A standing ovation met Michael J. Fox at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 14, 2026, as he came onstage in a wheelchair and a black suit to accept the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.
The crowd was on its feet both before and after he spoke. Fox, 65, was honored for decades of Parkinson’s disease research funding and advocacy, and he came with his wife, Tracy Pollan, marking their first Emmys appearance together in 13 years. Handing him the award was Julianna Margulies, his former co-star on the legal drama “The Good Wife.” “First of all, thank you to Julianna,” Fox began. “You’re so kind. You’re such a great acting partner, and had a great time on that show.”
From there he turned to the disease that reshaped his career. “Initially, I kept my Parkinson’s diagnosis a secret. I worried that it would affect my work and my relationships with audiences. Would they laugh if they knew I was sick?” Fox told the room.
Audiences, he said, answered the question themselves. “All of you are so uplifting and just made me feel like I could keep doing this,” he continued. “I hadn’t lost what I do, and it couldn’t take it away from me. And it’s because you stood up for me.”
That response, he said, taught him that accepting Parkinson’s did not mean giving in to it. He called the recognition a humbling honor and closed on his family. “Now the part where I thank Tracy and our kids for their sacrifices, for their patience, and for their love — you have no idea — and of course, my mom and dad, and my sisters and brother in Canada.”
The Years He Kept It Private
Fox was 29 when doctors diagnosed him with young-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1991, at a peak in a career built on “Family Ties” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy. For years he said nothing publicly and kept working, taking roles in films including “For Love or Money” and “The American President” and starring in the ABC series “Spin City.” He made the diagnosis public in 1998, and two years later he stepped back from his lead role on “Spin City.” By 2020, with the disease increasingly difficult to manage, he retired from full-time acting.
His earlier credits also include “Teen Wolf,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Casualties of War” and “Doc Hollywood.”
$3 Billion for Parkinson’s Research
In 2000, Fox founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The organization calls itself the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research and says on its own site that it has invested $3 billion in the field. He told the Emmys audience his aim was to advocate for patients’ needs, raise money and search for a cure; he recruited people to lead the effort and committed to funding the strongest science possible.
Ahead of the September 14 ceremony, Fox talked about serving as a public face of the disease in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE. “[I knew] my name could attract attention to help us achieve our goals faster. But I also have this disease. I know the issues and I share my community’s sense of urgency,” he said. He added: “Of course, things have gotten harder over the years.”
“I am proud of the progress we’ve made to benefit Parkinson’s patients and families,” he said, crediting the foundation’s staff, donors, researchers and the wider Parkinson’s community. He said a cure is close, and he vowed to keep fighting to eradicate the disease.
Fox gave part of the speech to the entertainer the award is named for, noting that his parents were born during the Great Depression. “To them, Bob was more than an entertainer. He was a selfless champion of soldiers and military families like mine for decades,” Fox said onstage September 14. “Christmases, Thanksgivings, other holidays where he could have been celebrating with his family, he was showing up for the troops in Berlin, Saigon, the Middle East, with a turkey leg and a golf club, and maybe if you’re lucky, Lola Falana,” he said.
“He embodied everything I came to believe in years later,” Fox went on. “I learned from his example. When it starts to get tough, you show up, you help.” After thanking his wife, his family and Hope — whose humanitarian example, he said, showed him “how it’s done” — he looked out at the room and asked: “Now where’s Lola Falana?”
A Room on Its Feet
The reaction inside the Peacock Theater was unmistakable. The room was visibly moved as he recounted the diagnosis and the years he kept it hidden. When he finished, the ovation ran long, and Fox gestured to the crowd in acknowledgment.
Created in 2002, the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award goes to someone working in television whose charitable work reflects the spirit of the entertainer it is named after. Previous honorees include Oprah Winfrey; Danny Thomas, honored posthumously in 2004; George Clooney in 2010; Sean Penn in 2022; and Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen last year. The Television Academy and the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation present it. Posting on the night of the ceremony, Spencer Althouse noted that the honor “has only been given out 7 times in Emmys history.” Back in July, the Television Academy named Fox as this year’s recipient, pointing to his public advocacy and to the optimism and humor with which he has written and spoken about his own challenges.
Fox has won five Emmys and holds 19 nominations overall, one of them this year in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category for his portrayal of Gerry, a man living with Parkinson’s, in Apple TV+’s “Shrinking,” opposite Harrison Ford as therapist Dr. Paul Rhoades. Rob Reiner beat him in the category, winning for “The Bear.” Bill Lawrence, a co-creator of “Shrinking,” also co-created “Spin City.”
Those wins date to the 1980s. He took three consecutive trophies for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series beginning in 1986 for “Family Ties,” added a fourth in that category for “Spin City” in 2000 and won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for “Rescue Me” in 2009.
Mariska Hargitay hosted the night, which NBC carried live. “The Pitt” repeated as outstanding drama series, and “Widow’s Bay” took outstanding comedy, the first horror show to win one of the top three series prizes. The show ended the awards cycle with 14 statuettes, eight of them at the Creative Arts Emmys, a record for a comedy series in a single year that surpassed last year’s mark set by “The Studio.” “DTF St. Louis” won outstanding limited series. Matthew Rhys became the first performer to win two lead acting Emmys in a single night, and Jean Smart won a fifth straight for “Hacks.”