Nike, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: NKE S&P 500 Component
Industry	Apparels, accessories
Founded	1964 (as Blue Ribbon Sports)[1] 1978 (as Nike, Inc.)
Founder(s)	Bill Bowerman Phil Knight
Headquarters	Washington County, Oregon, United States (Near Beaverton, Oregon)
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Phil Knight (Chairman) Mark Parker (President and CEO)
Products	Athletic footwear and apparel, sport equipments and other athletic and recreational products
Revenue	US$ 20.862 billion (FY 2011)[2]
Operating income	US$ 2.844 billion (FY 2011)[2]
Net income	US$ 2.133 billion (FY 2011)[2]
Total assets	US$ 14.998 billion (FY 2011)[2]
Total equity	US$ 9.843 billion (FY 2011)[2]
Employees	38,000 (May 2011)[2]
Website	Nike.com

Nike, Inc. ( /ˈnaɪkiː/; NYSE: NKE) is a major publicly traded clothing, footwear, sportswear, and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel^[3] and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$18.6 billion in its fiscal year 2008 (ending May 31, 2008). As of 2008, it employed more than 30,000 people worldwide. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state of Oregon, according to The Oregonian.

The company was founded on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight,^[1] and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1978. The company takes its name from Nike (Greek Νίκη, pronounced [nǐːkɛː]), the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding, and subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro and Converse. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey (later renamed Nike Bauer) between 1995 and 2008.^[4] In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just do it" and the Swoosh logo.

Origins and history[link]

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. The company initially operated as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger (now ASICS), making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile.^[5]

According to Otis Davis, a student athlete whom Bowerman coached at the University of Oregon, who later went one to win two gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics, Bowerman made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a claim that they were made for Phil Knight. Says Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman make them from the waffle iron, and they were mine."^[6]

The company's profits grew quickly, and, in 1967, BRS opened its first retail store, located on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear, which would bear the Swoosh newly designed by Carolyn Davidson.^[7] The Swoosh was first used by Nike on June 18, 1971, and was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, 1974.^[8]

The first shoe sold to the public to carry this design was a soccer shoe named Nike, which was released in the summer of 1971. In February 1972, BRS introduced its first line of Nike shoes, with the name derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Năstase, the first professional athlete to sign with BRS/Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became a key marketing tool for the rapidly growing company.

The company's first self-designed product was based on Bowerman's "waffle" design. After the University of Oregon resurfaced the track at Hayward Field, Bowerman began experimenting with different potential outsoles that would grip the new urethane track more effectively. His efforts were rewarded one Sunday morning when he poured liquid urethane into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman developed and refined the so-called "waffle" sole, which would evolve into the now-iconic Waffle Trainer in 1974.

By 1980, Nike had attained a 50% market share in the U.S. athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year.^[9] Its growth was due largely to "word-of-foot" advertising (to quote a Nike print ad from the late 1970s), rather than television ads. Nike's first national television commercials ran in October 1982, during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The ads were created by Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, which had formed several months earlier in April.

Together, Nike and Wieden+Kennedy have created many print and television advertisements, and Wieden+Kennedy remains Nike's primary ad agency. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution.^[9] Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement, which debuted on July 1, 1988.^[10] Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to "Let’s do it", the last words spoken by Gary Gilmore before he was executed.^[11]

Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to encompass many sports and regions throughout the world.^[12]

Acquisitions[link]

As of November 2008, Nike, Inc. owns four key subsidiaries: Cole Haan, Hurley International, Converse Inc. and Umbro. Nike's first acquisition was the upscale footwear company Cole Haan in 1988. In February 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley.^[13] In July 2003, Nike paid US$309 million to acquire Converse Inc., makers of the iconic Chuck Taylor All Stars sneakers.^[14] On March 3, 2008, Nike acquired sports apparel supplier Umbro, known as the manufacturers of the England national football team's kit, in a deal said to be worth £285 million (about US$600 million).^[15] Other subsidiaries previously owned and subsequently sold by Nike include Bauer Hockey and Starter.^[16]

Products[link]

A Nike brand athletic shoe

A pair of Nike Air Jordan I basketball shoes

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, baselayers, etc. for a wide range of sports, including track and field, baseball, ice hockey, tennis, association football (soccer), lacrosse, basketball, and cricket. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'.^[17] In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Nike sells an assortment of products, including shoes and apparel for sports activities like association football,^[18] basketball, running, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf, and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for outdoor activities such as tennis, golf, skateboarding, association football, baseball, American football, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, aquatic activities, auto racing, and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike is well known and popular in youth culture, chav culture and hip hop culture for their supplying of urban fashion clothing. Nike recently teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product that monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe that links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 m) away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network.^[19][20]

In 2004, Nike launched the SPARQ Training Program/Division.^{[citation needed]}

Some of Nike's newest shoes contain Flywire and Lunarlite Foam to reduce weight.^[21]

On July 15, 2009, the Nike+ Sports Band was released in stores. The product records distance run and calories expended, keeps time, and also gives runners new programs online they could try running.^{[clarification needed]}

The 2010 Nike Pro Combat jersey collection were worn by teams from the following universities: Miami, Alabama, Boise State, Florida, Ohio State, Oregon State, Texas Christian University, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. Teams will wear these jerseys in key matchups as well as any time the athletic department deems it necessary.^[22]

Headquarters[link]

Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton, but are within unincorporated Washington County. The city attempted to forcibly annex Nike's headquarters, which led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887 of 2005. Under that bill's terms, Beaverton is specifically barred from forcibly annexing the land that Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix receive the same protection for 30 years.^[23]

Manufacturing[link]

Nike has contracted with more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the United States.^[24] Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India^[25], Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, and Malaysia.^[26] Nike is hesitant to disclose information about the contract companies it works with. However, due to harsh criticism from some organizations like CorpWatch, Nike has disclosed information about its contract factories in its Corporate Governance Report.

Human rights concerns[link]

Sweatshops[link]

Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories (known as Nike sweatshops) in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labor Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories contracted by Nike have violated minimum wage and overtime laws in Vietnam as late as 1996, although Nike claims that this practice has been stopped.^[27] The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are typically manufactured. Sources for this criticism include Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore documentaries.

During the 1990s, Nike faced criticism for the use of child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in factories it contracted to manufacture soccer balls. Although Nike took action to curb or at least reduce the practice, they continue to contract their production to companies that operate in areas where inadequate regulation and monitoring make it hard to ensure that child labor is not being used.^[28]

In 2001, a BBC documentary uncovered occurrences of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike.^[29] The documentary focused on six girls, who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day.

Campaigns have been taken up by many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalisation groups, as well as several anti-sweatshop groups such as the United Students Against Sweatshops.^[30] Despite these campaigns, however, Nike's annual revenues have increased from US$6.4 billion in 1996 to nearly US$17 billion in 2007, according to the company's annual reports.

A July 2008 investigation by Australian Channel 7 News found a large number of cases involving forced labour in one of the largest Nike apparel factories. The factory located in Malaysia was filmed by an undercover crew who found instances of squalid living conditions and forced labour. Nike have since stated that they will take corrective action to ensure the abuse does not continue.^[31]

As of July 2011, Nike stated that two-thirds of its factories producing Converse products still do not meet the company's standards for worker treatment. A July 2011 Associated Press article stated that employees at the company's plants in Indonesia reported constant abuse from supervisors.^[32]

China Olympics[link]

Nike also caused controversy during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, when its sponsored Chinese athlete, Liu Xiang, withdrew from the Olympic 110 metre hurdles, leaving the track after a false start by another competitor. Liu claimed that he withdrew due an ankle injury.^[33] However, an anonymous message was posted on the internet, purportedly from a source close to Nike, claiming that the corporation had forced Liu to withdraw as he was unlikely to win, thereby tarnishing their image. Nike responded by announcing that "we have immediately asked relevant [Chinese] government departments to investigate those that started the rumour".^[34]

Environmental record[link]

According to the New England-based environmental organization Clean Air-Cool Planet, Nike ranks among the top three companies (out of 56) in a survey of climate-friendly companies.^[35] Nike has also been praised for its Nike Grind program (which closes the product lifecycle) by groups like Climate Counts.^[36] One campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured basketball star Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, which had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste from factory floors. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.^[37]

Another project Nike has begun is called Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. This program, started in 1993, is Nike's longest-running program that benefits both the environment and the community by collecting old athletic shoes of any type in order to process and recycle them. The material that is produced is then used to help create sports surfaces such as basketball courts, running tracks, and playgrounds.^[38]

A project through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found workers were exposed to toxic isocyanates and other chemicals in footwear factories in Thailand. In addition to inhalation, dermal exposure was the biggest problem found. This could result in allergic reactions including asthmatic reactions.^[39][40]

Marketing strategy[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Nike promotes its products by sponsorship agreements with celebrity athletes, professional teams and college athletic teams. However, Nike's marketing mix contains many elements besides promotion. These are summarized below.

Advertising[link]

In 1982, Nike aired its first national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. This was the beginning of a successful partnership between Nike and W+K that remains intact today. The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first and only company to receive that honor twice.^[41]

Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial twice since the award was first created in the 1990s. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000 if every dire prediction about the Y2K problem came to fruition.^[42] The second was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a variety of athletic pursuits.^[43]

In addition to garnering awards, however, Nike advertising has generated its fair share of controversy.

Beatles song[link]

Nike was criticized for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike paid US$250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year.

Apple sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy for $15 million.^[44] Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was "groundless" because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono Lennon, a shareholder and director of Apple."

According to a November 9, 1989 article in the Los Angeles Daily News, "a tangle of lawsuits between the Beatles and their American and British record companies has been settled." One condition of the out-of-court settlement was that terms of the agreement would be kept secret. The settlement was reached among the three parties involved: surviving Beatles George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr; Yoko Ono; and Apple, EMI and Capitol Records. A spokesman for Yoko Ono noted, "It's such a confusing myriad of issues that even people who have been close to the principals have a difficult time grasping it. Attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic have probably put their children through college on this."

Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another advertisement.

Minor Threat advertisement[link]

In late June 2005, Nike received criticism from Ian MacKaye, owner of Dischord Records, guitarist/vocalist for Fugazi and The Evens, and front man of the defunct punk band Minor Threat, for appropriating imagery and text from Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled album's cover art in a flyer promoting Nike Skateboarding's 2005 East Coast demo tour.
On June 27, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and fans of both and announced that they have tried to remove and dispose of all flyers. They stated that the people who designed it were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the advertisement out of respect and appreciation for the band.^[45] The dispute was eventually settled out of court between Nike and Minor Threat. The exact details of the settlement have never been disclosed.

Chinese-themed advertisement[link]

Niketown at Oxford Circus, London

Rafael Nadal is currently sponsored by Nike, Inc. (Note the swoosh on Nadal's attire)

In 2004, an ad about LeBron James beating cartoon martial arts masters and slaying a Chinese dragon with martial arts offended Chinese authorities,^[who?] who called the ad blasphemous and insulting to national dignity and to the dragon. The advertisement was later banned in China. In early 2007, the ad was reinstated in China for unknown reasons.^[46]

Nike 6.0[link]

The company rolled out a new campaign in June 2011 called "Nike 6.0" that was aimed at extreme sport athletes. As part of the campaign, Nike introduced a new line of T-shirts that include phrases such as "Dope", "Get High" and "Ride Pipe" – sports lingo that is also a double entendre for drug use. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his objection to the shirts after seeing them in a window display at the city's Niketown and asked the store to remove the display. "What we don't need is a major corporation like Nike, which tries to appeal to the younger generation, out there giving credence to the drug issue," Menino told The Boston Herald. A company official stated the shirts were meant exclusively to pay homage to extreme sports, and that Nike does not condone the illegal use of drugs.^[47] Nike was forced to replace the shirt line.^[48]

Sponsorship[link]

Nike pays top athletes in many sports to use their products and promote and advertise their technology and design.

Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase. The first track endorser was distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder, Bill Bowerman, while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters.

Besides Prefontaine, Nike has also sponsored many other successful track and field athletes over the years, such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sebastian Coe. However, it is the signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his storied career, with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, that proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales.

During the past 20 years especially, Nike has been one of the major clothing and footwear sponsors for leading tennis players. Some of the more successful tennis players currently or formerly sponsored include: James Blake, Jim Courier, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martín del Potro, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchová, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams.

Nike was the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for five years, from 2006 until the end of 2010. Nike beat Adidas and Puma by bidding US$43 million.^[49][50]

Nike sponsors some of the leading clubs in world football, including the national teams of Serbia, India, France, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia.

Some of the world's top golf players are sponsored by Nike, among them Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink, Lucas Glover, Michelle Wie, Trevor Immelman, and Paul Casey.

Nike also sponsors various minor events including Hoop It Up (high school basketball) and The Golden West Invitational (high school track and field). Nike uses web sites as a promotional tool to cover these events. Nike also has several websites for individual sports, including nikebasketball.com, nikefootball.com, and nikerunning.com.

Nike is a major sponsor of athletic programs at Penn State and has decided not to abandon that relationship in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal.^[51]

See also[link]

	Companies portal
	Oregon portal
	United States portal

• Nike sweatshops
• List of companies of the United States
• List of swimwear brands

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Egan, Timothy (September 13, 1998). "The swoon of the swoosh". New York Times Magazine. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nike, Inc.

• Official website
• Nikebiz.com – Business Site
• Oregon Senate Bill 887, as signed by Governor Ted Kulongoski
• Company summary, from the New York Stock Exchange website
• Nike at the Open Directory Project

Coordinates: 45°30′33″N 122°49′48″W / 45.5093°N 122.8299°W / 45.5093; -122.8299

v t e Nike, Inc. Corporate directors John G. Connors  · Jill Ker Conway  · Tim Cook  · Ralph D. DeNunzio  · Alan B. Graf  · Douglas G. Houser  · Phil Knight  · John C. Lechleiter  · Mark Parker  · Johnathan A. Rodgers  · Orin C. Smith  · John Thompson  · Phyllis M. Wise  · Keith White Assets and products Air Jordan  · Air Melo Line  · Cole Haan  · Converse  · Exeter Brands Group  · Hurley  · Nike Air Max  · Nike Considered  · Nike CTR360 Maestri  · Nike Flywire  · Nike Free  · Nike Golf  · Nike Pro  · Nike Mercurial Vapor  · Nike Shox  · Nike SB  · Swoosh  · Air Force 1  · Team Starter  · Nike Tiempo  · Nike Total 90  · Umbro  · Nike Multi-Turf Miscellaneous Nike Sports Research Lab  · Nike ONE  · Spark Suit Annual revenue: $19.2 billion USD (2.9% FY 2009)  · Employees: 26,500  · Stock symbol: NYSE: NKE · Website: nike.com

Michael J. Fox OC
Michael J. Fox in April 2011
Born	Michael Andrew Fox (1961-06-09) June 9, 1961 (age 51) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Actor, author, producer, activist, voice-over artist
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Tracy Pollan (1988–present; 4 children)

Michael J. Fox, OC (born Michael Andrew Fox; June 9, 1961) is a Canadian American actor, author, celebrity, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982–1989) for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996–2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure. This led him to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and on March 5, 2010, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet gave him a honoris causa doctorate for his work in advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease.^[1]

Since 2000 Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and taken guest TV roles such as in Boston Legal, The Good Wife, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me. He has also released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002); Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009); and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). He was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 27, 2011, for his outreach and fundraising work.^[2]

Early life[link]

Michael Andrew Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Phyllis (née Piper), an actress and payroll clerk; and William Fox, a police officer and member of the Canadian Forces.^[3][4] Fox's family lived in various cities and towns across Canada because of his father's career.^[3] The family finally moved to the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, when his father retired in 1971. His father died on January 6, 1990 from a heart attack.^[5] Fox attended Burnaby Central Secondary School, and now has a theatre named after him in Burnaby South Secondary.^[6]

Fox starred in the Canadian television series Leo and Me at the age of fifteen, and in 1979, moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career at the age of eighteen. Shortly after his marriage, he decided to move back to Vancouver, BC.^[3] Fox is one of four members of the Leo and Me cast and crew who eventually developed Parkinson's disease in mid-life, an unusually high number that led to some investigation as to whether an environmental factor may have played a role.^[7][8][9]

Fox was discovered by producer Ronald Shedlo and made his American television debut in the television movie Letters from Frank, credited under the name "Michael Fox". He intended to continue to use the name, but when he registered with the Screen Actors Guild, which does not allow duplicate registration names to avoid credit ambiguities, he discovered that Michael Fox, a veteran character actor, was already registered under the name.^[3] As he explained in his autobiography, Lucky Man: A Memoir, and in interviews, he needed to come up with a different name. He did not like the sound of "Andrew" or "Andy" Fox, so he decided to adopt a new middle initial and settled on "J", as an homage to actor Michael J. Pollard.^[5]

Acting career[link]

Early career[link]

Michael J. Fox with Tracy Pollan at the 40th Emmy Awards^[10] in August 1988 shortly after they were married

Fox's first feature film roles were in Midnight Madness (1980) and Class of 1984 (1982), credited in both as Michael Fox. Shortly afterward, he began playing "Young Republican" Alex P. Keaton in the show Family Ties which aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. Fox received the role only after Matthew Broderick was unavailable.^[11] Family Ties had been sold to the television network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids,"^[11] with the parents originally intended to be the main characters. However, the positive reaction to Fox's performance led to his character's becoming the focus of the show following the fourth episode.^[11] At its peak, the audience for Family Ties drew one-third of America's households every week.^[3] Fox won three Emmy awards for Family Ties in 1986, 1987 and 1988 respectively.^[12] He also won a Golden Globe Award in 1989.^[13]

Brandon Tartikoff, one of the show's producers, felt that Fox was too short in relation to the actors playing his parents, and tried to have him replaced. Tartikoff reportedly said that "this is not the kind of face you'll ever find on a lunch-box". After his later successes, Fox presented Tartikoff with a custom-made lunch-box with the inscription "To Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox". Tartikoff kept the lunch-box in his office for the rest of his NBC career.^[14]

While filming Family Ties, Fox met his future wife, Tracy Pollan, when she portrayed his girlfriend, Ellen.^[3] When Fox left the TV series Spin City, his final episodes made numerous allusions to Family Ties: Michael Gross (who played Alex's father Steven) portrays Mike Flaherty's (Fox's) therapist,^[15] and there is a reference to an off-screen character named "Mallory".^[16] Also, when Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C., he meets a conservative senator from Ohio named Alex P. Keaton, and in one episode Meredith Baxter played Mike's mother.

[edit] Back to the Future trilogy

Michael J. Fox at the 40th Emmy Awards, August 1988.

Back to the Future tells the story of Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time from 1985 to 1955. He meets his parents in high school, accidentally attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by causing his parents to fall in love, while finding a way to return to 1985. Robert Zemeckis, the director, originally wanted Fox to play Marty but Gary David Goldberg the creator of Family Ties, which Fox was working on at the time, refused to allow Zemeckis to even approach Fox as he felt that as Meredith Baxter was on maternity leave at the time, Fox's character Alex Keaton was needed to carry the show in her absence. Eric Stoltz was cast and was already filming Back to the Future, but Zemeckis felt that Stoltz was not giving the right type of performance for the humor involved.^[17] Zemeckis quickly replaced Stoltz with Fox whose schedule was now more open with the return of Meredith Baxter. During filming, Fox would rehearse for Family Ties from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, then rush to the Back to the Future set where he would rehearse and shoot until 2:30 a.m.^[3] This schedule lasted for two full months.^[3] Back to the Future was both a commercial and critical success. The film spent 8 consecutive weekends as the number-one grossing movie at the US box office in 1985, and eventually earned a worldwide total of $381.11 million.^[18] Variety applauded the performances, arguing Fox and his co-star Christopher Lloyd imbued Marty and Doc Brown's friendship with a quality reminiscent of King Arthur and Merlin.^[19] Two sequels, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, were released in 1989 and 1990, respectively.

Mid-career[link]

Fox in September 1987

During and immediately after the Back to the Future trilogy, Fox starred in Teen Wolf (1985), Light of Day (1987), The Secret of My Success (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and Casualties of War (1989).

In The Secret of My Success, Fox played a recent graduate from Kansas State University who moves to New York City where he has to deal with the downs and ups of the business world. The film was successful at the box office, taking $110 million worldwide.^[20] Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun Times wrote; "Fox provides a fairly desperate center for the film. It could not have been much fun for him to follow the movie's arbitrary shifts of mood, from sitcom to slapstick, from sex farce to boardroom brawls."^[21]

In Bright Lights, Big City Fox played a fact-checker for a New York magazine, who spends his nights partying with alcohol and drugs. The film received mixed reviews, with Hal Hinson in The Washington Post criticizing Fox by claiming that "he was the wrong actor for the job".^[22] Meanwhile Roger Ebert praised the actor's performance: "Fox is very good in the central role (he has a long drunken monologue that is the best thing he has ever done in a movie)".^[23] During the shooting of Bright Lights, Big City, Michael was reunited with his on-screen girlfriend Tracy Pollan from Family Ties.

Fox then starred in Casualties of War, a war drama about the Vietnam War, alongside Sean Penn. Casualties of War was not a box office hit, but Fox, playing a Private serving in Vietnam, received good reviews for his performance. Don Willmott on film critic’s website wrote; "Fox, only one year beyond his Family Ties sitcom silliness, rises to the challenges of acting as the film's moral voice and sharing scenes with the always intimidating Penn."^[24]

In 1991, he starred in Doc Hollywood, a romantic comedy about a talented medical doctor who decides to become a plastic surgeon. While relocating from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, California, he winds up as a doctor in a small southern town. Michael Caton-Jones, from Time Out, described Fox in the film as "at his frenetic best".^[25] The Hard Way was also released in 1991, with Fox playing an undercover actor learning from police officer James Woods. Between 1992 and 1996, he continued making several films, such as For Love or Money (1993), Life With Mikey (1993) and Greedy (1994). Fox then played small supporting roles in political drama The American President (1995) and comedy Mars Attacks! (1996).^[3]

His last major film role was in The Frighteners (1996). The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he uses his new abilities by cheating customers out of money for his "ghost hunting" business. However, a mass murderer comes back from Hell, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence. Fox's performance received critical praise, Kenneth Turan in The Los Angeles Times wrote; "The film's actors are equally pleasing. Both Fox, in his most successful starring role in some time, and Alvarado, who looks rather like Andie MacDowell here, have no difficulty getting into the manic spirit of things."^[26]

Fox has also done voice-over work providing the voice of Stuart Little in the Stuart Little movie and its sequel, both of which were based on the popular book by E. B. White.^[27] He also voiced the American Bulldog Chance in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and its sequel Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, as well as Milo Thatch in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.^[27]

[edit] Spin City and later career

The hand prints of Michael J. Fox in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Spin City ran from 1996 to 2002 on American television network channel ABC. The show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, originally starring Fox as Mike Flaherty, a Fordham Law graduate serving as the Deputy Mayor of New York.^[3] Fox won an Emmy award for Spin City in 2000,^[12] three Golden Globe Awards in 1998, 1999 and 2000^[13] and two Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1999 and 2000.^[28] During the third season of Spin City, Fox made the announcement to the cast and crew of the show that he had Parkinson's Disease. During the fourth season, he announced his retirement from the show to focus on spending more time with his family.^[29] He announced that he planned to continue to act and would make guest appearances on Spin City (he made three more appearances on the show during the final season). After leaving the show, he was replaced by Charlie Sheen, who portrayed the character Charlie Crawford.^[30] Altogether, 145 episodes were made. Fox also served as an executive producer during his time on the show, alongside co-creators Bill Lawrence and Gary David Goldberg.^[30]

In 2004, Fox guest starred in two episodes of the comedy-drama Scrubs as Dr. Kevin Casey, a surgeon with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.^[31] The series was created by Spin City creator Bill Lawrence.^[31] In 2006, he appeared in four episodes of Boston Legal as a lung cancer patient.^[32] The producers brought him back in a recurring role for Season three, beginning with the season premiere. Fox was nominated for an Emmy Award for best guest appearance.^[12] In 2009, he appeared in five episodes of the television series Rescue Me which earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.^[12] Since 2000 Fox has released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002), Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). In 2010, Fox returned to television as a guest star in the US drama The Good Wife and has since appeared in four more episodes as rival attorney, Louis Canning. ^[33]

He made an appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Vancouver, Canada, and delivered comedic monologues, along with William Shatner and Catherine O'Hara, in the "I am Canadian" part of the show.^[34]

Along with Tatjana Patitz, Fox appears in the 2011 Carl Zeiss AG calendar, photographed by Bryan Adams in New York City in the summer of 2010.^[35]

Despite a soundalike voicing his character of Marty McFly in the 2011 Back to the Future episodic adventure game, Fox lent his likeness to the in-game version of McFly alongside Christopher Lloyd. Fox makes a special guest appearance in the final episode of the series as an elder version of Marty, as well as his great-grandfather Willie McFly.^[36][37]

Personal life[link]

The Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby

Fox married actress Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988, at West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vermont. The couple have four children: Sam Michael (born May 30, 1989), twins Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances (born February 15, 1995), and Esmé Annabelle (born November 3, 2001). Fox holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.^[38] On February 28, 2010, Fox provided a light-hearted segment during the 2010 Winter Olympics' closing ceremony in Vancouver, Canada, wherein he expressed how proud he is to be Canadian.^[39] On June 4, 2010, the City of Burnaby, British Columbia honoured Fox by granting him the Freedom of the City.^[6]

Illness and activism[link]

Fox started displaying symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease in 1990 while shooting the movie Doc Hollywood, although he was not properly diagnosed until the next year.^[29] After his diagnosis, Fox began drinking more heavily than in the past; however, he sought help and stopped drinking altogether.^[40] In 1998, he decided to go public with his condition, and since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson's disease research.^[3] His foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, was created to help advance every promising research path to curing Parkinson's disease, including embryonic stem cell studies.^[3]

Fox manages the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease with the drug Sinemet,^[41] and he also had a thalamotomy in 1998.^[42]

His first book, Lucky Man, focused on how, after seven years of unacceptance of the disease, he set up the Michael J Fox Foundation, stopped drinking and began to be an advocate of PD sufferers.^[43]

In Lucky Man, Fox wrote that he did not take his medication prior to his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1998;

In an interview with NPR in April 2002,^[41] Fox explained what he does when he becomes symptomatic during an interview;

In 2006, Fox starred in a campaign ad for then-Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill in her 2006 Senate campaign against incumbent Jim Talent, expressing her support for stem cell research. In the ad, he visibly showed the effects of his Parkinson's medication;

The New York Times called it "one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years" and polls indicated that the commercial had a measurable impact on the way voters voted, in an election that McCaskill won.^[47] His second book, Always Looking Up: The Adventures Of An Incurable Optimist, describes his life between 1999 and 2009, with much of the book centered on how Fox got into campaigning for stem-cell research.^[43] On March 31, 2009, Fox appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Dr. Oz to publicly discuss his condition as well as his book, his family and his prime-time special which aired May 7, 2009 (Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist).^[48]

His work led him to be named one of the 100 people "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world" in 2007 by Time magazine.^[49] On March 5, 2010, Fox received an honorary doctorate in medicine from Karolinska Institutet for his contributions to research in Parkinson's disease.^[50] He also has received an honorary doctor of laws from the University of British Columbia.^[51]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Video games 

Back to the Future: The Game (2011): Willie McFly, Future Marty McFly – Voice only, video game, Episode 5: "Outatime"

Producer[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Canada's Walk of Fame

• 2000: Inducted, Canada's Walk of Fame^[52]

Hollywood Walk of Fame

• 2002: Star on the Walk of Fame – 7021 Hollywood Blvd.^[53]

Emmy Awards^[12]

• 1985: Nominated, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
• 1986: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
• 1987: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
• 1988: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
• 1989: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
• 1997: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
• 1998: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
• 1999: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
• 2000: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
• 2006: Nominated, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series – Boston Legal
• 2009: Won, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series – Rescue Me
• 2011: Nominated, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series- The Good Wife