Michael J. Fox came onto the stage in a wheelchair and a black suit, and the crowd at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles rose to meet him. The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award went to the actor turned Parkinson’s research advocate at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, handed to him on Monday, September 14, 2026.
The award recognized Fox, 65, for decades of funding and advocacy for Parkinson’s disease research, and the room stood for him both before and after he spoke. He and his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, had not attended the Emmy Awards together in 13 years. Actress Julianna Margulies, his former co-star on the legal drama “The Good Wife,” presented the award. From the stage, Fox called Margulies a fine scene partner. His time on the show had been a pleasure, he said, though he was happy to leave the legal jargon behind.
He then 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.
The audiences themselves gave him his answer, he said. “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 taught him that accepting Parkinson’s did not mean giving in to it, he said. He called the recognition a humbling honor, then turned to his family — Tracy Pollan, his wife of more than 30 years, their four adult children, and his parents and siblings. “I thank Tracy and our kids for their sacrifices, for their patience and for their love,” he said. “You have no idea.”
Years of Keeping the Diagnosis Quiet
Doctors told Fox he had young-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1991, when he was 29 and his career — built on “Family Ties” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy — was at its height. He kept it private for years and kept working, starring in films including “For Love or Money” and “The American President” and in the ABC series “Spin City.” Fox made the diagnosis public in 1998 and stepped back from his lead role on “Spin City” in 2000. In 2020, as managing the disease became increasingly difficult, he retired from full-time acting.
His earlier credits include “Teen Wolf,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Casualties of War” and “Doc Hollywood.”
More Than $3 Billion for Research
Fox founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000, and it is now the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research. Its grants have supported more than $3 billion in research programs. His original aims, he told the Emmys audience, were to advocate for patients’ needs, raise money and search for a cure, recruiting people to lead the effort and committing to funding the best science available.
“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. A cure is close, he said, and the fight to eradicate the disease is one he promised to continue.
A stretch of the speech went to the man the award is named for. “Christmases, Thanksgivings, other holidays where he could have been celebrating 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 [singer] Lola Falana,” Fox said at the September 14 ceremony. The lesson, he said, was that when things get hard, you show up and help, and he could not have known how those lessons would resonate in his own life.
He closed the speech by thanking his wife, his family and Bob Hope, whose humanitarian example, he said, had shown him “how it’s done.”
The Crowd on Its Feet
Inside the Peacock Theater, nobody could mistake the reaction. Fox talked about the diagnosis and the years he spent hiding it, and the room visibly moved with him. A long ovation followed, which Fox acknowledged with a gesture to the crowd.
The Television Academy and the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation have presented the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award since its creation in 2002, honoring someone working in television whose charitable work reflects the spirit of the entertainer it is named after. It has been given out only seven times in Emmys history. In July, the Television Academy named Fox as this year’s recipient, citing his public advocacy along with the optimism and humor he has brought to writing and speaking about his own challenges.
Another reason to celebrate came with Fox to the ceremony. Already a five-time Emmy winner, he collected his 19th career nomination 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 actor Harrison Ford as therapist Dr. Paul Rhoades. Bill Lawrence, the show’s co-creator, also co-created “Spin City.”
Those wins go back to the 1980s. Fox took Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series three years running beginning in 1986 for “Family Ties,” won the same category a fourth time for “Spin City” in 2000, and added Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for “Rescue Me” in 2009.
Mariska Hargitay hosted the night, which NBC carried live. “Widow’s Bay” and “The Pitt” took the top series prizes, and actors Matthew Rhys and Jean Smart made history.
