He was diagnosed at 29. Canada just gave him its highest honor for what he did next.

Michael J. Fox was 29 when he learned he had Parkinson's — the tremors, stiffness and slowness that would eventually end his acting career. In 1998 he told the world about it anyway, and in 2000 he turned his fame into the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has since raised some $2.5 billion for research into a cure. On Friday, a standing ovation filled Rideau Hall in Ottawa as Governor General Louise Arbour promoted him to Companion of the Order of Canada — one of the country's highest civilian honors — citing his "powerful global advocacy and unflinching honesty about Parkinson's." "At the end, you have a 65-year-old guy who's uniquely Canadian because of all those things," Fox said of growing up in Canada, calling the moment pride and humility at once.