Possessing a facial and physical plasticity worthy of his sometime cartoon co-stars, renowned character actor Christopher Lloyd has captivated critics and audiences alike with a wide array of quirky, off-beat characters, beginning with his memorable feature debut as a mental hospital inmate in Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975). Though he arrived in NYC with acting on his mind at the age of 20, he toiled in obscurity for 15 years before his OBIE and a Drama Desk Award-winning performance in "Kaspar" (1973) opened the door a crack for him. Lloyd finally achieved prominence as the 'Reverend Jim' Ignatowski, the spaced-out ex-hippie cab driver of the classic TV comedy series "Taxi" (1978-83), enriching and deepening a character that was initially just a stereotypical 1960s burnout. The child-like innocence and generosity of spirit with which he imbued Ignatowski transformed a cartoonish madman into a beloved eccentric, an alchemy bringing him two Emmy Awards.
Lloyd further demonstrated the essentially human attributes of broad eccentricity as Dr. Emmett Brown, Michael J. Fox's friend and mentor in Robert Zemeckis' time travel comedy "Back to the Future" (1985) and its two sequels (1989 and 1990). Like 'Reverend Jim', Doc Brown became a signature character, one which he also reprised for the CBS animated series "Back to the Future" (1991-93), as well as for the Universal Studios' theme park attraction "Back to the Future . . . the Ride" and subsequent 2004 video game. Reteaming with Zemeckis for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), Lloyd aptly embodied the archetypal cartoon villain Judge Doom--albeit in live-action--who menaces the hapless `toons. (He assumed the part again for his CD-ROM game debut in 1996's interactive "Toonstruck") His resume of zanies grew with his portrayal of Uncle Fester in "The Addams Family" (1991), the popular big screen version of the 60s TV series inspired by Charles Addams' macabre comic strips. Its 1993 sequel "Addams Family Values" turned the sweet-natured Fester into an unlikely sex object involved in a romance with Joan Cusack's sultry, scheming nanny.
While he is mostly known for his work in comedies, Lloyd has been effective in more serious roles like his unscrupulous gambler from John Sayles' "Eight Men Out" (1988). A guest appearance on an episode of the Disney Channel drama series "Avonlea" earned him his third Emmy, and he was also outstanding as the well-spoken stick-up man of "Twenty Bucks" (1993), winning an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Actor. He delivered a memorable turn as the treacherous Klingon Captain Kruge in "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock" (1984), one undermined by the public's still fresh identification with his familiar TV persona, Lloyd's distinctive quavering baritone tipping the giddy teen audience that it was 'Reverend Jim' underneath all that Klingon makeup. He was back in the loony bin as part of "The Dream Team" (1989), a movie seemingly inspired by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and returned to cartoonish villainy as Switchblade Sam in John Hughes' film rendering of the comic strip "Dennis the Menace" (1993) as well as the UPN TV series "Deadly Games" (1995).
Lloyd added to his list of crazies with Al the Angel in the remake of "Angels in the Outfield" (1994), playing the part again for "The Wonderful World of Disney" sequel "Angels in the Endzone" (ABC, 1997). He gave another oddball portrayal as Pieces, a porno projectionist with leprosy whose toes and other parts are falling off, in "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", and acted in the first interactive film, "Mr. Payback" (both 1995), directed by "Back to the Feature" screenwriter Bob Gale. He starred in Bob Clark's "The Ransom of Red Chief" (ABC, 1998), working again with the director on "Baby Geniuses" (1999, opposite Kathleen Turner). His prolific output in 1999 included the role of Uncle Martin in "My Favorite Martian" (based on the 60s TV show), an appearance as the White Knight in the NBC movie version of "Alice in Wonderland" and a reteaming with Forman for "Man on the Moon", a biopic of "Taxi" co-star Andy Kaufman in which he played himself. In addition, he provided the voice of Rasputin for the animated feature "Anastasia" (1997) and returned to the stage for the Off-Broadway revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" (1998).
The actor continued to appear with great regularity in lower-profile films, telepics and as a voiceover artist and commercial pitchman (he appeared in a ubiquitous 10-10-220 phone service ads), with some of his more memorable work coming from guest stints on various television series: in 1999 he reteamed with Michael J. Fox for a "Spin City" two-parter, and he would also be a welcome visitor on such series as "Ed," "Malcolm in the Middle," "The West Wing" and "King of the Hill." In April 2002, Lloyd returned to the stage to play Carl Bolton in "Morning's at Seven" by Paul Osborn on Broadway's Lyceum Theater and the following July he played Malvolio in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at New York's Delacorte Theater. After a three-episode turn on the movie spin-off series "Tremors" (SciFi, 2003) as Cletus Poffenberger, Lloyd returned to series TV with the short-lived baseball drama "Clubhouse" (2004) as the veteran, grandfatherly coach Lou Russo, then made his first return to sit-coms since his Emmy-winning "Taxi" stint, co-starring as an eccentric book store customer in the Pamela Anderson sit-com "Stacked" (Fox, 2005 - ).