Christopher Lloyd

Christopher Lloyd was born on 22 October 1938, the youngest of seven children, in Stamford, Connecticut [7]. Most viewers know him as Doc Brown from Back to the Future [5]. The publisher's author page calls him one of the most distinctive character actors of his generation [4]. His career began much earlier, on the stage, and his best-known television work was in Taxi, which won him two Emmys [5][2].

Stamford and the summer stock years

His father, Samuel, was an attorney, and his mother, Ruth, was a singer. His maternal grandfather, Lewis Lapham, co-founded the Texaco oil company [7]. At 14 he became an apprentice in summer stock theater [7]. At 19 he took classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, where he studied under Sanford Meisner [7].

The stage gave him most of his early work. He made his stage debut in And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers and his Broadway debut in Red, White and Maddox [7]. He has appeared in more than 200 plays, on and off Broadway and in regional theater [5]. He won an Obie and a Drama Desk Award for Kaspar [5].

His cast biography also lists the Broadway production of Morning's at Seven, and the New York production of Trumbo, where he played Dalton Trumbo [5].

Cuckoo's Nest and Taxi

His film debut came in 1975, when he played Max Taber in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [7]. The same year he played Oberon in a Yale University production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Meryl Streep as Helena [7].

Television made him widely known. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in Taxi, a part he held for five years, and he won two of his three Emmys for it [5]. Both wins, for 1982 and 1983, were in the supporting actor category for comedy. The first is credited to ABC and the second to NBC [2][1].

The 1982 category also included other Taxi work. Danny DeVito was among the nominees that year, alongside Steve Landesberg and Ron Glass from Barney Miller [2]. Biography.com adds that Lloyd played Professor B.O. Beanes in Amazing Stories [7].

Doc Brown and the Back to the Future films

In 1985 he played Dr. Emmett Brown, known as Doc, in Back to the Future [7]. Doc is an inventor who builds a nuclear-powered time machine out of a DeLorean. He befriends the high school student Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, and accidentally sends him back to 1955 [5].

The character returned in Back to the Future Part II and Part III, released in 1989 and 1990 [7]. In Part III Doc has a romance with Clara in the Old West [5]. The same decade brought him other parts, including Professor Plum in Clue in 1985 and a Klingon in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in 1984 [7].

The publisher's author page says he created some of entertainment's most iconic roles, and it names Doc Brown and Reverend Jim Ignatowski among them [4].

Villains and the Addams family

In 1988 he played Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit [7]. He later played Uncle Fester in The Addams Family in 1991 and again in Addams Family Values in 1993 [7]. His official franchise profile counts more than ninety film and television productions across his career [5]. He also won an Independent Spirit Award for Twenty Bucks [5]. The same profile lists Eight Men Out among his film credits [5].

Emmy wins and Hacks

His record shows four Emmy nominations and three wins [1]. Two of those wins came for Taxi in 1982 and 1983 [2]. The third came in 1992, in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series category for Road to Avonlea, where the Television Academy credits him as Alistair Dimple [1]. Biography.com gives the character as Professor Dimpie [7].

The franchise profile says he made Emmy history with that 1992 win [5]. Biography.com calls the Avonlea award his first Emmy, which does not match the Television Academy record of Taxi wins in 1982 and 1983 [7][1].

His most recent nomination came in 2024, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Hacks, where he played Larry Arbuckle [1]. The nomination came for the episode The Deborah Vance Christmas Spectacular [1].

The 2026 memoir and appearances

In My Own Time: A Memoir is a 256-page hardcover from Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. The publisher's listing gives 27 October 2026 as the on-sale date. It still marks the book as a preorder and says the date is subject to change. An ebook and an unabridged audiobook are also listed [3]. The hardcover is priced at US$32.50, the ebook at US$15.99 and the unabridged audiobook download at US$24.99 [3].

The publisher describes the book as covering his childhood on the Waveny estate in Connecticut [3].

He is also on the convention circuit this year. Variety reported that Supanova Comic Con & Gaming had booked him for its Sydney and Perth events, which run from 19 to 21 June and from 27 to 28 June 2026 [8]. TurnTo10 called him the latest guest announced for Rhode Island Comic Con, which runs 6 to 8 November 2026. It reported that he will take part in a Who Framed Roger Rabbit reunion with Kathleen Turner and Charles Fleischer at the convention [9].

The same TurnTo10 article carries a photo of him with Michael J. Fox at a Back to the Future reunion at New York Comic Con on 8 October 2022 [9].