Christopher Lloyd – still alive

I want you to stop what you are doing and take a few minutes to appreciate the greatest character actor in history – Christopher Lloyd.

What if I told you I recently read that Christopher Lloyd’s movies are collectively the most profitable of all time?  Technically, that makes him the most financially successful actor of all time.  Sam Jackson and Tom Cruise can suck it.  Now, to be fair… none of that is true.  When I said above ‘I recently read’… it was true.  However, I was referring to what I had recently written.  Isn’t the internet fun?  I wrote it out, and then I read it back.  This means my statement was not dishonest.  Factually inaccurate… but I simply said that I had read that fact. Now, you too can say “I recently read that Christopher Lloyd is the most profitable actor or all time.”  I love this guy so much, I am absolutely willing to sully my good name.

Ever since I watched Taxi as a kid, I knew great acting. Jim Ignatowski is still a role model to me. Sure, he is cooked and gone. Still, though, there is a sweetness and genius to the character that Lloyd brought. All you need to know about Rev Jim was his answer to who he would be if he could be anyone in history.

Myself

(the others) but why?

So I wouldn’t have to buy new clothes

Sure, there is hair, wardrobe, and make up that go into a character. There is also dialogue written far away by witty young Jewish hipsters in conference rooms. Look at this still shot, though. That is fucking method acting. You don’t see an actor there, or even a ‘character’. You see goddamn Rev Jim Ignatowski.

Technically, credit here should go to the screenwriters, but this is all Christopher Lloyd in the deliver. He is filling out at drivers license application, and comes to this (forward to minute 19):

Bobby: (reading from the test) narcotic addition or mental illness?

Jim: Boy, that’s a tough choice!

So does a few years as the C storyline (at best) define a career? Generally, no. Not even of the rest of the cast, who all were cast to play exaggerated versions of themselves. Well, there is Kauffman… but to me he comes off as an attention whore playing nuts. Christopher Lloyd, though? Yup, lifetime acting mastered. Like Terrell Davis, who can’t make it into the Hall of Fame because his career was shorter than Taxi’s tv run. Yet… he knocked out two 1,000 yard seasons… which few of the hundreds that came before him have done.

He has a long body of work. I just want to point out some of the landmark highlights that make him my absolute favorite actor.

What else has he done? I love all his characters, and so you do. He is also Dr Emmit Brown from Back to the Future – embed this

And Dr Doom from Roger Rabbit.

There simply wasn’t ever a better Uncle Fester.

He is still working, and thankfully still alive. I love this man. He is the tv equivalent o Bill Corgan and Siamese Dream. Just want to meet the guy and say ‘thanks’. That’s it. No gushing, or sharing of favorite moments. Don’t need an autograph or a celeb selfie. Just want to smile and say ‘thanks’.

Thanks be to the Arizona Monkey Boy for the reminder.  Lloyd was in a little indie vehicle called ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘.  Watch this clip if you wanna see some goddamn acting.  Script says ‘character laughs triumphantly‘.  Astute viewers will note another future Taxi veteran in the film.  That’s correct, Tony Danza!

At 76, he is more than just working, and getting by. I had this great ending about how he is the guy who invented and produces Modern Family. Goddamn I love this show. In researching for this piece, I just learned that Christopher Lloyd is a different one. Stupid internet!

Also found researching this piece** was a perfectly ChristopherLLoydian character*** from 90s movie flop ‘Dennis the Menace’. Go ahead and watch this clip, and you will have instantly tripled the amount of people who have seen the movie.

Also, he was excellent in Clue. Clue is like Woodstock. Everyone claims they loved it, and they were there. A study (yes, people studied this) showed that 5 million people claimed to have been at Woodstock. The actual number was 500,000, and since it was 40 years ago a good chunk of them are dead. Well, only 8 people went to see Clue in the theaters, which is why we never got a sequel. The cast is beyond amazing. Punk crazed mastermind Lee Ving, David St Hubbins, Private Benjamin,

This is the second in a series I meant to do much more. I am still cooking one about the great Richard Simmons. I have had it in my head for years about him… but now it actually seems he might die. No one has seen him in at least a year, and I have already put him (sadly) on my 2016 Dead Pool list.

** researching – sitting around powering down coffee and finding awesome Christopher Lloyd clips. Nice life!

*** is this a term yet? It is now. ChristopherLLoydian character®

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