Christopher Lloyd

Christopher Lloyd

Active - 1975 - 2022  |   Born - Oct 22, 1938 in Stamford, Connecticut, United States  |   Genres - Comedy, Children's/Family, Adventure

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Biography by AllMovie

A reclusive character actor with an elongated, skull-like face, manic eyes and flexible facial expressions, Christopher Lloyd is best known for portraying neurotic, psychotic, or eccentric characters. He worked in summer stock as a teenager, then moved to New York. After studying with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, he debuted on Broadway in Red, White and Maddox in 1969. Lloyd went on to much success on and off Broadway; for his work in the play Kaspar (1973) he won both the Obie Award and the Drama Desk Award. His screen debut came in the hugely successful One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), in which he played a mental patient. He went on to appear in a number of films, but first achieved national recognition for playing the eccentric, strung out, slightly crazy cab-driver "Reverend" Jim in the TV series Taxi from 1979-83; he won two Emmy Awards for his work. He extended his fame to international proportions by playing the well-meaning, wild-haired, mad scientist Doc Brown in Back to the Future (1985) and its two sequels; this very unusual character continued the trend in Lloyd's career of portraying off-the-wall nuts and misfits, a character type he took on in a number of other films in the '80s, including The Addams Family (1991), in which he played the crazed uncle Fester. His "straight" roles have been infrequent, but include Eight Men Out (1989).

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Factsheet

  • Attended Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studied with renowned acting teacher Sanford Meisner.
  • Appeared in more than 200 stage productions before segueing into film.
  • Starred as Oberon in a 1975 Yale production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which costarred a young graduate student named Meryl Streep as Helena.
  • Made his film debut in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson.
  • His nephew is actor Sam Lloyd, who played sad-sack lawyer Ted on Scrubs.