Michael J. Fox is a Canadian-American activist and retired actor who rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom Family Ties.

Fox is famous for his role as protagonist Marty McFly in the Back to the Future film trilogy, a critical and commercial success. He went on to headline several films throughout the 1980s and 90s, including Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, Casualties of War, Doc Hollywood, and The Frighteners. Fox returned to television on the ABC sitcom Spin City in the lead role of Mike Flaherty.

Fox founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help fund Parkinson’s research and is the bestselling author of four books. His most recent memoir, No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, was published on November 17, 2020. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, a compendium of wisdom for graduates was published in April 2010. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, published in April 2009, debuted at number two on the New York Times bestseller list. It was accompanied by an ABC-TV primetime special that was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special; additionally, the audio recording by Fox won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, an honor for which all three books were nominated. His first book, the 2002 memoir Lucky Man, also was a New York Times and national bestseller.