Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at age 29, told Jane Pauley that life with the degenerative disease “is getting harder” and he doesn’t think he will live past 80.
In the interview, which airs Sunday, April 30 at 9 a.m. ET on CBS, the 61-year-old star of “Back to the Future” and “Spin City” tells Pauley that Parkinson’s is “banging on the door.” He said, “I won’t lie. It’s getting tough, it’s getting tough. It’s getting tough. Every day it’s tough. But, it’s the way it is. I mean, you know, I’m About whom do I see?”
Ahead of the May 12 debut of the documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” on Apple TV+, he detailed some of the more serious complications of the terminal illness, including injuries sustained in the fall: “My spine Had bone surgery. I had a tumor in my spine. And it was benign, but it messed up my walking. And then, [I] Started breaking stuff. Broke this hand, and I broke this hand, I broke this elbow. I broke my face. I broke my arm.
Fox said,[That’s] A mass killer with Parkinson’s. It’s falling…and getting food aspiration and pneumonia. All these subtle ways that you get… you don’t die of Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s. So I’m thinking about the mortality of it… I’m not going to be 80. I’m not going to be 80.
The actor established the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2002 to research and develop better therapies for people with Parkinson’s.
Watch a video preview of the interview below.
CBS Sunday Morning airs Sundays (9:00–10:30 AM ET) on CBS and streams on Paramount+. “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Premieres May 12 on Apple TV+,
