the star of Return to the futureMichael J. Fox, was awarded an honorary Oscar for his performance in favor of the fight against Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease that the Canadian actor has suffered for thirty years.
At the age of 61, he received the statuette for the humanitarian commitment of a personality from the world of cinema, during a gala evening on Saturday night in Los Angeles where he packed all of Hollywood.
“You make me tremble, stop it!” the actor joked as he received a standing ovation, before calling the award “a totally unexpected honor.”
“He never gave in to self-pity”
Michael J. Fox gained star status in the trilogy Return to the future (Return to the future), filmed between 1985 and 1990, in which he plays a time-travelling teenager, Marty McFly.
In 1991, when he was only 29 years old, he was diagnosed Parkinson’s disease, and is told that he only has ten years of activity ahead of him. About 10 million people worldwide suffer from this disease that affects motor functions.
Woody Harrelson, who starred with him in Doc Hollywood at the time of his diagnosis, told an audience on Saturday that he “couldn’t believe it, because Mike had such invincible and superhuman qualities.”
“He never indulged in self-pity, on the contrary, he turned a chilling diagnosis into a courageous commitment,” he added.
Multiple bone fractures
Michael J. Fox, who rose to fame in the 1980s with the NBC sitcom sacred Family (Family ties) made his illness public in 1998, when the hit television series premiered revolving city.
He went into partial retirement a few years later, dedicating himself to his foundation funding Parkinson’s disease research, raising more than $1 billion.
“I didn’t do anything heroic,” he said Saturday.
The star, who stopped touring for good in 2020, suffered multiple broken bones and other injuries from falls in recent months, requiring shoulder surgery.
On Saturday he took the stage, asking his wife and his ex-partner in sacred Family Tracy Pollan to help carry her statuette.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The honorary Oscars are awarded to reward the work of a lifetime, and since 2009 they have been the subject of a delivery separate from the main ceremony, with an overloaded program. Among the main prominent personalities are the actresses Angelina Jolie and Liz Taylor, and the stellar presenter Oprah Winfrey.
The golden statuette was also presented on Saturday to Diane Warren, author and songwriter of hits such as I do not wanna Miss a Thing from Aerosmith. Nominated thirteen times for Oscars, she had never won one before.
“I have quite a few speeches that have crumpled up in my pockets,” he joked, to loud applause.
Peter Weir, the Australian director of Witness, Dead Poets Society either the truman showHe made a rare return to Hollywood to receive his Oscar.
French director Euzhan Palcy, originally from Martinique, received the statuette for an included career in 1989 A dry white seasonBased on André Brink’s novel about apartheid in South Africa, with Marlon Brando in the cast.
“My stories are neither black nor white, they are universal, colorful,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
