On January 4th, US President Joe Biden named nineteen Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. This is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, given in recognition of exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, the pursuit of world peace, and/or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.
2025’s recipients include Emmy award winner Michael J. Fox, Oscar winner Denzel Washington, AFI founder George Stevens, Jr., and U2 frontman Bono. Recipients from the world of sports include former basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson and soccer player Lionel Messi. Political leaders including the late Secretary of Defense Ashton Baldwin Carter, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the late Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George W. Romney were honored.
Alongside chef/restaurateur José Andrés, entrepreneur and LGBTQI activist Tim Gill, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, philanthropists David M. Rubenstein, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, and George Soros. Ethologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and educator William Sanford Nye aka Bill Nye The Science Guy round out the honorees.
Medal of Freedom Honorees
Fox’s talents as an actor have garnered him five Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. He is also a vocal advocate for Parkinson’s disease research and development.
Nye’s character Bill Nye The Science Guy has been a favorite educator for generations of school children. In addition to his work in early education, he is the CEO of the Planetary Society and an advocate for space exploration and environmentalism.
Washington is an actor, director, and producer who has earned two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, and the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. Outside of movies, he has been a National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.
Bono’s contributions to society include his early activism against the AIDS crisis and poverty. He also brought together several political figures from opposing parties to create the PEPFAR AIDS program and co-founded the campaigning organizations ONE and (RED).
Stevens, Jr. is an award-winning writer, director, author, and playwright. Not to mention the founding of the American Film Institute (AFI) and the creation of the Kennedy Center Honors. These organizations have an incalculable impact on film preservation and theater.
Below you can check out a video from Fox’s former co-star Christopher Lloyd of him receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. We all knew you could do it, Marty:
