One thing is clear from Christopher Lloyd’s vast, eclectic body of work: All the characters he embodies become larger than life when he lifts them off the printed page and inhabits them. His latest role, playing silent film legend Fatty Arbuckle’s grandson Larry in “Hacks,” continues that trend and has earned him his first Primetime Emmy nomination (for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series) in 32 years.

In the “Hacks” episode for which he’s nominated, Lloyd plays an eccentric who lives in a house surrounded by memorabilia and mementos — and a pet falcon. Filmed on location at the historic 1887 Queen Anne-style Andrew McNally House in Altadena, the nine-bedroom mansion features a three-story rotunda and an aviary.

"I don't want strangers; I don't want people knocking on my door selling magazines, none of that. I keep my little island and I enjoy doing it," Lloyd says of Larry. "He's not a social creature. He gets angry and if he's in a situation where he can't control what's happening, he starts spluttering. He probably grew up in this house and feels safe there."

The great character and smart, witty dialogue he got on "Hacks" are old hat for Lloyd, who made his mark on "Taxi" in the late '70s and early '80s. In "Taxi," his Reverend Jim Ignatowski was a scatterbrained cabbie with a huge heart and an easygoing mind who found drugs a little more than a little fun. Though he won two Emmys for the role, sitcoms in general weren't a path he originally wanted to follow.