Michael J. Fox has revealed that his mother passed away on September 24 at the age of 92.
On October 8, the 61-year-old actor made the tragic announcement during his appearance at the 2022 New York Comic Con, where he also reconnected with his Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future co-star.
The actor shared a touching story about how his mother, Phyllis Fox, initially objected to him filming Back to the Future at night and Family Ties during the day in the 1980s. He noted that she “passed away two weeks ago.”
“I was 23 years old, and I called her, she was in Canada, and I said, ‘They want me to do this Steven Spielberg movie, but I have to do it at night and I have to do Family Ties in the daytime’. And she said, ‘You’ll be too tired,'” Fox shared.
Watch the Fox panel from Comic-Con below (starting at 7:40):
Mentioning what he told his mother, “I live for this kind of tired. It’ll be okay,” in response, Fox continued and said: “To this day – well, till two weeks ago – my mother thought it was a terrible idea for me to do Back to the Future. She loved the movie, [but she was right], I got tired.”
Phyllis was born in 1929 to Henry “Skip” Piper and Jane “Jenny” Piper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, according to an online obituary.
Her nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-granddaughter remain. She is also survived by her sons Steve and Michael, and daughters Jackie and Kelli.
Phyllis “took special pride in raising awareness for Diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease, as well as in serving on the board of the Michael J Fox Theatre in Burnaby,” according to her obituary.
The mother’s family also asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made in her honor to organizations supporting research into Parkinson’s disease, and diabetes, the BC Children’s Hospital, Canuck Place, and the Burnaby General Hospital.
The Family Ties actor, who revealed his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 1998, discussed how he manages his health challenges while also remaining upbeat during Comic-Con.
“Well, in the last year I’ve broken my cheek, my eye socket, my hand, my elbow… my shoulder. I had a rough year of getting beat up. But that was really cool because it made me realize… with gratitude, it’s sustainable,” he shared.
“If you can find something to be grateful for if you can find something and say, ‘Well, that’s good,’ … It’ll always get better… I’m very optimistic,” he continued.
“I’d say optimism is thinking that things are more likely to get better than they are to get worse. If you believe in that, and you are grateful for it, that’ll sustain you the rest of your life,” Fox added.
At Comic-Con, Fox got to see his venerable Back to the Future co-star Christopher Lloyd again. They are best known for playing Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown in the iconic movie.
Our current thoughts are with Fox’s family.
