TV listings, entertainment news and streaming suggestions from your hometown newspaper, serving Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1498508
2 • Terre Haute Tribune-Star • May 7 - 13, 2023 Michael J. Fox's life has en- tailed a lot, and as his many fans long have been aware, not all of it has been for the cameras. The five-time Primetime Emmy Award winner was at the height of his popularity as an actor when he received a diagnosis of Parkin- son's disease in 1991, and both his private and public aspects get considerable attention in "STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie," which Apple TV+ debuts Friday, May 12. Directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") – whose wife, Elisabeth Shue, worked with Fox in the "Back to the Future" franchise – the film factors dramat- ic re-creations into Fox-narrated recollections of his experiences. Though Fox admits he had early difficulty emotionally in dealing with his health assessment, he ulti- mately channeled the situation into the nonprofit Michael J. Fox Foun- dation for Parkinson's Research. It has financed more than $1 billion in projects, including a recent break- through involving a spinal fluid test. Fox also has traced his life and times in several memoirs: "Lucky Man," "Always Looking Up: The Adven- tures of an Incurable Optimist" and "No Time Like the Future: An Op- timist Considers Mortality." Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scienc- es gave Fox the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an ac- knowledgment of his significance as a member of the entertainment community. After he moved to Los Angeles from his native Can- ada, it wasn't long before he was cast as politically minded Alex P. Keaton in the sitcom "Family Ties"; during its seven-season run, he also scored such movie successes as the three "Back to the Future" films, "Teen Wolf " and "The Secret of My Success," plus image departures in "Bright Lights, Big City" (co-starring Fox's wife, Tracy Pollan) and "Ca- sualties of War." After making such early-1990s comedy films as "Doc Holly- wood" and "For Love or Money," Fox returned to weekly sitcom work in "Spin City." Midway through that show's run, he went public with his Parkinson's news, and Charlie Sheen succeeded him in the series. However, Fox earned later acclaim for recurring guest roles on "Boston Legal," "Rescue Me" and "The Good Wife." In 2012, Fox made a bid for se- ries work again with "The Michael J. Fox Show," which incorporated aspects of his real life as he played a TV newsman. It lasted less than one season, but afterward, Fox reunited with earlier movie co-star and longtime friend Kiefer Suther- land in a guest arc on the latter's show "Designated Survivor." Though Fox maintains that he has retired from acting, he notes that could change under the right circumstances. For now, he's back in the limelight by telling his own story in "STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie," and it's a singular tale that's worth relating – and hearing – firsthand. coverstory BY JAY BOBBIN "Back to the Future" is among the films excerpted in "STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie," which streams Friday on Apple TV+. Apple TV+ profiles Michael J. Fox in 'STILL' Color Page