Michael Andrew Fox OC (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American actor, author, producer, and activist with a film and television career spanning from the 1970s. He starred in the Back to the Future trilogy where he portrayed Marty McFly. Other notable roles have included Mike Flaherty on the ABC sitcom Spin City (1996–2000) and his portrayal of Alex P. Keaton on the American sitcom Family Ties. He has won five Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 at age 29, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. He partly retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an advocate for research toward finding a cure; he created the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and Sweden's Karolinska Institutet gave him an honoris causa doctorate on March 5, 2010 for his work advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease.