Christopher Lloyd, 88, has revealed his decades-long battle with cocaine, alcohol and marijuana addiction in a new memoir published this week.
The “Back to the Future” star’s book, “In My Own Time: A Memoir,” hit shelves Tuesday and details how a single encounter outside a Los Angeles comedy club in the 1970s launched years of substance abuse. Lloyd writes that he followed a woman he had just met to her car, where he tried cocaine for the first time.
“That was all it took. I was hooked almost immediately. I loved it, and that was where my cocaine abuse began,” he writes in the memoir.
His use of cocaine, alcohol and pot soon became what he describes as “entrenched,” though he maintains he never performed on stage or on camera while under the influence. “I wasn’t asking myself what it meant or what it was doing for me,” Lloyd adds in the book. “I just knew I liked it, and before long it had a hold on me.”
The Emmy-winning “Taxi” alum recounts a harrowing incident in 1983, when the sitcom was canceled after five seasons. Lloyd had spent the night arguing with his then-girlfriend while high and drunk, then crashed at his nephew’s Los Angeles home. When he returned, his partner had locked him out of their residence.
He began punching the windows. “The next thing I remember, I was lying on the floor of my kitchen, bleeding out, and paramedics were attending to me,” he writes. Lloyd later learned he had lost so much blood that paramedics had to administer plasma. The injury required surgery and physical therapy so he would be “able to spread [his] fingers correctly.”
In a strange coincidence, Lloyd’s “Taxi” costar Andy Kaufman had died the previous evening at the very same hospital, succumbing to cancer at 35.
The “Addams Family” star eventually sought help, entering rehab in 1993 after working with a psychologist who helped him recognize the destruction drugs and alcohol were causing in his life. But recovery proved difficult. “That was the beginning, but not the end of it,” Lloyd confesses. “I relapsed a few times after that.”
His final sobriety date came years later. “Some years later on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time,” he writes.
Beyond his addiction struggles, Lloyd’s memoir also delves into his celebrated acting career. He writes warmly of his time as the wild-haired Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown in the “Back to the Future” trilogy, the role that made him a pop-culture fixture. He reveals that the part nearly went to other performers, disclosing that both John Lithgow and Jeff Goldblum were on the short list to play the iconic time-traveling scientist before he landed the gig.
Lloyd’s disclosure adds him to a growing number of veteran performers who have publicly examined their past substance abuse. The timing of his candor comes as Hollywood continues broader conversations about addiction and mental health in the industry.
The memoir arrives as Lloyd remains active in film and television, with his distinctive voice and manic energy still recognizable to audiences decades after his breakthrough roles.