Michael J. Fox
From Futurepedia, the Back to the Future Wiki
Michael J. Fox (born June 9, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta) portrayed Marty McFly throughout the Back to the Future trilogy, Martin McFly Jr. and Marlene McFly in Back to the Future Part II, and William Sean McFly, and Seamus McFly in Back to the Future Part III.
After having co-starred in a television series Family Ties for a few years, series producer Gary David Goldberg was approached and asked to let Fox star in a Steven Spielberg produced film about a time-travelling teenager. At first, Goldberg did not inform Michael about the offer, not wanting to lose Michael to film stardom. Months later, Goldberg was again asked about Michael because Eric Stoltz, who had been chosen for the part after Goldberg stated that Fox wasn't available, was reportedly not giving the energetic performance that Robert Zemeckis, the director, was looking for. Goldberg finally told Michael about the offer and he quickly agreed to play the role of Marty McFly in the film Back to the Future. Fox would rehearse for Family Ties from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. After he was done, he would be rushed to the Back to the Future set where he would rehearse and shoot until 2:30 A.M. This schedule lasted for two full months.
During the year 1985, Fox filmed the teen comedy film, Teen Wolf, before filming Back to the Future, but Back to the Future eventually was released a month before. On July 4, 1985 Back to the Future was number one at the box office. The film was number one for 11 consecutive weeks and eventually earned a worldwide total of $381.11 million. Soon after its release, Fox also appeared in commercials for Pepsi, which was featured in the film.
After Family Ties ended, he continued work on the Back to the Future trilogy with part II and III.
During the 1989 production of Back to the Future Part II, Fox's father passed away, and his wife, Tracy Pollan, gave birth to his first son. Fox, then 28 years old, was made to look "middle aged" with the assistance of makeup artist Bron Roylance, and he paid homage to his father by adding some of his mannerisms to the character. (On June 9, 2008, Fox turned 47 years old, the same age as Marty McFly in 2015.)
Fox was an animal rights activist and a vegetarian, which caused two scenes in the trilogy to be slightly adapted. At his future home in Part II, although Marty McFly Jr. takes a slice of pepperoni pizza at dinner, he picks all the pepperoni off before eating it. At the McFly farm in Part III, there is no meat on the fork he transfers from the serving dish to his plate, and then to his mouth, before he spits out several pieces of buckshot.
After the release of Back to the Future Part III in May 1990, Fox started displaying symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease later the same year while shooting the movie Doc Hollywood, though he wasn't properly diagnosed until the following year. In 1998, he decided to go public with his condition, and since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson's disease research.
In an episode of Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Marty McFly believes he looks like Michael J. Fox, a sort of fourth wall breach or self-reference, however the voice of Marty in the series was not of Fox's.
[edit] See also
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Michael J. Fox. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Futurepedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
