MICHAEL J. FOX WHEN IN DOUBT JUST BE KIND'

AFTER A YEAR OF PAINFUL INJURIES AND PERSONAL LOSS, THE STAR IS LEANING ON THE LESSONS-AND THE LOVED ONESTHAT SUSTAIN HIM

-  ANDREA MANDELL

With gray clouds blanketing New York City's Hudson River behind him, Michael J. Fox is hoisting a chair above his head, pumping its wooden legs into the air like a football player celebrating a quarterback sack.

After recovering from some recent health setbacks, he's in a triumphant mood as he strikes playful poses at People's photo shoot near his Manhattan home. "I'm rocking and rolling," he says. "I feel mahvelous."

Famed for his optimism and tireless activism, Fox-who has helped raise more than a billion and a half dollars for Parkinson's research through his foundation since his 1991 diagnosis with the disease-has weathered difficult periods before. In a memoir two years ago, he chronicled what he called the worst year of his life, a period beginning in 2018 in which a risky spinal-cord surgery to remove a tumor was followed by a painful left-arm break. It ended with his recovery and an African safari with his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, and their four children: son Sam, 33, twin daughters Aquinnah and Schuyler, 27, and youngest daughter Esmé, 21.

Today, as Fox, 61, prepares to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar recognizing outstanding philanthropic efforts, at the Governors Awards on Nov. 19, the mischievous glint is back in his eye-but he has been quietly navigating another challenging chapter. His mother, Phyllis, died in September at the age of 92, and the past year has brought with it a cascade of frustrating new injuries.