Michael J. Fox

Can you picture a timeline in which Michael J. Fox did not portray Marty Mcfly? It almost happened.

On July 3, 1985, moviegoers ready for some Fourth of July holiday fun got that in droves when they were introduced to Back to the Future.

It’s hard, if not impossible, to imagine the blockbuster succeeding as well as it did without its perfect casting — especially Fox as lead character Marty Mcfly.

Fox’s ability to combine dramatic and emotional moments with impeccable comic timing — honed during the years he had already spent as a TV star headlining the sitcom Family Ties — helps make his Marty especially relatable to audiences. Believe it or not, though, as much as Marty risks accidentally creating other futures in the BTTF films, our actual reality was briefly headed toward an alternate history in which it was Eric Stoltz, not Fox, who played Marty. Although Fox was director Robert Zemeckis’ first choice for the role, the actor’s Family Ties commitment made it challenging for him. So, by late 1984, filming got underway with Stoltz as Marty. Stoltz is certainly a fine actor but Zemeckis may have found him too serious in his approach. Eventually, Fox was able to reconcile his TV and film work. But the ’80s were not done bringing audiences Michael J. Fox crowd-pleasers and despite his big-screen success, Fox stayed with Family Ties until the series ended in 1989, balancing it with other film work. The following decade, Fox had notable features and then led another sitcom, Spin City, from 1996 to 2000. Since his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease in the early ’90s, he has focused more on voice work versus onscreen roles, though he tried a return to television with The Michael J. Fox Show in 2013-14.