As career changes go, his was a doozy. This spring Michael J. Fox gave up a starring role as New York City Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty on ABC's popular sitcom Spin City and took on a new job—Parkinson's disease activist. In January the 39-year-old actor, who two years ago announced he had been battling the degenerative neurological condition since 1991, decided to leave the show after four seasons. Now as chairman of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, he is determined to heighten awareness of the disease and increase government funding for research into a cure. Fox has been heartened by public response to his mission. "As a performer, I do my best for the audience," he said shortly after his final Spin City appearance on May 24. "Now it appears people who have watched that work are interested in doing something for me, so it energizes me to do this to the best of my abilities."
Since last year he has lobbied Congress for more money; lately he has been getting his organization's Web site up and running (the goal is to make www.michaeljfox.org a comprehensive clearinghouse for information on research, treatment options and funding sources). He also is at work on his autobiography, but Fox, who collected his fourth Emmy Award in September, hasn't abandoned show business. He is developing a sitcom for his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, 40, and he consults on Spin City, where he continues to be credited as executive producer. He's "very happy," he says, with this season's show and its new star Charlie Sheen, whom he calls "very funny and yet very subtle." The cast and crew, however, remain devastated by Fox's departure. "We miss him and talk about him every day," says creator Gary David Goldberg. "Before we tape the show, we usually start by talking about him to the audience."
Fox tunes in Wednesday nights from his apartment in New York City—where son Sam, 11, and 5-year-old twin daughters Schuyler and Aquinnah attend school—or the family's house in rural western Connecticut. He admits that his Parkinson's symptoms—slow or clumsy movements, garbled speech, tremors—are tough to control even with medication. And yet Fox refuses to let illness drag him down. "Every time I see him, it's 'I'm off to here, and I'm off to there,' " says former Spin City cast-mate Heather Locklear. "He makes it all seem so easy."
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