“Back to the Future” star Christopher Lloyd was addicted to cocaine and alcohol for many years, he divulges in his new memoir.
The 88-year-old actor recalls in “In My Own Time: A Memoir,” published Tuesday, that he did his first “snort” of cocaine outside a comedy club in Los Angeles during the ’70s.
At the time, Lloyd went out to the car of a woman he had just met and “did a couple of lines.”
He writes, “That was all it took. I was hooked almost immediately. I loved it, and that was where my cocaine abuse began.”
The “Taxi” alum goes on to tell readers his cocaine, alcohol and pot use quickly became “entrenched,” although he never appeared on stage or in front of a camera under the influence.
“I wasn’t asking myself what it meant or what it was doing for me,” he adds. “I just knew I liked it, and before long it had a hold on me.”
Lloyd remembers being high and drunk during an argument with his then-girlfriend when “Taxi” was canceled after five seasons in 1983.
After spending the night at his nephew’s L.A. home, Lloyd returned to find out his partner had locked him out — so he began punching the windows.
“The next thing I remember, I was lying on the floor of my kitchen, bleeding out, and paramedics were attending to me,” he writes. “I later learned that I had lost so much blood that they had to give me plasma.”
In an eerie turn of events, Lloyd’s “Taxi” costar Andy Kaufman died the previous evening at the same hospital, losing his battle to cancer at 35.
Lloyd had to undergo surgery at the time, as well as physical therapy, to ensure he’d be “able to spread [his] fingers correctly.”
“The Addams Family” star entered rehab in 1993 after working with a psychologist who helped him see the damage drugs and alcohol were doing in his life.
He remained in rehab for five weeks.
“That was the beginning, but not the end of it,” Lloyd confesses in his book. “I relapsed a few times after that. … Some years later on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time.”
The Emmy winner also writes lovingly of his time spent playing the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown in the “Back to the Future” trilogy in his tell-all, revealing that both John Lithgow and Jeff Goldblum were on the short list to play the iconic character.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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