Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox has been awarded an honorary Oscar for his work in the fight against Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that the Canadian actor has suffered from for the past 30 years. 'years.
Aged 61, he received the statuette for the humanitarian commitment of a personality from the world of cinema, during a gala evening on Saturday evening in Los Angeles where all-Hollywood crowded.
Read alsoTom Cruise joins the Patrouille de France as an honorary
“You make me tremble, stop it!”
the actor joked as he received a standing ovation, before calling the award
a “totally unexpected honour”
.
Michael J. Fox achieved star status in the
Back to the Future
trilogy
,
filmed between 1985 and 1990, in which he played Marty McFly, a time-traveling teenager.
A life spent with the disease
In 1991, when he was only 29 years old, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and was told that he had only ten years of activity ahead of him.
Some 10 million people worldwide suffer from this disease which affects motor functions.
He turned a chilling diagnosis into a courageous commitment.
Actor Woody Harrelson on Michael J. Fox.
Woody Harrelson, who starred with him in
Doc Hollywood
at the time of his diagnosis, told the audience on Saturday that he
"couldn't believe it, because Mike had such invincible, super-human qualities. »
.
“He never indulged in self-pity, on the contrary he transformed a chilling diagnosis into a courageous commitment
,” he added.
Read alsoOn the poster for the new Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta steps up against “whiteness”
Michael J. Fox, who shot to fame in the 1980s on the NBC sitcom
Family Ties
,
went
public with his illness in 1998 when the hit television series
Spin City
was released .
He went into partial retirement a few years later, devoting himself to his foundation to finance research against Parkinson's disease, and raising more than a billion dollars.
"I didn't do anything heroic
," he said on Saturday.
The comedian, who retired from filming permanently in 2020, suffered multiple bone fractures and other injuries from falls in recent months, requiring shoulder surgery.
On Saturday he walked the stage, asking his wife and former partner in
Sacred Family,
Tracy Pollan, to help him carry his statuette.
Diane Warren also rewarded
The honorary Oscars are awarded to reward the work of a lifetime, and since 2009 have been the subject of a separate award from the main ceremony, with an overloaded program.
Among the main personalities distinguished are the actresses Angelina Jolie and Liz Taylor, and the star host Oprah Winfrey.
Read alsoFrom the Marrakech festival to the Champs-Élysées, the crazy week of Tahar Rahim
The golden statuette was also awarded on Saturday to Diane Warren, songwriter of hits like
Aerosmith's
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing .
Nominated thirteen times for Oscars, she had never won one before.
“I have a lot of speeches that have remained crumpled up in my pockets
,” she joked, to loud applause.
Peter Weir, the Australian director of
Witness
,
Dead Poets Society
and
The Truman Show
, made a rare return to Hollywood to receive his Oscar.
French director Euzhan Palcy, originally from Martinique, received the statuette for a career including, in 1989,
Une saison blanche et sec
, based on André Brink's novel on apartheid in South Africa, with Marlon Brando in the distribution.
“My stories are neither white nor black, they are universal, colorful
,” she said.