Michael J. Fox Doesn't 'Fear' Dying Amid 33-Year Parkinson's Battle: 'One Day I’ll Run Out of Gas'

The brave face Michael J. Fox wears everyday isn't a facade.

The actor has beat the odds by living with Parkinson's disease for over 30 years, despite most people dying from the incurable illness within two decades of diagnosis.

That's one of the reasons that dad-of-four isn't afraid to acknowledge that his final days could come sooner rather than later.

"One day I’ll run out of gas. One day I’ll just say, ‘It’s not going to happen. I’m not going out today.’ If that comes, I’ll allow myself that," he explained in a new interview. "I’m 62 years old. Certainly, if I were to pass away tomorrow, it would be premature, but it wouldn’t be unheard of. And so, no, I don’t fear that."

The one thing that does scare the Back to the Future lead is "anything that would put my family in jeopardy."

In fact, Fox confessed he sometimes has nightmares about falling onto wife Tracy Pollan, 63, or one of their kids, and them being run over by a bus.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Spin City alum dished on the work he's done to help find a cure.

"Early on someone from a foundation gave me their pitch as to why I should come on [as a spokesman]," he explained, noting he declined. "But then they said the most unusual thing. They said, ‘But if you don’t help us, don’t help them,’ pointing to another foundation. I got so mad. I said, ‘I’ve got to get in here and get this straightened out.’"

The Emmy winner wound up launching the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000 so everyone's money would be going to the same place.

“It seemed straightforward to me. I’m a short kid from Canada who at 17 moved to another country and somehow within five years was a millionaire. I’m of the mind that anything you want to do you can do," he said of having high hopes for the organization.

So far, they've funded nearly $2 billion in research, and the Hollywood star himself has seen the advancements the medical field has made.

"When I was diagnosed, it was like a drunk driving test. Now we can say, ‘You have this protein, and we know that you have Parkinson’s,’" he shared. "It opens the gates for pharmaceutical companies to come in and say, ‘We’ve got a target and we’re going to dump money into it,’ and when they dump money into it, good things happen."

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The Family Ties scene-stealer said his relationship with the disease is "very complicated," explaining, "I’ve said Parkinson’s is a gift. It’s the gift that keeps on taking, but it has changed my life in so many positive ways."

Town & Country interviewed Fox.