For decades, Christopher Lloyd has been best known as the endearing and eccentric scientist from Back to the Future to millions of viewers. However, behind the character that brought him worldwide fame lay a much darker reality.
Now aged 88, the actor has opened up and recounted one of the most difficult chapters of his life: his addiction to cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana, recalling the dangerous episodes he experienced under their influence, and the long road to overcoming them.
The actor, who has just published his memoir, In My Own Time: A Memoir, has surprised everyone with a confession dating back to the 1970s, when his career was just beginning to take off in Hollywood.
© FilmPublicityArchive/United ArchHe was 'hooked almost immediately'
Christopher vividly remembers the first time he tried cocaine. It was outside a Los Angeles club when he walked a woman he had just met to her car. Without thinking about the consequences, he did "a couple of lines."
What began as a simple folly, where the consequences weren't considered, ended up becoming an addiction that would last for years. The actor was swept up in the excesses of that era and began consuming alcohol and marijuana as well. However, he maintains that he always kept one rule he never broke: he never showed up to a film shoot or a theatrical performance under the influence of drugs.
"That was all I needed. I was hooked almost immediately. I loved it, and that's how my cocaine addiction started," he admitted.
© GC ImagesThe night Christopher almost died
One of the most harrowing episodes he recounts occurred in 1983, after the cancellation of Taxi, the hit series he starred in for five seasons. At that time, his drug and alcohol use was at its heaviest.
One night, while high and drunk, he had a heated argument with his girlfriend at the time and decided to stay at his nephew's house. When he returned, he discovered he couldn't get into his own home. Out of control, he began banging on the windows until he shattered them, causing himself extremely serious injuries.
"The next thing I remember is lying on my kitchen floor, bleeding out, and the paramedics were attending to me," he writes in his memoir.
He had lost so much blood that he needed a plasma transfusion and had to undergo emergency surgery. Afterwards came a long process of physical therapy to regain mobility in his fingers.
That episode left a deep mark on his life, though it didn't end his addictions. Paradoxically, while going through these difficult times, his career continued to flourish. Just two years later, in 1985, he would become the unforgettable Dr. Emmett Brown, the time-traveling scientist alongside Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox.
© Getty ImagesFive weeks in rehabilitation and several relapses
It took another ten years after that dramatic incident for Christopher to decide to seek professional help. In 1993, after working with a psychologist who helped him understand the extent to which drugs and alcohol were damaging his life, he entered a rehabilitation centre for five weeks.
But overcoming his addictions proved far more difficult than he had imagined. Although that treatment was a crucial first step, the actor admits that he suffered several relapses before managing to stay sober.
"That was the beginning, but not the end. I had some relapses after that," he admitted.
"Some years later on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time."
