Photo: Chris Roth, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Christopher Lloyd, best known as Doc Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, has opened up about decades of cocaine, alcohol and marijuana use in his new memoir, In My Own Time, published on October 27, 2026, according to Just Jared and High Times.
In the book, Lloyd recalls trying cocaine for the first time in the 1970s after meeting a woman outside a Los Angeles comedy club. "That was all it took. I was hooked almost immediately," he writes, according to excerpts published by Page Six and quoted by both outlets. He says cocaine, alcohol and marijuana gradually became a regular part of his life, though he maintains he never performed onstage or in front of a camera while under the influence.
The memoir also revisits a frightening incident in 1983, after his sitcom Taxi was cancelled. According to Just Jared, Lloyd returned home after an argument with his then-girlfriend to find himself locked out, smashed windows at the property and woke up on the kitchen floor while paramedics treated him for severe blood loss. He later learned he had lost so much blood that he needed plasma.
Lloyd eventually sought professional help, entering rehab in 1993 after a psychologist helped him recognise the impact drugs and alcohol were having on his life, according to Just Jared. Although he experienced several relapses, he writes that he eventually achieved lasting sobriety, and recently discussed his drinking with longtime Back to the Future co-star Michael J. Fox.
Beyond addiction, the memoir covers his isolated Connecticut childhood, his early theatre years in New York and the road to becoming one of American film's most recognisable character actors, according to Book Soup's event listing for his October 29 appearance in conversation with Curt Menefee. It also reveals his favourite film in the trilogy: not the original, but Back to the Future Part III, because, as he told TODAY, "It's a western... and Doc had a romance."
What happens next for Lloyd, 88, is a publicity run that includes live appearances and a Thursday-night slot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside Paul Bettany, according to Memorable TV. The memoir's candour has already renewed discussion about on-set power dynamics and the pressures actors face to follow directors' instructions without seeing scripts or camera plans in advance.