Back to the Future

The Parkinson’s secret

Waiting 16 months for Michael J. Fox’s people to call his people, documentary director and journalist Jerry Thompson stumbled upon a medical mystery.

Thompson had been commissioned by Canadian television to make a documentary about Fox, that country’s favourite son, who had recently announced that he had Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Calne said there were at least three other people among the 50-odd crew from the television series Leo and Me, where Fox landed his first role in 1976, who had developed Parkinson’s.

It dawned on Thompson that he might know one of those people. His hunch was confirmed, and eventually his detective work led him to the others. He realised that four people from a crew of 50 contracting the same illness was an odd anomaly.

Don S. Williams

In 1993, Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease – a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. In March 2002, a small flurry of media interest erupted when it was revealed by documentary film-maker Gerry Thompson (for the Canadian broadcaster CTV) that Don was one of four people who worked together at the CBC in 1979 (the most famous being Michael J. Fox) who would all later go on to not only develop Parkinson’s Disease, but to have the symptoms appear at roughly the same time (the early 1990s). Current evidence suggests that as many as eight crew and cast members on the project have developed Parkinson’s symptoms.

This unusual coincidence led to the suggestion that Parkinson’s may possibly have some sort of environmental trigger.

Thus, during the week of March 22–29, 2002, Williams and his doctor were interviewed by Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, CNN, People Magazine,MacLean’s Magazine, CTV and The New York Times.

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