Michael J. Fox joined by family and celeb friends, including Christopher Lloyd, at gala
Michael J. Fox and his family were all smiles at his foundation's annual gala, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Cure Parkinson’s," over the weekend.
The "Back to the Future" star and wife Tracy Pollan posed for photographers alongside son Sam, 34, and twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, 28, at the Michael J. Fox Foundation event, which was held Nov. 11 at Cipriani South Street at Casa Cipriani in New York City.
The couple are also parents to a younger daughter named Esmé, who turned 22 earlier this month.
The star-studded fundraising gala celebrated advancements in research for Parkinson’s disease, including the recent discovery of a biomarker in Parkinson’s.
Sunday TODAY host Willie Geist, an MJFF board member whose dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's more than 30 years ago, also attended the event, as did actors Justin Long, Kate Bosworth and Fox's "Back to the Future" franchise co-star Christopher Lloyd.
Since the organization was founded in 2000, its annual gala has helped raise more than $116 million toward the $2 billion it's funded in Parkinson's research.
The 2023 event alone raised $4 million, the foundation reported. All proceeds from the gala go directly to research programs every year.
The former "Family Ties" star, 62, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991.
In 2021, he opened up to AARP the Magazine about living with the disease, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and the parts of the body controlled by the nerves.
Fox told the magazine his positive attitude and focus on gratitude help him to navigate the challenges of Parkinson’s.
“If you don’t think you have anything to be grateful for, keep looking. Because you don’t just receive optimism. You can’t wait for things to be great and then be grateful for that. You’ve got to behave in a way that promotes that,” he said.
He also said "it’s hard to explain to people how lucky I am, because I also have Parkinson’s. Some days are a struggle. Some days are more difficult than others. But the disease is this thing that’s attached to my life — it isn’t the driver.”
Though Fox continued acting for many years after his diagnosis, he revealed in 2020 he was retiring, writing in his memoir “No Time Like the Future” that he was struggling to memorize and repeat lines.
Still, Fox told the magazine that he's learned to take pride in the work he's accomplished and its legacy. The actor recalled watching “Back to the Future” the previous year on TV and noting how much he enjoyed it.
“It’s amazing — more people, of all ages, approach me now about that movie than ever before. I’m not sure I understood why,” he said. “Then I came across it on TV last Christmas. And I thought I was really good in it, better than I thought I’d been.
“More important, I got the spirit of the movie,” he continued. “I understood it was just a big giggle, and that we all need ... to take credit for what we’ve done and the lives we’ve touched and to occasionally step back a bit and appreciate that much of life has been great and that there’s a lot more to live.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
