Christopher Lloyd has spoken about his long struggle with alcohol and drugs, describing how substance use became deeply embedded in his life before he sought treatment and eventually got sober.
The 88-year-old actor writes about his addiction in his memoir, In My Own Time. He also discussed recovery in a recent conversation with his Back to the Future co-star Michael J. Fox.
Lloyd says his cocaine use began after a woman approached him at a Los Angeles nightclub and asked if he wanted to try some. He had never used cocaine before, he recalled, but agreed to go with her to her car. After taking a couple of lines, he says, he was hooked almost immediately.
Within a few years of moving to Los Angeles, Lloyd wrote, cocaine, alcohol and marijuana had become a serious part of his life. What began as occasional use had, in his words, become entrenched.
He made a point of staying sober while working, worried that being high or drunk would make him lose control. But after a performance or a day of filming, he said, he would let go of that restraint. Before long, he felt the substances had a hold on him.
Alcohol was also a problem. Lloyd recalled a nurse asking how much he drank during a routine medical visit. When he said two or three drinks a day, she told him he was an alcoholic. He was stunned, he wrote, because he hadn’t thought his drinking was a problem.
Over time, he began to see that his substance use was putting both his life and his career at risk. He realized he needed help and that treatment was necessary.
In 1993, Lloyd’s psychologist arranged for him to enter a treatment program in Arizona. He remembered boarding the plane while heavily intoxicated. At the facility, he refused to stay and ran off, striking a barbed-wire fence and badly cutting his face.
He was later admitted to Sierra Tucson, where he stayed for five weeks. Lloyd described that experience as the start of his recovery, though not the end of his struggles. He relapsed several times afterward.
He continued attending a private 12-step meeting for high-profile men, where he felt able to speak openly. Years later, on April 1, he got sober for what became his final time.
In his conversation with Fox, Lloyd acknowledged that his drinking wasn’t always obvious to others. Fox asked whether he had been drinking while playing Reverend Jim on Taxi. Lloyd said that sometimes he had, though at the time it had not yet become a major problem.
Fox, who has also spoken publicly about his recovery, asked whether it was difficult for Lloyd to share such personal details in his memoir. Lloyd said simply that he had a problem. Fox noted that they were both in recovery.
