Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is a three-time Emmy Award-winning American actor.
Lloyd was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Ruth, a singer who was the sister of San Francisco mayor Roger Lapham, and Samuel R. Lloyd, a lawyer.
He attended the Fessenden School, a preparatory school in Newton, Massachusetts. Lloyd was raised in New Canaan, Connecticut and Westport, Connecticut where he graduated from Staples High School in 1958. His mother, Ruth, donated Waveny Park to the town. Lloyd seldom appears in public or gives interviews. Some of his best friends, co-stars and fans who've met him describe Lloyd as a very shy and quiet man. His nephew, Sam Lloyd, is best known for playing Ted Buckland, the lawyer on Scrubs. Christopher Lloyd was married from February 1992 to December 2005 to writer-producer Jane Walker Wood; this was his third marriage. His namesake, Chris Lloyd is not related but actually son of sitcom writer David Lloyd. He is a fan of fly fishing.
On Friday, November 14, 2008, Lloyd's Montecito, California, mansion was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire which claimed at least one hundred homes.
He began acting by age 14 and started apprenticing in summer stock. He took acting classes in New York City at age 19, some at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner. His first major motion picture role was as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. However, he may be most remembered for his roles as Reverend Jim Ignatowski, the ex-hippie cabbie on the TV sitcom Taxi, and the eccentric inventor Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy of sci-fi films, a role he has played numerous times in various spin-offs and incarnations.
His unique voice has also made him popular with animation, frequently voicing villains.