A standing ovation greeted Michael J. Fox, the actor turned Parkinson’s research advocate, as he came onto the stage in a wheelchair and a black suit to accept the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, September 14, 2026, with the crowd at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles on its feet.
Fox, 65, was honored for decades of Parkinson’s disease research funding and advocacy, and the ovations came both before and after his remarks. He attended with his wife, Tracy Pollan, in what was their first appearance together at the Emmy Awards in 13 years. Actress Julianna Margulies, his former co-star on the legal drama “The Good Wife,” presented the award. Speaking from the stage, Fox praised Margulies as an acting partner and said he had enjoyed his run on the series, adding that he was glad to be done with legalese.
Fox 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 the 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, he said, taught him that accepting Parkinson’s did not mean giving in to it. He called the recognition a humbling honor and finished on his family — Pollan, his wife of more than 30 years, their four adult children, and his parents and siblings back in Canada. “I thank Tracy and our kids for their sacrifices, for their patience and for their love,” he said. “You have no idea.”
A Diagnosis He Kept Private
Doctors diagnosed Fox with 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 said nothing publicly for years and kept working, appearing in films including “For Love or Money” and “The American President” and starring in the ABC series “Spin City.” He made the diagnosis public in 1998 and stepped back from his lead role on “Spin City” in 2000. In 2020, with the disease increasingly difficult to manage, he retired from full-time acting.
“Teen Wolf,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Casualties of War” and “Doc Hollywood” are among his earlier credits.
More Than $3 Billion in Research
Fox founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000. It is now the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research and has supported more than $3 billion in research programs. His aim, he told the Emmys audience, was to advocate for patients’ needs, raise money and search for a cure; he recruited people to lead the effort and committed 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 he vowed to keep fighting to eradicate the disease.
Part of the speech belonged to the man the award is named for. His parents were born during the Great Depression, Fox said, and to them Bob Hope was more than an entertainer. “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 lukcy [singer] Lola Falana,” he said of Hope.
The lesson he took from that, Fox 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 by thanking his wife, his family and Bob Hope, whose humanitarian example, he said, showed him “how it’s done.”
A Room on Its Feet
There was no mistaking the reaction inside the Peacock Theater. As Fox described the diagnosis and the years he spent hiding it, the room was visibly moved. The ovation afterward ran long, and Fox gestured to the crowd in acknowledgment.
The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award dates to 2002 and goes to someone working in television whose charitable work reflects the spirit of the entertainer it is named after; the Television Academy and the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation present it. In a post the night of the September 14 ceremony, Spencer Althouse noted that the honor “has only been given out 7 times in Emmys history.” The Television Academy announced Fox as this year’s recipient in July, pointing to his public advocacy and to the optimism and humor with which he has written and spoken about his own challenges.
Fox had another reason to celebrate at the ceremony. A five-time Emmy winner with 19 nominations overall, he collected a nod this year in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category, recognizing 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, a co-creator of that show, also co-created “Spin City.”
The wins go back to the 1980s: three consecutive trophies for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series beginning in 1986 for “Family Ties,” a fourth in that category for “Spin City” in 2000, and 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.
