In 1994, Michael J. Fox worked with his first Douglas in Greedy. The legendary actor Kirk Douglas, from Lust for Life and Paths of Glory, played a grumpy old man stuck in a wheelchair with his money, that his suck-up kids have already spent in their heads. Kirk makes Fox dance and sing and keep him entertained and, of course, he’s the only non-greedy kid in the litter. But Fox gets even when he successfully cock-blocks the old man. From Kirk, Michael J. Fox supported Michael Douglas in the 1995 romantic comedy The American President, as he tried to keep his love life out of the papers, kinda like what President Bubba Clinton was doing at the time, only cuter and more cuddly. The American President also starred Annette Bening, Martin Sheen and Richard Dreyfuss. It was directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. There was enough budding politician in Fox’s Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy get him reassigned to television for Spin City.

The Frighteners and Mars Attacks! are probably my overall favorite Michael J. Fox movies. In The Frighteners, Fox is not quite so charming, but far more interesting as an anti-hero, a conman taking advantage of people’s fears and mourning. Fox played a small medium. Ever since his wife was killed he sees dead people but he’s not quite so depressing as the kid from The Sixth Sense. The Frighteners was directed by Peter Jackson, who made the what-I-consider-classic horror comedies Bad Taste and Braindead and who would go on to make the Hobbit movies. Jackson is already losing his indie cred here by letting Fox break good at the end. The Frighteners was the last movie Michael J. Fox starred in, well, live anyway, he could still make animal noises. Mars Attacks! is basically Tim Burton seeing how much rubber he could put on Jack Nicholson’s face to hide him in dozens of parts and only pay him one salary. It worked for me, though. Mars Attacks! had an all-star supporting cast of Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Rod Steiger, and Christina Applegate in but it was stolen outright by Sylvia Sidney when she laughs at learning that the Martians “killed Congress.” I’ve always had a thing for Sylvia Sidney, though. She got her skull cracked by a cop when she went on strike in Dead End and played in the early noir film You Only Live Once.

Fox did it doggie style again for Homeward Bound 2 traded his snout for some ears and went for another classic animal character, Stuart Little. Stuart Little was directed by future Lion King Rob Minkoff and co-written by Greg Brooke and M. Night Shyamalan, but we didn’t find out that Snowball, voiced by Nathan Lane, snacked on his rodent brother in the last two minutes, leaving red kibbles and bits around as clues that we should have all seen. (Too many Sixth Sense references?) Stuart Little’s overgrown Little parents, the Littles, were played by Geena Davis and Dr. House, Hugh Laurie. It became an instant kids classic and Fox would eat cheese again for two more films.

Fox started showing signs of Parkinson’s during Doc Hollywood in 1990. He hid it from the public for years, but when he went public he really went public, becoming an outspoken activist, starting a foundation and personally extracting stem cells. Parkinson’s put a hiccup in Fox’s career, but not for long as he washed his hands on Scrubs, guilted The Good Wife, took Larry David’s parking space in Curb Your Enthusiasm and lost all but his head on Boston Legal. Taking on more and more roles until, well, now, when he’s got his own show again. The Michael J. Fox Show, but he’s not playing Michael J. Fox. That would be too easy.