Michael Fawkes

I’m Michael Fawkes; or at least I was. My real name is Michael Fox, but I couldn’t get that name when I joined British Actors Equity in the early 1970s because the name was already taken. I had already started my career in Vancouver Canada before moving to England to go to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School which, upon graduating from, I joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company for a season, immediately after which I moved to London where, amongst other things, I did a three-part mini-series for BBC called ‘A Divorce’ directed by Piers Haggard and featuring Polly James, Julia Foster, Michael Kitchen et moi. When I returned to Canada after seven wonderful years in England, my first TV gig was for the CBC in an episode of a ‘regional’ series, shown only in BC and Alberta, called ‘Leo And Me’ co-starring a young actor named Michael Fox. I relinquished that name to him with Canadian Actors Equity Association and Associated Canadian Television and Radio Actors and took Michael “Fawkes” in Canada moving forward. Michael added the J. when he moved to LA and learned that there was already a Michael Fox in the Screen Actors Guild, and tried to add his middle initial, which is A for Andrew; but was advised by his agent that the name Michael A. Fox might suggest that he was interested in pursuing a career in a ‘particular sector’ of the motion picture industry. Coincidentally, my middle name is John; so I’m the ‘real’ Michael J. Fox. After returning to Canada I enjoyed a career of steady employment working at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, in musical theater – (1,600 perfs of Phantom in Toronto!) – in regional theatres across the country, and in radio and television until retiring from the life of an actor in 2000 after closing night of A Fiddler On The Roof at the Stratford Festival which had starred, in the role of Tevye, a friend I had worked with off and on since we were just out of our teens, back in Vancouver, the immensely gifted, deeply loved, and much much missed Brent Carver who, incidentally, was the other co-star with Michael J. in Leo and Me all those years ago. It’s been a great ride!