“The Screen Actors Guild prohibits any two members from working under the same stage name, and they already had a ‘Michael Fox’ on the books. My middle name is Andrew, but ‘Andrew Fox’ or ‘Andy Fox’ didn’t cut it for me. ‘Michael A. Fox’ was even worse, the word fox having recently come into use as a synonym for attractive. (Presumptuous?) It also sounded uncomfortably Canadian – Michael Eh? Fox – but maybe I was just being oversensitive. And then I remembered one of my favorite character actors, Michael J. Pollard, the guileless accomplice in Bonnie and Clyde. I stuck in the J, which sometimes I tell people stands for either Jenuine or Jenius, and resubmitted my forms.”

-Michael A. Fox