Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938)[1] is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990) and Jim Ignatowski in the comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a pair of Emmy Awards.
Lloyd was born on October 22, 1938, in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Ruth Lloyd (née Lapham; 1896–1984), a singer and sister of San Francisco mayor Roger Lapham,[1][2] and her lawyer husband Samuel R. Lloyd Jr. (1897–1959). He is the youngest of three boys and four girls, one of whom, Samuel Lloyd, was an actor in the 1950s and
1960s.[3] Lloyd's maternal grandfather, Lewis Henry Lapham, was one of the founders of the Texaco oil company[4] and Lloyd is also a descendant of MayflowerpassengerJohn Howland.[5] Lloyd was raised in Westport, Connecticut, where he attended Staples High School and was involved in founding the high school's theater company, the Staples Players.[6]
In 1977, he said of his training at the Neighborhood Playhouse under Meisner, "My work up to then had been very uneven. I would be good one night, dull the next. Meisner made me aware of how to be consistent in using the best that I have to offer. But I guess nobody can teach you the knack, or whatever it is, that helps you come to life on stage."[14]
Lloyd portrayed the star character in the adventure game Toonstruck, released in November 1996. In 1999, he was reunited onscreen with Michael J. Fox in an episode of Spin City entitled "Back to the Future IV — Judgment Day", in which Lloyd plays Owen Kingston, the former mentor of Fox's character, Mike Flaherty, who stopped by City Hall to see Kingston, only to proclaim himself God. That same year, Lloyd starred in the film remake of the 1960s series My Favorite Martian. He starred on the television series Deadly Games in the mid-1990s and was a regular on the sitcom Stacked in the mid-2000s. In 2003, he guest-starred in three of the 13 produced episodes of Tremors: The Series as the character Cletus Poffenburger. In November 2007, Lloyd was reunited onscreen with his former Taxi co-star Judd Hirsch in the season-four episode "Graphic" of the television series Numb3rs as Ross Moore. He then played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a 2008 production of A Christmas Carol at the Kodak Theatre with John Goodman and Jane Leeves.[17] In 2009, he appeared in a comedic trailer for a faux horror film version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory entitled Gobstopper, in which he played Willy Wonka as a horror film-style villain.[18]
In 2010, the Vermont-based Weston Playhouse, of which Lloyd's brother Sam was an active member, asked if there was a role Lloyd would be interested in taking on. Lloyd chose Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, which played at Weston and at other venues throughout Vermont that fall.[19] Also that September, he reprised his role as Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in Back to the Future: The Game, an episodic adventure game series developed by Telltale Games.[20] That same month, the production company 3D Entertainment Films announced Lloyd would star as an eccentric professor who with his lab assistant explore the various dimensions in Time, the Fourth Dimension, an approximately 45-minute Imax3D film that was planned for release in 2012.[21][22]
On January 21, 2011, he appeared in "The Firefly" episode of the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe as Roscoe Joyce.[23] That August, he reprised the role of Dr. Emmett Brown (from Back to the Future) as part of an advertising campaign for Garbarino,[24] an Argentine appliance company, and also as part of Nike's "Back For the Future" campaign for the benefit of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. In 2012 and 2013, Lloyd reprised the role of Doc Brown in two episodes of the stopmotion series Robot Chicken. He was a guest star on the 100th episode of the USA Network sitcom Psych as Martin Khan in 2013.
In May 2018, Lloyd made a cameo appearance in the episode titled "No Country for Old Women" of Roseanne, where he played the role of Lou, the boyfriend to the mother of Roseanne and Jackie. He is set to reprise the role in an episode of its spin-off, The Conners, airing May 4, 2022.[27] In late 2019, he provided the voice of Xehanort in the "Re Mind" downloadable content of Kingdom Hearts III, taking over the role from the late Leonard Nimoy and Rutger Hauer, and reprised the role in the 2020 video game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
By July 2020, Lloyd was cast as The Alchemist in Man & Witch, a family-friendly fantasy-adventure film directed by Rob Margolies, with Jim Henson's Creature Shop set to create the puppets for the film.[28]
In September 2021, Lloyd portrayed Rick Sanchez in a series of promotional interstitials directed by Paul B. Cummings for the two-part fifth season finale of Rick and Morty, a character inspired by Lloyd's portrayal of Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown from Back to the Future, alongside Jaeden Martell as Morty Smith.[30][31] Addressing his own and original voice actor Justin Roiland's portrayals of Sanchez compared to Doc Brown, Lloyd stated that "he felt like Doc and Rick were like two brothers that took different paths."[32]
In April 2022, it was announced that Lloyd would star in Spirit Halloween: The Movie, a film produced in partnership with the Spirit Halloween retailer.[34][35] He plays Alec Windsor, a wealthy land developer who disappeared one Halloween night, and whose spirit is said to haunt the town in which the film is set each year on Halloween.[36][37] The film was released on video-on-demand (VOD) on October 11, 2022.[36][38]
In April 2023, Lloyd guest starred in an episode of the third season of The Mandalorian, portraying the role of Commissioner Helgait.[39] More recently, he was announced to be starring in the live-action Knuckles series.[40]
Personal life
Lloyd married Catharine Dallas Dixon Boyd, on June 6, 1959.[7] They divorced in 1971.[41] He married actress Kay Tornborg in 1974, divorcing her circa 1987.[42] Lloyd's third marriage, to Carol Ann Vanek, had lasted more than two years when they were in the process of divorce in July 1991.[43] His fourth marriage, to screenwriter Jane Walker Wood, lasted from 1992 to 2005.[1][41]
In 2016, he married Lisa Loiacono,[44] who was Lloyd's real estate agent when he sold his house in Montecito, California, in 2012.[45] His former house on that lot was destroyed in the Tea Fire of November 2008.[45][46]
Lloyd's philanthropist mother, Ruth Lapham Lloyd, died in 1984 at age 88. Her other surviving children were Donald L. Mygatt (who died in 2003), Antoinette L. Mygatt Lucas, Samuel Lloyd III (who later died in 2017), Ruth Lloyd Scott, Ax Lloyd, and Adele L. Kinney.[47] Lloyd's nephew, Sam Lloyd (1963–2020), was known for playing lawyer Ted Buckland on Scrubs.
^ ab"Ex-wife sues actor Lloyd for unpaid alimony". Associated Press. September 25, 2002. Archived from the original on June 21, 2020. Catherine Boyd Lloyd of Manhattan says ... related to their 1971 divorce after 12 years of marriage. Lloyd ... is now married to screenwriter Jane Walker Wood.
^Podolsky, J. D. (July 8, 1991). "Passages". People. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Actor Christopher Lloyd ... and his wife, homemaker Carol Ann Vanek Lloyd, are divorcing after more than two years of marriage...
^Marelli, Stéphane (director), Christopher Lloyd, Carmen Electra, Keenan Cahill, Eric Judor (2012). Axe Boat 2012. Keenan Cahill. Retrieved July 26, 2020. Alt URL
^"Lego Dimensions Voice Actors Interviews". CoinOpTV. September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017 – via YouTube. Lego Dimensions features the voice talents of Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Michael J. Fox, Gary Oldman, Irrfan Khan, Charlie Day, Ellen McLain, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Troy Baker, Tom Kane, Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, Tara Strong and More!
^Thomas J., Allen (March 20, 2017). "2016 Awards" (Press release). San Francisco, CA: National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Corp. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
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