Michael J. Fox, 65, was honored on Monday with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 78th Emmy Awards, appearing on stage in a wheelchair as he lives with Parkinson's disease.
Accepting the award, Fox spoke about receiving his Parkinson's diagnosis at age 29, in 1995, and about keeping it secret for years. He said he had been afraid that talking about the disease would cost him important relationships. At one point, he said he had come to understand that accepting the diagnosis was not surrender.
Standing ovation from the Television Academy
The audience gave Fox a standing ovation as he received thanks from the Television Academy for what it described as his transformative contributions to Parkinson's disease research and advocacy. He also spoke about his efforts to accelerate research into the disease, saying scientists are getting close to a cure through the work of the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Fox is best known for playing Marty McFly in the "Back to the Future" film trilogy and for starring in the sitcom "Family Ties." He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in 2000, which has grown into one of the world's largest nonprofit funders of Parkinson's research.
Monday's ceremony marked Fox's first appearance at the Emmy Awards in more than a decade, even though he had been nominated this year for best guest actor in a comedy series for the third season of "Shrinking."
Previous recipients of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, presented by the Television Academy for charitable and humanitarian work, include Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Sean Penn, among others.
Jean Smart makes Emmy history
The night also brought another milestone. Jean Smart won her fifth Emmy for best actress in a comedy series for her role in "Hacks," an HBO Max series in which she plays an aging Las Vegas comedian mentoring a young writer. Smart has now won the award for all five seasons she starred in the show, marking the first time in Emmy history that a performer has won in every year they were nominated for the same role.
The Primetime Emmy Awards, presented annually by the Television Academy, are the American television industry's top honors, recognizing achievement across scripted and unscripted programming.
