Michael J. Fox delivered one of the most emotional moments of the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday night, accepting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his decades of advocacy and fundraising for Parkinson’s disease research.
Fox received the honor onstage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles from his former The Good Wife co-star Julianna Margulies. The Television Academy said the award recognizes Fox’s “transformative contributions to Parkinson’s disease research and advocacy.”
The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, established in 2002, is not presented every year. It honors a television industry figure whose philanthropic work reflects Hope’s own legacy of service and has made a lasting impact on society. Previous recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Danny Thomas, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.
Fox opened his acceptance speech with humor, telling the audience, “I have to sit, so you enjoy it,” before thanking Margulies and joking about the dense legal dialogue they once had to memorize together on The Good Wife.
He then connected the honor directly to Bob Hope.
Fox recalled that his parents grew up during the Great Depression and World War II and viewed Hope as much more than an entertainer. To Fox, Hope’s decades of entertaining military personnel became an example of what service could look like.
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“When it starts to get tough, he’d show up, he’d help,” Fox said. “And if you had a little joy while you’re doing it, that’s even better.”
That lesson, Fox explained, took on new meaning after he was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease while still in his late 20s.
He initially kept the diagnosis private, worried about what it might mean for his career and his relationship with audiences.
“Would they laugh if they knew I was sick?” Fox recalled wondering.
Instead, he said, the response he received gave him the confidence to keep working.
“I hadn’t lost what I could do, and they couldn’t take it away from me,” he said. “And it’s because you stood up for me.”
Fox publicly revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1998 and founded The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000. The organization has since become the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research and has supported more than $3 billion in research programs.
In his Emmy speech, Fox said the turning point came when he realized that accepting the disease did not mean surrendering to it.
“Eventually, I understood that accepting Parkinson didn’t mean I had to surrender to it,” he said. “It just meant doing what I could for everyone living with this disease.”
Fox became visibly emotional as he talked about the Foundation’s mission and the people behind it, briefly stopping himself before continuing.
He credited the scientists, staff, donors and Parkinson’s community who have driven the organization’s work and said he remains proud of the progress being made toward better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
The actor also singled out longtime Foundation leader and co-founder Deborah Brooks, along with Sergey Brin and the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, before thanking his wife Tracy Pollan and their four children – Aquinnah, Esmé, Schuyler and Sam – for their sacrifices, patience and love.
He closed by bringing the speech back to Hope – and the sense of humor that has remained central to Fox’s public life.
“And thank you, Bob,” Fox said. “Now where’s Lola Falana?”
Fox entered the ceremony as a five-time Emmy winner with 19 career nominations, including a 2026 nomination for his guest performance on Apple TV’s Shrinking. His television legacy includes three consecutive Emmy wins for Family Ties, another for Spin City and a guest-acting Emmy for Rescue Me.
But Monday’s honor wasn’t for another performance.
It was about what Fox chose to do when the role he never auditioned for became part of his life – and how he turned that diagnosis into decades of advocacy for millions of others.
