Blake Hall
Welcome to the future.
Unless you’ve been cave-dwelling, you’ve probably noticed the hubbub surrounding the date today: October 21, 2015. Which is familiar — to many — for this reason and this reason alone:
That’s the time travel dash in the DeLorean** from the classic action movie Back to the Future.
Happy “Back to the Future Day”.
And with that — here’s a fascinating “Back to the Future Day” military story:
“I was thinking of working on the fish dock or joining the military like my dad,” Michael J. Fox, the man who played Marty McFly once upon a time said, according to PEOPLE magazine. “Then suddenly I found myself on a set with Steven Spielberg.”
That’s right. He found himself on the set of Back to the Future in 1985 — whilst juggling his day job on the set of the television show Family Ties — and the rest, as they say, is history.
But he did really seriously consider quitting the business of acting at the completion of his role as the young conservative Alex B. Keaton on the popular sitcom. His father, William Fox, was a police officer and a member of the Canadian Forces. So, yeah. Fox might’ve not been United States military (he was born in Edmonton Canada), but he would’ve been military nonetheless. Currently, in 2015, the former star has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.
He currently resides in Manhattan.
His costar in the beloved time travel film, Christopher Lloyd, had — believe it or not — some interesting, deeply American ties. His grandfather was a founder of the Texaco oil company and his descendants came over on the Mayflower.
**John DeLorean, the meteoric businessman and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, was a United States Army veteran. He was drafted in 1943 and served America for three years during World War II.
But anyway …
This one goes out to all the lovers out there: