From Dumpsters to Stardom: The Incredible Journey of an Iconic Actor and Father of Four

Life has been tough for Michael J. Fox recently.

The beloved actor has been fighting Parkinson’s disease for many years, and as you can imagine, it’s not an easy battle.

But did you know that Michael’s childhood was also difficult? He faced many challenges when trying to make it in Hollywood.

Overall, Michael J. Fox’s life has been very successful, even though Parkinson’s disease has had a big impact on him.

First of all, Michael had a unique upbringing.

He was born on June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, Canada. His father worked in the Canadian Armed Forces, which meant that the family moved around a lot during his childhood.

Michael’s mom worked as a payroll clerk, so the family had a stable income, but Michael grew up in a typical blue-collar home. Eventually, they settled in Burnaby, British Columbia, where Michael J. Fox discovered his love for acting in junior high school.

He joined the Drama department at school, and it was clear that he had a talent for acting. According to his website, his theater teacher encouraged him to audition for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show called *Leo & Me*, and he got the role.

He took on several television roles while also working at a local theater in Vancouver. At this point, Michael J. Fox realized that acting was his true passion. At just 17 years old, he packed his bags to chase his acting dreams in Los Angeles.

“I knew that if I wanted to be someone, I couldn’t just sit on my parents’ porch and think, ‘If I had been born in the States and my parents weren’t living paycheck to paycheck, I could do something with my life,’” he said.

Fox decided to drop out of high school, and his parents always supported his big dreams. His father even drove him all the way to Los Angeles. Recently, while speaking on *LIVE with Kelly and Mark*, Fox said he still doesn’t know how he convinced his father to do it.

“I told him that I wanted to go to Los Angeles because I knew I wanted to be an actor. My father thought I was just being a dreamer. He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘If you want to be a lumberjack, you might as well go to the forest.’ So, he got me in the car and drove me to California,” Michael J. Fox remembered.

However, making it big in Hollywood was not easy. Michael didn’t have the best start; he came from a working-class family and didn’t have much money.

“I was living on the margins. I was 18 years old, with no money, no connections, and I was literally dumpster diving for food,” he told *Variety* in 2023.

Despite these challenges, Fox achieved his dream of becoming an actor. After just a few years, he landed one of his most famous roles as Alex P. Keaton on the comedy series *Family Ties*, which became one of the biggest comedy shows on television.

Not long after, he landed other roles, including his famous part as Marty McFly in *Back to the Future*.

In 2022, Michael revealed that his mother never supported him taking on the role in *Back to the Future*. It seems she had good reasons for her concerns.

At the time he got the role, he was already working during the day on *Family Ties*. When he told his mother about the movie, she advised him against it. Michael recalled their conversation, saying, “I was 23 years old, and I called her while she was in Canada. I said, ‘They want me to do this Steven Spielberg movie, but I have to do it at night and keep doing *Family Ties* during the day.’ She said, ‘You’ll be too tired.’”

However, he admitted that his mother might have been right. He responded, “I live for this kind of tired. It’ll be okay.” He added, “To this day—well, until two weeks ago—my mother thought it was a really bad idea for me to do *Back to the Future*. She loved the movie, but she was right; I did get tired.”

On the set of *Family Ties*, he met Tracy Pollan. They played each other’s love interests on the show. Sparks were only on-screen at that time, but a few years later, they would reunite and fall in love for real.

Even so, Michael J. Fox already had a crush on Tracy while working on *Family Ties*.

He shared, “I developed a crush on her right away. When she left the show—the day she left—we were in the parking lot getting into our cars. She was getting into a rented Volkswagen, and I was getting into my Ferrari. She called me over and said she wanted to play me a song. She played me a James Taylor song called ‘That’s Why I’m Here,’ which was about John Belushi.

One of the lines went, ‘John’s gone, found dead, died high. He’s brown bread, later said to have drowned in his bed. After the laughter, the wave of dread, it hits us like a ton of lead. That’s why we’re here,’” Fox recalled in an interview with NPR.