Back to the Fox: The Early Films of Michael J. Fox

Arguably the definitive all-American teenage boy of the Reagan era—Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties! Marty McFly in Back to the Future!—was, in point of fact, actually Canadian. Credited as “Michael Fox” in the dystopian Canuckspolitation classic Class of 1984, the plucky bantamweight actor would add a “J.” to his billing and several commas to his bank account in the course of seven seasons on the abovementioned NBC sitcom, and soon showed himself much more than an empty-headed Tiger Beat heartthrob in his choices of projects, which included a turn as Joan Jett’s scrappy rocker brother in Paul Schrader’s blue-collar Cleveland-set Light of Day. A figure of nigh-universal admiration in his middle age, as not only an actor but activist and advocate, here we look back fondly on the golden youth of the irrepressible Michael J.