‘Back to the Future’ Icon Reveals His Secret Cocaine Addiction

Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd is getting real about his once-secret cocaine addiction.

In his new memoir, In My Own Time: A Memoir, the actor recalled having his first “snort” of cocaine outside a Los Angeles comedy club in the ’70s. He said a young woman approached him and asked if he wanted to come out to her car for a “snort.”

“She meant cocaine, which at that point I had never tried,” he recalled, per Page Six. “I hadn’t been out looking for it, but I said all right. We went out to her car and did a couple of lines. That was all it took. I was hooked almost immediately. I loved it, and that was where my cocaine abuse began.

Lloyd further explained that his cocaine, alcohol, and pot usage became “entrenched” in him. However, he never appeared onstage or on set under the influence.

“I wasn’t asking myself what it meant or what it was doing for me,” he shared. “I just knew I liked it, and before long it had a hold of me.”

Lloyd then recalled a significant argument with his then-girlfriend following the cancellation of Taxi in 1983. He was both drunk and high during the situation. He left to cool down.

After a night at his nephew’s residence, Lloyd returned to find his partner had locked him out. He then punched the windows.

“The next thing I remember, I was lying on the floor of my kitchen, bleeding out, and paramedics were attending to me,” the actor wrote. “I later learned that I had lost so much blood that they had to give me plasma.”

On the same night of the window punching incident, Lloyd’s Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman died from cancer. He was 35 years old.

Lloyd stated that he had surgery and physical therapy to ensure his fingers worked correctly following the incident at his home. In 1993, he checked into rehab after working with a psychologist who helped him understand the significant damage drugs and alcohol were doing.

“That was the beginning but not the end of it,” he admitted, reflecting on his five-month rehab stint. “I relapsed a few times after that … Some years later on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time.”