Michael J. Fox will receive the Television Academy's Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at this year's Emmy Awards, in recognition of his contributions to Parkinson's disease research and advocacy. The honour is one of the ceremony's most significant, previously given to figures including Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Sean Penn, and its announcement adds to a notable year for Fox, who is also an Emmy nominee for his guest role in Apple TV's "Shrinking".

The award will be presented as part of the 78th Emmy Awards telecast on NBC on 14 September, while his acting nomination will be decided at the separate, non-televised Emmys on 6 September. Created in 2002, the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award has only been given five times before, to Winfrey, Danny Thomas, Clooney, Sean Penn, and last year's joint recipients Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. Fox, best known for "Family Ties" and the "Back to the Future" trilogy, has won five of his 19 Emmy nominations and publicly disclosed his young-onset Parkinson's diagnosis in 1998 before founding the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in 2000.