Michael J. Fox had a fall onstage during the Back to the Future expo on Sunday, leaving attendees concerned. The actor, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29, had just arrived on the stage when he lost his balance and fell on a couch.
Fortunately, the 61-year-old did not suffer any injury and was able to stand again shortly after. The incident comes just a few weeks after Fox revealed that his battle with the disease has worsened. Read on to know more about the development.
Michael J. Fox Falls Onstage at Back to the Future Expo
Fox was at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Sunday along with his Back to the Future co-stars Christopher Lloyd and Tom Wilson to attend an expo based on the film trilogy. He had just been introduced to the panel when he bowed to his co-stars and lost his balance, tripping on stage.
Fox thankfully landed on a couch instead of the hard floor. He then quickly got up and ensure the audience that he was alright. The actor has been dealing with Parkinson’s disease since 1991. The condition is known to cause balance issues.
The Actor Recently Revealed that his Battle with Parkinson’s Disease is Getting Harder
Just a few weeks ago, Fox had a candid interview with Journalist Jane Pauley on CBS Sunday Morning and revealed that it was getting harder for him to live with Parkinson’s disease. “[Parkinson’s] knocking on the door. I’m not going to lie, it’s getting hard. It’s getting harder. It’s getting harder,” he said.
“It’s getting harder every day…. that’s the way it is. I’m not gonna be 80. You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s. So – so I’ve been – I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it,” Fox added. In an earlier interview in 2021, he talked about living with the disease for more than half of his life.
“I’m really blunt with people about cures. When they ask me if I will be relieved of Parkinson’s in my lifetime, I say, I’m 60 years old, and science is hard. So, no. I am genuinely a happy guy. I don’t have a morbid thought in my head — I don’t fear death. At all,” the actor stated at the time.
Fox Decided to Retire from Acting in 2020
Apart from Back to the Future, Fox has also been a part of some memorable films including Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, Doc Hollywood, Stuart Little, and The Hard Way. Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, he continued to work and appeared in several television shows as well.
In 2000, he founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation which is aimed at ‘funding research and ensuring the development of improved therapies for people with Parkinson’s.’ In 2020, Fox announced that he would be retiring from acting due to ‘the increasing unreliability of his speech’.
He explained, “There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a 12-hour workday and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me. I enter a second retirement. That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.”
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