Christopher Lloyd revealed that his struggles with cocaine began during his years on Taxi, opening up about the addiction in his new memoir, In My Own Time. The 88-year-old actor said his substance use escalated after he moved to Los Angeles, even as his career gained momentum through the sitcom and later Back to the Future.
Christopher Lloyd recalls how his cocaine addiction began during Taxi
Lloyd wrote that his first experience with cocaine happened after a woman approached him at the Los Angeles location of Joe Allen and invited him to her car. As per Entertainment Weekly at the time, he had never tried the drug.
“We went out to her car and did a couple of lines,” Lloyd recalled. “That was all it took. I was hooked almost immediately.” He said cocaine soon became part of a broader pattern involving alcohol and marijuana. Within a few years, Lloyd described those substances as deeply embedded in his life.
However, the actor said he maintained one boundary during his career. He avoided performing while intoxicated because he feared losing control in front of an audience or camera. “But once the curtain came down or the director said, ‘That’s a wrap,’ all bets were off,” he wrote.
Lloyd also reflected on how his Taxi character, Reverend Jim Ignatowski, became intertwined with that period of his life. The character represented a burned-out remnant of 1960s counterculture, and some of his storylines involved drugs.
His own addiction continued long after the show ended. In another memoir passage, Lloyd recalled being intoxicated when he learned Taxi would end after five seasons in 1983. An argument with his then-girlfriend followed, and after returning home to find himself locked out, he smashed windows at the property.
He later remembered waking up on the kitchen floor while paramedics treated him for severe blood loss. According to Lloyd, another decade passed before he entered rehab and began working with a psychologist to confront his addiction.
The memoir marked the first time he spoke so openly about the extent of his substance use during his Hollywood career.
In My Own Time was available following its October 27 publication.
