’s a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character can’t remember his lines anymore,” Fox later elaborated in a 2023 interview with Empire Magazine. “He goes back to his dressing room and he’s screaming at himself in the mirror. Just freaking insane.”
“I had this moment where I was looking in the mirror and thought, ‘I cannot remember it anymore.’”
The Doc Hollywood star has also been candid about his condition worsening as he ages, saying he feels Parkinson’s “banging on the door.”
“I’m not gonna lie. It’s gettin’ hard, it’s gettin’ harder. It’s gettin’ tougher,” Fox told CBS Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley last year. “Every day it’s tougher. But, but, that’s, that’s the way it is. I mean, you know, who do I see about that?”
“You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s. I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it. … I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not gonna be 80.”
Fox has stuck to his retirement: he hasn’t appeared in an acting role since his 2020 guest appearance on The Good Fight. But have we really seen the last of this beloved actor? Recently, Fox indicated that he might be willing to unretire once again if the role was right.
“If someone offers me a part and I do it and I have a good time, great,” Fox said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I would do acting if something came up that I could put my realities into it, my challenges, if I could figure it out.”
Fox added that it was a “thrill” working on the recent documentary film Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. “It was fun I never would have set that as a goal. It just happened.”
While he hasn’t been acting lately, Fox has kept busy: his Michael J. Fox Foundation continues to support groundbreaking Parkinson’s research. He’s also been spending time with his wife Tracey and their four children.
“My goals are always shifting. My biggest goal, I think, was to raise a family. We have four amazing kids, and that’s been the big thing,” Fox told ET. “And then the other is with the work we’ve done with the foundation and wanting to achieve those goals.”
While Michael J. Fox hasn’t ruled out a possible return to the screen, don’t expect him to make a return to his most famous movie franchise. When asked about a potential Back to the Future reboot last year, Fox was unenthused.
“I don’t think it needs rebooting because are you going to clarify something? You’re going to find a better way to tell the story? I doubt it,” he told Variety last May.
“Do what you want. It’s your movie. I got paid already.”
While he’s not interested in playing Marty McFly again, he has frequently reunited with former co-stars like Christopher Lloyd. Many cast members recently appeared together at the premiere of the Back to the Future Broadway musical.
We love Michael J. Fox and would love to see him on screen again, but of course he should put his health first and only do what feels right for him.
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