Taxi is an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. The series, produced by the John Charles Walters Company, in association with Paramount Television, was created by James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger.

Premise and themes[link]

The show focuses on the employees of the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, and its principal setting is the company's fleet garage in Manhattan. Among the drivers, only Alex Rieger, who is disillusioned with life, considers cab-driving his profession. The others view it as a temporary job that they can leave behind after they succeed in their chosen careers.

Elaine Nardo is a receptionist at an art gallery. Tony Banta is a boxer with a losing record. Bobby Wheeler is a struggling actor. John Burns (written out of the show after the first season) was working his way through college. All take pity on "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister, who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also included Latka Gravas, their innocently wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher.

A number of episodes involve a character having an opportunity to realize his or her dream to move up in the world, only to see it yanked away. Otherwise, the cabbies deal on a daily basis with their unsatisfying lives and with Louie DePalma, their amoral dispatcher. Louie's laid-back assistant, Jeff Bennett, is rarely heard from at first, but his role increases in later seasons.

Sunshine Cab goes through a change of owners. They work on the floor above the garage and are referred to but seldom seen: Ed McKenzie (who appears in one episode, played by Stephen Elliott), and, later, Ben Ratlidge (who is also only seen in one episode, played by Allen Garfield).

Despite the zany humor of the show, Taxi often tackled such dramatic issues as drug addiction, single parenthood, blindness, obesity, animal abuse, bisexuality, teenage runaways, failed marriage, sexual harassment, pre-menstrual mood disorders, gambling addiction, and the loss of a loved one.

Cast[link]

This table does not count the two-part "Taxi Celebration/Retrospective"

¹Both credited and uncredited.
²This is the right amount of episodes that credits this character.
³This may not be completely accurate as there were some Tommy-look-alike's in some episodes set in Mario's earlier on.
⁴Rhea Perlman played John's girlfriend's voice in the pilot episode, but the part was cut.

Main cast[link]

• Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch)—Alex is the sensible, pragmatic, compassionate core of the show, the one everyone else turns to for advice. At one point, he reveals his frustration with this unwanted burden. He once worked in an office, with a good chance of advancement, but lost his job owing to his refusal to follow the company line. He was married to Phyllis Bornstein (Louise Lasser), and when she divorced him because of his lack of ambition she sought sole custody of their baby daughter, Cathy. He gave in rather than fight. He is also estranged from his philandering father, Joe (Jack Gilford). Alex is a recovered compulsive gambler, although he relapses in one episode. A dry-humored pessimist, he has resigned himself to driving a cab for the rest of his life.

• Robert "Bobby" Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) (1978–1981, recurring 1981–1982)—Bobby is a shallow, conceited actor whose pretensions are Louie's favorite target. Success eludes Bobby as a struggling actor. Once, he is signed up by a famous manager, but it turns out she does not want to represent him; she only wants him as a lover. Another time, he is cast in a pilot for a soap opera called Boise. The show goes into production, but his part is recast. Conaway left the show after Season 3, but made a guest appearances in Season 4. On The Howard Stern Show, Taxi writer Sam Simon said that when Conaway was absent during the production of one episode, his dialogue was reassigned to the other cast members who delivered the jokes as well or better, which made the producers realize that Conaway was expendable.^[1]

• Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito)—The head dispatcher for the Sunshine Cab Company, Louie spends the bulk of his time holding court inside the caged-in dispatch office at the garage and trading insults with the drivers. He not only has no morals to speak of, he positively revels in his misdeeds. Nothing is beneath him, from taking advantage of a drunken friend of his sometime-girlfriend Zena Sherman (played by DeVito's real-life wife Rhea Perlman) to gambling with a young boy to stealing from the company. He lives with his mother (DeVito's real mother, Julia, in two episodes). He has (on very rare occasions) helped his workers, as in the episode in which an arrogant hairstylist (played by Ted Danson) gives Elaine a garish makeover just before a very important event and further humiliates her by stating he "didn't know how to do taxi drivers". It is Louie who bolsters her confidence to confront him. TV Guide ranked De Palma first on its list of the 50 greatest TV characters of all time.^[2]

• Elaine O'Connor Nardo (Marilu Henner)—Elaine is a divorced mother of two, struggling to cope while trying to realize her ambitions in the field of fine art. The object of lust of Louie, she is attracted to characters played by actors ranging from Tom Selleck to Wallace Shawn.

• Anthony Mark "Tony" Banta (Tony Danza)—The sweet-natured, if somewhat dimwitted, boxer has little success in the sport. In fact, Louie makes a lot of money betting against him. Finally, the boxing commission takes away his license because he has been knocked out one too many times. Though not by any means the smartest of the cast, he has no trouble comprehending the meaning of Latka's speech, even though he cannot actually understand him. Danza actually was a professional boxer. In the final season, Tony is introduced to new girlfriend Vicki (Anne De Salvo) by Simka. He and Vicki have a falling out after she becomes pregnant by him, but reconcile and get married.

• Reverend Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd) (guest star 1978, main cast 1979–1983)—A burned-out relic of the '60s, Jim lives in a world of his own. He was once a hard-working, serious student at Harvard University, with an extremely wealthy father (Victor Buono), but one bite of a drug-laden brownie was enough to get him hooked and send him into a downward spiral. (His last name was originally Caldwell; he changed it to Ignatowski, thinking that the backward pronunciation of that name was "Star Child".) The cabbies help him pass a written exam to become one of them, in a particularly memorable episode. He occasionally exhibits unexpected talents, such as the ability to play the piano masterfully. TV Guide placed Ignatowski 32nd on its list of the 50 greatest TV characters.

• Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman)—Latka is an immigrant from a very strange (presumably Eastern European) land, often speaking in his invented foreign tongue ("ibi da", "nik nik"). He works as a mechanic, fixing the taxis. Latka was an adaptation of the "Foreign Man" character Kaufman originated in his stand-up comedy act. He eventually grew tired of the gag, so the writers gave Latka multiple personality disorder, allowing Kaufman to play other characters, the most frequent one being a repellent, smooth-talking lounge-lizard persona calling itself Vic Ferrari. In one episode however, he becomes Alex, with profound insights into "his" life. Just when he is about to reveal to the real Alex the perfect solution for all his problems, he reverts to Latka.

• Simka Dahblitz-Gravas (Carol Kane) (recurring 1980–1982, starring 1982–1983)—She is from the same country as Latka. They belong to different ethnic groups which traditionally detest each other, but they fall in love and eventually get married. She is much more assertive than her husband, often standing up to Louie for him.

• John Burns (Randall Carver) (1978–1979)—The naive young man who works as a cabbie to pay for college, where he is working towards a degree in forestry. According to Carver, "...the characters of John Burns and Tony Banta were too similar...Some of the lines were almost interchangeable...,"^[3] so he was dropped after the first season, without explanation. The pilot episode, "Like Father, Like Daughter," established that John started working for the cab company after he was a passenger in Alex's cab. John didn't have change, so he has to ride with Alex to the garage to pay him. Once there, he starts hanging around and eventually applies for a job. In the episode "The Great Line," he spontaneously marries a woman named Suzanne, and their marriage stays together throughout the rest of his run on the series.

Recurring guest cast[link]

• Jeff Bennett (J. Alan Thomas)—Sunshine Cab's assistant dispatcher, he shares the "cage" with Louie but rarely speaks or interacts with the other characters. A quiet African-American man with an afro, Jeff appears throughout the show's run, initially as a background performer, but as the series progresses he gradually becomes more of a featured supporting player. In the Season 5 episode "Crime and Punishment", Louie falsely accuses Jeff of stealing car parts from the company and selling them on the black market—a crime which Louie himself committed.

• Tommy Jeffries (T.J. Castronova)—The bartender and waiter at Mario's, the restaurant where the group often hangs out. Tommy is pretty friendly with the group, taking an interest in their personal lives.

• Zena Sherman (Rhea Perlman) (1979–1982)—The woman who fills the vending machine. She begins a romantic relationship with Louie (played by Perlman's real-life husband DeVito), but Zena gets married after they break up.

• Greta Gravas (Susan Kellerman) (1979–1982)—Latka's mother who shares his strange cultural practices. The cabbies find her to be surprisingly attractive and she has a short fling with Alex.

• Phyllis Bornstein-Consuelos (Louise Lasser) (1980–1982)—Alex's ex-wife with whom he has a daughter. She has since remarried.

Guest stars[link]

Guest stars on the show included Ruth Gordon, Eileen Brennan, Marcia Wallace, Penny Marshall, Ted Danson, Jeffrey Tambor, Martin Mull, Herve Villechaize, Wallace Shawn, Tom Selleck, Talia Balsam, Victor Buono, Mandy Patinkin, Julie Kavner, Jimmy Lennon, Wally "Famous" Amos, Al Lewis, George Wendt, Craig T. Nelson, Tom Ewell, Dick Butkus, Dee Wallace, Lenny Baker, Lassie, Martin Short, Paul Sand, Ernie Hudson, Vincent Schiavelli, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Tom Hanks, Dick Sargent, and Mark Blankfield. Ruth Gordon won an Emmy for her her guest spot and Eileen Brennan was nominated for an Emmy for her guest spot on the show.

Awards and nominations[link]

Taxi is one of television's most lauded shows. During its run, the sitcom was nominated for 31 Emmy Awards and won 18, including three for Outstanding Comedy Series. It was also nominated for 25 Golden Globes, with four wins (three for Best TV Series—Musical/Comedy). In 1979, it received the Humanitas Prize in the 30 minute category. It was also ranked 48th in TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 1997, two of the show's episodes, "Latka the Playboy" and "Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey" were respectively ranked #19 and #63 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[4]

Awards[link]

Emmy Awards:

• Comedy Series (1979–1981)
• Lead Actor in a Comedy Series—Judd Hirsch (1981, 1983)
• Guest Actress in a Comedy Series—Ruth Gordon (1979)
• Lead Actress in a Comedy Series—Carol Kane (1982)
• Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series—Carol Kane (1983)
• Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—Danny DeVito (1981)
• Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—Christopher Lloyd (1982, 1983)
• Directing in a Comedy Series—James Burrows (1980, 1981)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Michael J. Leeson (1981)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Ken Estin (1982)
• Film Editing for a Series—M. Pam Blumenthal (1979–81), Jack Michon (1981)

Golden Globe Awards:

• Best Television Series-Comedy (1979–1981), tied in 1980 with Alice
• Best TV Supporting Actor—Danny DeVito (1980), tied with Vic Tayback in Alice

Additional nominations[link]

Emmy Awards:

• Comedy Series (1982, 1983)
• Lead Actor in a Comedy Series—Judd Hirsch (1979, 1980, 1982)
• Lead Actress in a Comedy Series—Eileen Brennan (1981)
• Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—Danny DeVito (1979, 1982, 1983)
• Directing in a Comedy Series—James Burrows (1982)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Michael J. Leeson (1979)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Glen Charles and Les Charles (1980, 1981)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—David Lloyd (1981)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Barry Kemp and Holly Holmberg Brooks (1982)
• Writing in a Comedy Series—Ken Estin (1983)

Golden Globe Awards:

• Television Series-Comedy (1982–1984)
• Actor in a TV Series-Comedy—Judd Hirsch (1979–1983)
• TV Supporting Actress—Marilu Henner (1979–1983)
• TV Supporting Actress—Carol Kane (1983)
• TV Supporting Actor—Tony Danza (1980)
• TV Supporting Actor—Danny DeVito (1979, 1981, 1982)
• TV Supporting Actor—Jeff Conaway (1979, 1980)
• TV Supporting Actor—Andy Kaufman (1979, 1981)

Production[link]

Taxi was inspired by the non-fiction article "Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet" by Mark Jacobson, which appeared in the September 22, 1975 issue of New York magazine.^[5] This article helped suggest the idea for the show to James L. Brooks and David Davis, though nothing from the article was used directly.^[6] The article was a profile of several drivers who worked the night shift for a New York cab company.

The series was produced on Stage 23, at Paramount Television, in Los Angeles, California, from July 5, 1978, to February 18, 1983.

Opening sequence[link]

The opening titles show a cab driving east across the Queensboro Bridge. The footage originally was intended as a "bridge" between scenes and is only about fifteen seconds long; parts of it are subtly repeated a few times to fill the opening.

The external establishing shot of the Sunshine Cab Company was of an actual taxi garage and gas station located on Charles and Hudson streets in New York's West Village. The building has since been demolished, and an apartment building and a Rite Aid pharmacy went up on the site.^[7]

Theme music[link]

Bob James wrote the opening theme, "Angela", which was originally intended for a sequence in episode #3 ("Blind Date"). The producers liked this slower, more melancholy tune better than the up-tempo opening theme they had initially chosen ("Touchdown"). Both songs are on James's 1978 album, Touchdown.

In 1983, James released The Genie, an LP containing much of the incidental music he had written for Taxi during its run.

Episodes[link]

On ABC, the first two seasons aired Tuesdays at 9:30, the third season aired Wednesdays at 9:00 and Thursdays at 9:30 and the fourth season aired Thursdays at 9:30. On NBC, the final season aired Thursdays at 9:30, Wednesdays at 9:30 and 10:30 and Saturdays at 9:30.

Cast reunions[link]

Danny DeVito hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live soon after Taxi was canceled after the fourth season. During the opening monologue, DeVito read a letter supposedly from his mother asking God to forgive ABC for cancelling the show, adding that "but I'll understand if you don't." A filmed bit had him driving around New York looking morose until inspiration strikes, and he blows up the ABC building. In addition, the Taxi cast members were given an opportunity for closure, which up to that point had been denied them due to the abrupt cancellation. The actors took their "final" bows during DeVito's opening monologue, only to have NBC pick up the show.

Decades later, most of the cast returned to play their younger selves and briefly re-enact scenes for the Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway, Carol Kane, Randall Carver, J. Alan Thomas and Christopher Lloyd all reprised their roles. The only two living members of the Taxi cast who didn't reprise their roles were Danny DeVito, who produced and co-starred in the film as Kaufman's manager George Shapiro, and Tony Danza.

Several of the surviving cast members (along with surviving cast members from other Judd Hirsch and Bob Newhart vehicles) reunited in different roles for an episode of the Judd Hirsch/Bob Newhart series George & Leo.

In January 2009, Danny DeVito made mention of wanting to make a Taxi reunion movie.^[8][9][10] There has yet to be any news of this project moving forward.

References in popular culture[link]

According to the film Man on the Moon which centered partially around Andy Kaufman's role on Taxi, Kaufman negotiated a certain number of appearances for his alter ego, Tony Clifton, into his contract with ABC. The film goes on to show a scenario in which Kaufman deliberately attempted to sabotage the taping of an episode of Taxi in the guise of Tony Clifton because, as the film explains, Kaufman was severely disappointed in his casting as Latka and truly wanted nothing to do with the show, but felt obligated by his friendship with George Shapiro and the money he was being offered for the role. However, a preface to the film by Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey) explained that the movie was a fictionalized, embellished and chronologically inaccurate portrayal of his life and the viewer was not expected to leave the film with a clear and true picture of it, therefore the reality of the event, as are much of the events in the film, is in question.^[11] Parts of this story have been confirmed by Danny DeVito in the book Hailing Taxi.

DVD releases[link]

All five seasons of Taxi have been released from Paramount Home Entertainment. The first three seasons of Taxi were released on DVD in Region 1 between 2004-2005. It took almost four years until Paramount released The Fourth Season on September 22, 2009, and The (Fifth &) Final Season on December 22, 2009 (the last two seasons were released in conjunction with CBS Home Entertainment). Only seasons 1 & 2 have been released in Region 2.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Lovece, Frank, with Franco, Jules. Hailing Taxi: The Official Book of the Show. New York: Prentice Hall, 1988. Reissued as Taxi: The Official Fan's Guide. New York: Citadel, 1996. ISBN 0-8065-1801-4. SBN-13: 978-0806518015.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Taxi

• Taxi at the Internet Movie Database
• Taxi at TVGuide.com
• Encyclopedia of Television

This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (February 2011)

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The Reverend Jim "Iggy" Ignatowski, played by Christopher Lloyd, was a fictional character in the 1970s television series Taxi. A gentle soul, Jim was, in his own words, "the living embodiment of the sixties". His most noticeable character trait was his extreme "spaced-out" behavior as a result of extensive 1960s drug use.

Background[link]

Ignatowski was born James Caldwell. He claimed to have been born in Spokane, Washington, although his often-unreliable memory makes this quite open to question. However, he was definitely raised in Boston, Massachusetts as one of three children in a very well-to-do family.

Jim's mother died when he was quite young, leaving Jim's father (later played by Victor Buono) to raise the family. Being busy with his thriving urology practices, Dr. Caldwell left much of this task to various family servants. This seemed to affect all the Caldwell children in some way: Jim was an extremely uptight and humorless person before he became a drop-out; his brother Tom remained humorless and somewhat mean-spirited throughout his adulthood; and his sister Lila exhibited marked nymphomania.

Jim was his father's favorite child. An excellent student, he attended Harvard. Then, after a party attended by his roommate Gordon Fog (played by Tom Hanks), his girlfriend Heather introduced him to "funny brownies" - containing marijuana - and convinced him to partake^[1] . After ingesting these brownies, the transformation within Jim was virtually instantaneous. His term paper on "Plutarch's Lives" was forgotten—in fact, by his second semester at Harvard, he was writing his term papers in fingerpaint. ("The typewriter seemed so impersonal", he explained.) Jim would become part of the counterculture, and was ordained as a minister with the Church of the Peaceful ("investigated and cleared of all charges"). Around this time, Jim changed his last name to Ignatowski, believing it was "Starchild" spelled backwards.

Jim was thrown out of the Democratic Convention in Chicago for stealing decorations, and attended Woodstock ("500,000 people...lucky for them I went or it would have only been 499,999"). He said he kept finding God everywhere--"he kept ditching me". He also spent a year of his life making a macrame couch, and was once traded from his commune to another commune for two goats and a Donovan album (although which Donovan album was never specified). Jim once claimed that instead of finding Nirvana or God, from his 1960s experiences, it only left him with recurring flashbacks of the original Mouseketeers (especially Cubby) appearing as visions hatching out of seedpods.

On the show[link]

Reverend Jim's first introduction to the crew at the Sunshine Cab Company was a guest appearance in a Season 1 episode, when he presided over a "paper marriage" between Latka Gravas, the cab company's immigrant mechanic (played by Andy Kaufman) and a prostitute, so Latka could stay in the United States. Jim appeared again in an early second season episode. He became a regular beginning with the tenth episode of the second season. As the series progressed, the "Reverend" aspect of the character was less frequently referred to.

Jim was a treasure trove of eccentricities, most of which could be traced to after-effects of his 1960s drug intake. He lived in a condemned building; bought a racehorse he renamed Gary (to erase his "slave name") and kept him in his living room; spent a considerable period of time trying to become the "perfect" cabbie only to spend all his earnings on a wall of TVs; and dismantled his van to build a castle for Elaine Nardo (played by Marilu Henner). He screamed in his sleep, and thought weekends were nine days long because "we switched to the metric system." His drug expertise also allowed him to identify the coca leaves (from which cocaine is made) in Latka's cookies -- "Southern Peru, '74, before the rains" -- much like a wine taster describing a vintage. His heroes were St. Thomas Aquinas, Mahatma Gandhi, Alan Alda, and Louie De Palma (played by Danny DeVito), who ironically treated him quite poorly and took advantage of him at every opportunity. Jim also admitted to being a fan of the original Star Trek series, although he strongly believed that the leader of the Romulans was portrayed incorrectly.

At one point, his last known address was a 1963 Volkswagen. As such, when his father died and left him $3,000,000, his family stepped in to keep him from receiving his inheritance. Ultimately, he was able to get his money, and (in the series' last original episode) wound up buying the cabbies' favorite hangout, Mario's, and renaming it Jim's Mario's. Jim also received a cassette in his father's will. It contained Stevie Wonder singing "You Are the Sunshine of My Life".

Jim as a character was not as one-dimensional as one might think. Lloyd was able to add considerable humanity to the part, so that what could have been a one-note caricature of a 60s burnout instead was shown to be a warm caring person with a heart of gold. He also occasionally surprised everybody (especially himself) by exhibiting unexpected talents; for example, he could play the piano masterfully (though he couldn't remember taking lessons).

Reception[link]

In 1999 TV Guide ranked him number 32 on its '50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time' list.^[2]

References[link]

Christopher Lloyd
Lloyd in October 2010
Born	Christopher Allen Lloyd (1938-10-22) October 22, 1938 (age 73) Stamford, Connecticut, US
Residence	Montecito, California
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952—present
Home town	New Canaan, Connecticut, Westport, Connecticut
Spouse	Catherine Boyd (1959–1971) Kay Tornborg (1975–1987) Jac Vanek (1988–1991) Jane Walker Wood (1992–2005)

Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi.

Lloyd has used his vocal talents in animation, frequently voicing villains. He provided voice to the character The Hacker on the animated PBS series Cyberchase. Lloyd has won three Primetime Emmy Awards and an Independent Spirit Award, and has been nominated for two Saturn Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Early life[link]

Lloyd as a senior in high school, 1958.

Lloyd was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Samuel R. Lloyd, a lawyer, and his wife Ruth (née Lapham), a singer and sister of San Francisco mayor Roger Lapham.^[1] His maternal grandfather, Lewis Lapham, was one of the founders of the Texaco oil company, and Lloyd is also a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland. Lloyd 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, an heiress to the Lapham-Texaco oil fortune, donated her family's ancestral home, Waveny Park, to the town of New Canaan.

Career[link]

Lloyd 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. He appeared in several Broadway productions, including Happy End, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Red, White and Maddox, Kaspar, The Harlot and the Hunted, The Seagull, Total Eclipse, Macbeth, In the Boom Boom Room, Cracks, Professional Resident Company, What Every Woman Knows, And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers, The Father, King Lear, and Power Failure.

His first major motion picture role was as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Prior to this, he appeared uncredited in the 1970 film Airport.^[2] 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 science fiction films, for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award. He portrayed the villain Maj. Bartholomew 'Butch' Cavendish in The Legend of the Lone Ranger, a role he has played numerous times in various spin-offs and incarnations. He also played notable roles as Klingon Commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Professor Plum in Clue, Professor Dimple in an episode of Road to Avonlea, the title role in The Pagemaster, the villain Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a wacky sound effects man named Zoltan in Radioland Murders, and Uncle Fester in the big screen adaptations of The Addams Family.

In 1994 he played an angel named Al in the movie, Angels in the Outfield. In 1999 Lloyd was reunited onscreen with Michael J. Fox in an episode of Spin City titled "Back to the Future IV — Judgment Day", where Lloyd plays Owen Kingston, Mike Flaherty's (Fox's character) former mentor who stops by City Hall to see him, only to proclaim himself as God. That same year, he starred in the movie remake of the 1960s series My Favorite Martian. Also in November 2007, Lloyd was reunited onscreen with his former Taxi co-star Judd Hirsch in the Season 4 episode "Graphic"^[3] of the TV series Numb3rs. He starred in the television series Deadly Games in the mid-1990s and was a regular in the TV series Stacked in the mid-2000s.

Lloyd also acted as the star in the point-and-click adventure game Toonstruck, which was released in November 1996. He played Ebenezer Scrooge in a 2008 production of A Christmas Carol at the Kodak Theatre with John Goodman and Jane Leeves. In 2009, he appeared in a trailer for a fake horror film entitled Gobstopper, where he played Willy Wonka as a horror movie villain.^[4] In October 2009, he did a two-man show with comic performer Joe Gallois in several Midwest cities. Lloyd played Mr. Goodman in the 2010 remake Piranha 3D.

In September 2010, he reprised his role as Doctor Emmett Brown in Back to the Future: The Game, an episodic adventure game series being developed by Telltale Games.^[5][6]

In the summer of 2010, he starred as Willy Loman in a Weston Playhouse production of Death of a Salesman.^[7]

On its January 21, 2011, episode, he appeared in the J.J. Abrams television series Fringe.^[8]

In August 2011 he was hired as the character of Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future by Garbarino^[9] appliance company in Argentina, to an advertising campaign, and also worked for Nike, in the campaign "Back For the Future" for the benefit of The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Personal life[link]

Lloyd seldom appears in public or gives interviews. Lloyd has been married four times but he has never had children. His nephew, Sam Lloyd, is best known for playing Ted Buckland, the lawyer on Scrubs.^{[citation needed]}

Lloyd's home was destroyed in the Tea Fire of November 2008 in Montecito, California.^{[citation needed]}

At a Q&A session at a Back to the Future trilogy showing in Hollywood in the summer of 2009, Lloyd was asked which of the Back to the Future films was his favorite. He responded "the third one, because for one thing it's a Western and I'm a fan of those, and second, it had a love story. I had always wanted to be in a love story and here I got a chance to be at the center of one". Nearly a year later on May 1, 2010, he appeared at an outdoor screening of Back to the Future held by the Tampa Theatre at The River Tower Park in Tampa, Florida, where he participated in another Q&A.^[10]

Lloyd appeared at a 25th anniversary screening of Back to the Future in February 2010 at the Hollywood Blvd. Theater in Woodridge, Illinois, along with Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells, and James Tolkan. All the proceeds were donated to The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

Further reading[link]

• Napoleon, Davi. Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater. Includes discussion of Lloyd's early work off-Broadway, including the production of Happy End at the Chelsea Theater Center and on Broadway, Kaspar, and Total Eclipse. Iowa State University Press, 1991. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christopher Lloyd

• Christopher Lloyd at the Internet Movie Database
• Christopher Lloyd at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christopher Lloyd at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Christopher Lloyd at AllRovi
• Christopher Lloyd at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Christopher Lloyd at Emmys.com

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since December 2011. It may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Tagged since December 2011.

Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown backstage at The Heart Truth fashion show in 2009
Born	(1957-04-14) April 14, 1957 (age 55) Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Occupation	Make-up artist, CEO

Bobbi Brown (born April 14, 1957) is the founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.

Biography[link]

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Brown graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a degree in theatrical makeup. Afterwards, she moved to New York City to work as a professional makeup artist. In 1991, she and a chemist released a line of new lipsticks under the brand Bobbi Brown Essentials, which debuted at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Today, the line is available at few fine retailers such as Lord & Taylor. The success of that makeup line led Estee Lauder to buy the company in 1995.^[1][2]

In addition to creating cover looks for magazines and make-up for fashion shows, Brown is the exclusive beauty editor of The Today Show and a frequent guest on the E! and Style channels. She is the author of Bobbi Brown Beauty, Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual, Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty, Beauty Rules and Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution. On 2006-10-24, Brown joined the Emerson College Board of Trustees.^[3]

Brown is partners with a charity called Dress for Success where she gives underprivileged women attractive clothes to wear to job interviews. Also, the women receive the basic makeup by Bobbi Brown Essentials. When they receive the makeup, they get their makeup done by volunteer Bobbi Brown makeup artists.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Brown lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband Steven Plofker and three sons.^[5]

Books[link]

• Bobbi Brown Beauty: The Ultimate Beauty Resource (1997) ISBN 0-06-270167-3
• Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy & Awesome (2001) ISBN 0-06-095724-7
• Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution : A Guide to a Lifetime of Beauty (2002) ISBN 0-06-008881-8
• Bobbi Brown Living Beauty (2007) ISBN 0-8212-5834-6
• Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone from Beginner to Pro (2008) ISBN 0-446-58134-8
• Bobbi Brown Beauty Rules (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bobbi Brown

• Official website
• Brown's blog
• Profile at IMDb
• Bobbi Brown, Top 7 Make-up artist on iFashion Network

Jeffrey Charles William Michael "Jeff" Conaway^[2] (October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011)^[2] was an American actor best known for his roles in the movie, Grease, and the two US television series, Taxi and Babylon 5. Conaway was also featured in the first and second season of the reality television series, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. In May 2011, after spending just over two weeks in the hospital, Conaway died at the age of 60 as a result of complications related to pneumonia and the degenerative brain condition known as encephalopathy.

Early life[link]

Jeff Conaway was born in the New York City borough of Manhattan. He was raised in the Astoria, Flushing, and Forest Hills neighborhoods in the New York City borough of Queens.^[3] His father, Charles,^[3] was an actor, producer and publisher.^[4] His mother, Helen, an actress who went by the stage name Mary Ann Brooks,^[3] taught music at New York City's Brook Conservatory.^[4] They divorced when he was 3,^[4] and Conaway and his two older sisters lived with his mother.^[5] He also spent time living with his grandparents in South Carolina, which gave him enough of a Southern accent^[5] that when he accompanied his mother to a casting call for director Arthur Penn's Broadway play All the Way Home, the 10-year-old Conaway landed a featured role as one of four boys.^[4] The 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning play was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and ran 333 performances and one preview from November 29, 1960 to September 16, 1961.^[6] Conaway remained for the entire run, then toured with the national company of the play Critic's Choice.^[4]

Conaway worked as a child model, and attended high school at the Quintano School for Young Professionals.^[4] After playing with the rock band 3 1/2 for a time, beginning at age 15,^[4] he attended the North Carolina School of the Arts^[4][7] and later transferred to New York University.^[4]

Career[link]

While at NYU, he appeared in television commercials and had the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera.^[4] He made his movie debut in the 1971 romantic drama Jennifer on my Mind.^[4]

[edit] Grease and Taxi

The following year, Conaway appeared in the original cast of the Broadway musical Grease, as an understudy to several roles including that of the lead male character, Danny Zuko, and eventually succeeded role-originator Barry Bostwick.^[3][8] He played the role for 2 1/2 years while his friend John Travolta, with whom he shared a manager, later joined the show, playing Doody in the chorus.^[3][9] The two would reunite in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease, in which Travolta played Zuko and Conaway his buddy Kenickie.^[3]

After breaking into series television in 1975 with Happy Days, followed by other sitcom and drama appearances and three more movies including Grease, Conaway was cast as vain and struggling, but goodhearted and handsome, aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler in the workplace comedy Taxi, which premiered in fall 1978.^[10][11] He had appeared in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the same producers, and, he said in 1987, was originally considered for the role of John Burns, which eventually went to Randall Carver:

But then one day I got the whole script and became real interested in the actor character, then called Bobby Taylor. And [the producers] said they had been thinking along the same lines, so I read again. Later I got a call from [original casting director] Joel Thurm, who says, 'Well, it's not good news, but it's not bad news either.' He says I'm the only choice for a white actor, but that they'd had a meeting and thought that maybe Bobby should be black and that now they're looking at black actors. ... So I went back to read, and it was me, Cleavon Little, and somebody else.... I ended up reading with [star] Judd [Hirsch] and it went really well."^[12]

Conaway left Taxi after the third season. Part of the reason was his drug abuse after season one.^[3]Taxi writer Sam Simon recalled in 2008 that during production of Simon's first script for that show, a missing Conaway was found in his dressing room too high on drugs to perform, and that his dialogue for that episode was divided between his co-stars Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd who delivered the jokes well enough so that Conaway's absence had little negative impact on the actual episode. This caused the show's producers to realize that he was expendable and contributed to Conaway's eventual firing.^[13] Conaway was reported at the time to be dissatisfied with being typecast as a "blond bimbo" and the "butt of struggling-actor jokes", along with finding the nature of the role repetitive.^[14] He also felt creatively stymied:

I wanted to do things with Bobby, but as the show went on, I could see I wasn't going to get that chance. ... Lemme tell you – I loved Bobby, I identified with Bobby. So, yeah, I kind of took everything personally. I had a lot of meetings with [the producers] because I was unhappy. ... Sure, partially it was ego, but let me do what I do best. It was frustrating. I remember leaving the studio feeling guilty and unhappy. I just couldn't appreciate it and use it as just a job, as a learning experience. Instead I saw it as, 'Hey, anybody could do this character.' Like nobody else could do Louie or Jim, they were such defined characters. But Bobby – anybody could walk in and say, 'Hi, Alex.'"^[15]

Conaway went on to star in the short-lived 1983 fantasy-spoof series, Wizards and Warriors. He made guest appearances on such shows as Barnaby Jones, George and Leo and in four episodes of Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in films such as Jawbreaker, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Do You Wanna Know a Secret?. From 1994 to 1999, he played Sergeant Zack Allan, on Babylon 5. From 1989 to 1990, he was cast on The Bold and the Beautiful, in the role of "Mick Savage". In 1993, he appeared onstage in Real Life Photographs.^{[citation needed]}

Music career[link]

In addition to acting, Conaway also dabbled in music. In the mid-1960s, he was the lead singer and guitarist for a rock band, The 3 1/2. They recorded four singles for Cameo Records in 1966 and 1967:

• "Don't Cry To Me Babe" / "R & B In C" (Cameo 425, 1966)
• "Problem Child" / "Hey Mom Hey Dad" (Cameo 442, 1966)
• "Hey Gyp" / "Hey Kitty Cool Kitty" (Cameo 451, 1967) (This single was produced by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, who also wrote the B-side. The A-side is a song by Donovan.)
• "Angel Baby (Don't You Ever Leave Me)" / "You Turned Your Back On Love" (Cameo 485, 1967)

In 1979, Conaway recorded a self titled debut album for Columbia Records. "City Boy" was released as a single. Bruce Springsteen's manager, Mike Appel, produced the album.

The CD Saints & Sinners, by Vikki and Kenickie, was released independently via the internet in 2008, featuring Conaway singing and rapping with Vikki Lizzi (Spinoza). They promoted the CD on The Howard Stern Show on April 2, 2008 and performed live shows in the Los Angeles area.

Personal life[link]

Marriages[link]

Conaway was married three times. His first short-lived marriage, at 21, to a dancer he had been seeing for two years, was annulled.^[4] His second marriage, from 1980 until their divorce in 1985, was to Rona Newton-John,^[16] elder sister of his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John.^[17] His third marriage was to Keri Young from 1990 until their divorce.^[18]

Health problems[link]

After experiencing a crisis in the mid-1980s, Conaway came to grips with the fact that he had a substance abuse problem. He underwent treatment in the late 1980s and often spoke candidly about his addictions.^{[citation needed]}

By the mid-2000s however, he had relapsed. Conaway appeared in VH1's Celebrity Fit Club, but was forced to leave and entered rehab. In early 2008, Conaway appeared with other celebrities in the VH1 reality series, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The show revealed that Conaway was addicted to cocaine, alcohol, and painkillers, and that he was in a codependent relationship with his girlfriend Vikki Lizzi,^[19] also a user of prescription opiates. Conaway had suffered a back injury earlier in his career on the set of Grease while filming the "Greased Lightning" scene, which had been exacerbated more recently as a result of lifting boxes in his home.

Conaway's appearance on the show's first and second seasons drew much attention because of his severely crippled state, his constant threats of leaving the facility and his frequent inability to speak clearly. Upon arrival at the Pasadena Recovery Centre (which was filmed as part of Celebrity Rehab's first episode) Conaway, using a wheelchair, arrived drunk, mumbling to Dr. Drew that the night previous he had binged on cocaine and Jack Daniel's whiskey.

During the second episode of Celebrity Rehab's first season, Conaway, fed up with his dorsalgia, withdrawal symptoms and the humiliation of having to be assisted while using the toilet, told Dr. Pinsky that he was thinking of killing himself. After Pinsky asked him to elaborate upon how he would carry out a suicidal act, Conaway glared at the mirror in his room and said "I see myself breaking that mirror and slicing my fucking throat with it." During group sessions, Conaway revealed "torture" from his childhood, as older boys in his neighborhood would put him into dangerous situations, tying him up and threatening him. When he was seven years old, he was a victim of pedophiles and child pornographers.^[20] Conaway stated that he had been an addict since he was a teenager.^[21]

With John Travolta's support, Conaway took courses and auditing from the Church of Scientology to cope with his drug problem and depression,^[22] although he did not intend to become a Scientologist.^[23][24][25]

In June 2009, Conaway and Vikki joined Celebrity Rehab cast mate Mary Carey at the premier of her spoof flick Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw.^[26]

In August 2009, Conaway was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. In the interview, the actor claimed he was much better after a fifth back operation, and that he had yet to use painkillers again. He also discussed unscrupulous doctors and enablers.^[27]

In March 2010, shortly after the death of actor Corey Haim, Conaway told E! News that he had warned Haim about dying because of prescription drug abuse.^[28]

Death[link]

On May 11, 2011, Conaway was found unconscious from what was initially described as an overdose of substances believed to be pain medication and was taken to Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Encino, California, where he was listed in critical condition.^[29] After initial reports, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who had treated Conaway for substance abuse, said the actor was suffering not from a drug overdose but rather from pneumonia with sepsis for which he was placed into an induced coma.^[30][31] Though his pneumonia was not directly a result of drug usage, it hampered Conaway's ability to recognize how severely ill he was and to seek treatment for pneumonia until it was too late.^[32]

On May 26, 2011, Conaway's family took him off life support after doctors decided there was nothing they could do to revive him. Conaway died the following morning at the age of 60.^[1][32] Conaway's doctor attributed his death to his addiction, stating, "What happens is, like with most opiate addicts, eventually they take a little too much ... and they aspirate, so what's in their mouth gets into their lungs ... That's what happened with Jeff."^[33]

An autopsy performed on Conaway revealed that the actor died of various causes including pneumonia and encephalopathy attributable to drug overdoses.^[34]

Awards[link]

Golden Globe Award

• 1978 nomination, Best Supporting Actor, Comedy or Musical Series (for Taxi)^[35]
• 1979 nomination, Best Supporting Actor, Comedy or Musical Series (for Taxi)^[35]

Filmography[link]

Television work[link]

See also[link]

• Child actor

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jeff Conaway at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeff Conaway at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jeff Conaway at AllRovi