It appears the curtain is closing on Michael J. Fox’s acting career. The Emmy winner, 59, writes in his new memoir, "No Time Like the Future," that he is mulling another retirement from acting due to the effects of living with Parkinson's disease for nearly 30 years.
"The nascent diminishment in my ability to download words and repeat them verbatim is just the latest ripple in the pond," he writes.
"There are reasons for my lapses in memorization — be they age, cognitive issues with the disease, distraction from the constant sensations of Parkinson's, or lack of sensation because of the spine — but I read it as a message, an indicator."
Fox, who was 29 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991, believes the days of working in the tough grind of Hollywood have passed him.
"There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a twelve-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me," he writes. "At least for now."
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Fox, with a dose of self-deprecation, described deciding to close this chapter of his life.
"In fairness to myself and to producers, directors, editors, and poor beleaguered script supervisors, not to mention actors who enjoy a little pace, I enter a second retirement,” he writes.
“That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it."
Fox became a TV star the ‘80s playing Alex Keaton on NBC’s “Family Ties” and ascended to another level of fame when he played the time-traveling teen Marty McFly in 1985’s “Back to the Future.”
He retired from acting on the TV show “Spin City” and from show business altogether in 2000, about two years after he publicly revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis.
He has, however, continued to grace the small screen, appearing on “Scrubs,” “Boston Legal,” “Designated Survivor,” “The Good Wife,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Rescue Me,” the latter for which he netted an Emmy Award in 2009. He also starred in his own short-lived series, “The Michael J. Fox Show.”
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