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Christopher Lloyd (born Christopher Allen Lloyd on October 22, 1938, in Stamford, Connecticut) is an American actor, who portrayed "Doc" Emmett L. Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, the live-action portions of Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Back to the Future: The Ride, the short film Doc Brown Saves the World.
He also depicted the character vocally in Back to the Future: The Game, Back to the Future: Blitz Through Time and LEGO Dimensions.
Biography[]
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lloyd attended Staples High School in Westport, Conn., participating as one of the Staples Players in the school's acclaimed drama department, and graduating in 1957. Lloyd worked in theater during the 1960s and early 70s. His first performance as a member of the Actors' Equity was in A Midsummer Night's Dream.[1] He made his Broadway debut in 1969 in Red, White and Maddox. Lloyd won an Obie Award (Off-Broadway, for outstanding performance in a drama) as Kaspar Hauser in 1973's Kaspar.
In 1975, Lloyd made his film debut in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and in 1978, he landed the role of "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski in the television comedy Taxi. As a regular during the show's five seasons, he won two Emmy awards as best supporting actor.
When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale were looking for the right actor to portray Dr. Emmett Brown, their first choice, John Lithgow, was unavailable. Neil Canton had worked with Lithgow as producer of the 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and recommended another actor from the same film — Lloyd.
Besides the Back to the Future trilogy, Lloyd has worked in well over 100 different productions. A 1993 Starlog magazine article aptly described "The Many Faces of Christopher Lloyd", in that his appearance varies from one show to the next. Though Dr. Brown is his most famous role, Lloyd has been a Klingon commander in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Professor Plum in the film based on the game Clue, Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (with Charles Fleischer, Joe Alaskey and Pat Buttram), Uncle Fester in the Addams Family films, Switchblade Sam in Dennis the Menace (with Lea Thompson), the Coroner in Hey Arnold: The Movie (with Dan Castellaneta) and many other roles in major motion pictures and obscure productions. In 1999, Lloyd played the role of "Martin" in the film remake of My Favorite Martian, a few years after Michael J. Fox had been the "Doc" in Doc Hollywood.
Prior to Back to the Future Part III, Lloyd had appeared in numerous Westerns, including Goin' South (with Mary Steenburgen), Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (with Will Hare), and The Legend of the Lone Ranger.
Later on, Lloyd guest-starred on Spin City in an episode opposite Michael J. Fox titled "Back to the Future 4: Judgment Day". When Bob Gale made his directorial debut with the 2002 film Interstate 60, both Lloyd and Fox agreed to appear, although the two actors were not seen together on-screen. Lloyd and Fox would not be seen together again until the 2010 Scream Awards for the 25th Anniversary of Back to the Future.
The winter of 2010/2011 brought a new Back to the Future video game in which Lloyd reprised his role as Doc Brown as a voice. He also voiced Jacques Douteux for the game's 5th episode, which also featured Fox voicing William McFly and the future versions of Marty.
Lloyd guest starred in The Michael J. Fox Show episode "Health", in the role of a boss of Michael's wife Annie. The episode only aired in Australia.[2]
Other reprisals of Doc Brown[]
In addition, he has also reprised his role as Doc Brown in various commercials, skits, and music videos. These include:
- Driving the DeLorean to a Huey Lewis and The News concert in the music video for "The Power of Love".
- In The Earth Day Special of 1990 (which also included Carl Sagan as himself), Doc and his DeLorean make an appearance. He showed up to help Doogie Howser (played by Neil Patrick Harris) and other physicians to aid in the recovery in Mother Nature.[3]
- In the Universal Studios Florida promo, Doc is sent two years into the future to videotape and document how the future park will appear. The video is here.
- Then is the DirecTV commercial.
- And the Microsoft Tech-Ed skit.
- As well the Check Your Coat video by O'Neal McKnight.
- Then there is Doc's cameo in The Simpsons Ride. This one is animated only and also featured Dan Castellaneta in his role as Krusty the Clown and Hank Azaria and Professor Frink.[4]
- Incidentally, Lloyd will be reprising his character, "Jim Ignatowski" from Taxi in The Simpsons episode "My Fare Lady".[5]
- As well as this Nike commercial.
- And a series of Garbarino commercials:
- He voiced Doc Brown in the following Robot Chicken episodes:
- "Casablankman II"
- "Eaten by Cats" (Also voicing a character named Early Hacker in "Early Hackers")
- He played the role briefly as a gag in the 2014 movie A Million Ways to Die in the West, which also had Harris in the role of Foy.
- In an October 21, 2015 skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live with Michael J. Fox reprising his role as Marty.
- In a video for the LEGO Dimensions game, where Doc Brown encounters the LEGO Minifigure version of himself which was included with the LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine set.
In some cases, Lloyd has made appearances that exploit his role as Doc without actually playing the character:
- He portrayed a scientist in a Kinect Fun Labs video, but it was never specified that the scientist was meant to be Doc Brown.
- He appeared at the 2010 Spike TV awards with Michael J. Fox, arriving on stage in a DeLorean for the 25th anniversary of the film.
- He similarly appeared in a Funny or Die video as himself purporting to unveil the invention of a hoverboard, and the subsequent apology video.
References to Christopher Lloyd[]
- Christopher Lloyd himself became part of the BTTF universe when the October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today announced a remake of the film version of A Match Made in Space to be directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, and that George McFly was hoping to convince Zemeckis to cast Lloyd in the role of the alien.[6]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ http://www.christopherlloyd.net ChristopherLloyd.net
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAz-z6Rkoc
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMFtKlHbKLY
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9r2EYy3rxU
- ↑ http://thefutoncritic.com/listings/20150121fox19/
- ↑ Special "front page wrap" for real life October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today.