On Sunday, Michael J. Fox made an unexpected visit to present the best film award to the BAFTA attendance. Despite using a wheelchair to enter the stage, the Parkinson’s disease-affected “Back to the Future” star persisted on getting up to deliver the prize to Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer.”
Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan Gosling, star of “Barbie,” were among the crowd who stood to applaud Fox, 62, after he was introduced by host David Tennant as a “true legend of cinema.” During the presentation of the best film nominees, Fox referred to movies as “magic” and said they might “change your life.”
The 2023 documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which chronicles the adored actor’s life and work, was a BAFTA Award candidate. The movie was defeated by the PBS and The Associated Press production “20 Days in Mariupol.”
Michael J. Fox Chooses Christopher Nolan For Best Film Award
Then he gave the award to Christopher Nolan and his team for “Oppenheimer,” the epic about the atomic bomb. Fox was also there because his movie “Still,” which is about his battle with cancer, was up for best documentary at the BAFTAs.
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In 1991, when Fox was 29 years old, he was told he had Parkinson’s. The neurological disease makes people stiff, shaky, and has trouble coordinating their movements, and it gets worse over time, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Parkinson’s disease, the fastest-growing neurodegenerative ailment in the United States, is an incurable brain disorder characterized by “unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination,” according to the National Institute on Aging.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29, and seven years later, in 1998, he officially announced the news.
Fox has been open about his illness. Last year, he told Variety that his Parkinson’s disease caused him to have mental health problems and hurt him in some ways. Along with his Parkinson’s, he talked about having hope on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
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“I recognize how hard this is for people, and I recognize how hard it is for me,” he stated. “But I know how to handle this because I have certain skills.” And I learned that gratitude makes hope last. You can keep going if you can find something to be thankful for.
The actor from “Spin City” has been injured in the past; in 2018, he broke his upper arm healing from a dangerous spinal surgery to remove a noncancerous tumor.