As Dr. Perry Cox on “Scrubs,” John McGinley exhibited a hard-to-match intensity. In real life, that intensity comes out in his fierce devotion to his three kids, the oldest of whom was born with Down syndrome.
“It was like getting hit with a cosmic hammer,” McGinley says of son Max’s diagnosis at birth, on a video call with TODAY.com.
“Max was going to be a girl. Everything was all squared away. He showed up, and his 21st chromosome had tripled, he had heart issues and sleep apnea and some digestive tract problems, and I just shut down.”
The year after Max’s birth was a roller coaster for McGinley and his ex-wife, Lauren Lambert. Adjusting to their new reality and keeping an eye on the heart condition Max was born with (which ultimately resolved itself) took some time, so McGinley stepped back from acting to focus on his family.
“It was time to circle the wagons and everything else had to wait,” he says. “Since then, he has has grown into this lovely, lovely, stubborn, very opinionated young man who absolutely loves his sisters.”
Raising Three Kids
Eventually, McGinley married his current wife, Nichole McGinley. In addition to Max, now 28, the couple raised their daughters Billie Grace, 17, and Kate, 15.
The girls are “so, so profoundly verbal, and that’s Maxie’s biggest challenge,” McGinley shares. In fact, that Kate plans to graduate high school two years early.
“It was a real focus to empower both of them, you know. Not put a wet blanket on Kate and Billy Grace being verbal, but still trying to empower Max to create as much language as he can,” he says.
Balancing the very different needs of all three children can require a good deal of finesse, but the actor hasn’t noticed any conflict between the three.
“I never wanted Max to be a burden to his two sisters. I wanted them to be the instigators or the initiators of activities done with their brother,” McGinley explains. “They’ve treated Max as the biggest gift in the history of the planet, and it’s shaped the way they see the world.”
He emphasizes that “the way the girls treat their brother and have integrated Max into their lives, it’s the stuff of a parent’s dreams.”
Swinging For the Fences
Like many of the characters McGinley plays, he tends to think big.
His son loves swings, so McGinley made him some really big swings.
“You know that juice you’re looking for when you’re on the top arc of a swing? Max, he craves it,” says McGinley, who refers to that “juice” as “vestibular stimulation.”
When Max outgrew the playground swings, McGinley built something taller. He had giant swings constructed out of 25-foot telephone poles. McGinley says with a laugh, “They’re ridiculous but they’ve yielded dividends.”
In addition to swinging, Max loves to strum. He plays rhythm guitar for a band called Spec Labs. The band’s name is derived from the fact that all of its musicians are on the spectrum in some capacity.
“Watching that evolution has been incredible because he used to play with his back to the audience, but eventually he turned around and played in front of the audience,” McGinley says.
McGinley’s Advocacy
McGinley cheers for his son in private but also advocates for him on a larger stage. He has been a staunch advocate for the GLOBAL Down Syndrome Foundation for years, primarily due to its focus on research and lobbying to ensure that every person with Down syndrome has an equitable chance at a satisfying life.
“This is going to sound a little crass, but I don’t want to be with a pamphlet-driven group,” McGinley says with Dr. Cox intensity. He wanted to support an organization that will create real, lasting change, and he believes GLOBAL will do just that.
As part of October’s Down Syndrome Awareness Month, McGinley will take part in GLOBAL’s “Be Beautiful, Be Yourself” fashion show, which is the largest fundraiser for Down syndrome in the world. He’ll be one of the celebrity escorts helping models with Down syndrome rock the runway.
The Return of Dr. Cox
He will also be heading to Vancouver to film the “Scrubs” reboot, along with Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke.
“I know we’re shooting in Vancouver, and that’s all I know, because I haven’t seen a word of text,” McGinley jokes while holding up his travel paperwork. “But it doesn’t matter, Billy Lawrence is doing it. It’s going to be great!”
In fact, McGinley asked series creator Lawrence to add a storyline with a special needs patient. And in Season 8, he did.
“It was great to put someone, a young adult born with Down syndrome on the show. He crushed it, and he crushed Dr. Cox and it was a great episode,” McGinley recalls.