John Larroquette

This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (July 2009)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2009) (Find sources: John Larroquette – news, books, scholar)

John Larroquette
Larroquette in 1988
Born	John Bernard Larroquette November 25, 1947 (1947-11-25) (age 62) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1966–present

John Bernard Larroquette (born November 25, 1947) is an American film and television actor. His best known roles include Dan Fielding on the series Night Court, Mike McBride in the Hallmark Channel series McBride and Carl Sack in Boston Legal.

Personal life

Larroquette was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Bertha Oramous (née Helmstetter), a department store clerk, and John Edgar Larroquette,^[1] who was in the U.S. Navy.^[2] He played reed instruments as a child and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1973. The family lived in the middle Ninth Ward. Larroquette lived in New Orleans up until he was 22. He returned there after Hurricane Katrina and found the home in which he lived until age 12. He stated that returning to New Orleans after the hurricane was like returning to a post-apocalyptic world.^{[citation needed]}

Larroquette has three children with his wife, Elizabeth Ann Cookson. He is also a registered member of the Libertarian Party, a fact to which he alluded when he made an appearance on Dennis Miller's CNBC show on the "Varsity Panel".^{[citation needed]} During an appearance on Tom Snyder's show, Larroquette mentioned that he almost quit the party when they nominated Howard Stern to run for governor of New York.^{[citation needed]}

In the seventies and eighties, Larroquette battled alcoholism. On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 10, 2007 he joked, "I was known to have a cocktail or 60".^{[citation needed]} He had also revealed that he'd suffered from blackouts when drinking, a condition he describes as "horrible".^{[citation needed]} To illustrate the severity of these blackouts, he told Leno about one experience he had while drinking in which he woke up from a nap, realizing he was on a plane and had no idea where it was headed, and was too embarrassed to ask. (He eventually found out the plane was headed from Los Angeles to his hometown of New Orleans.)^[3]

Hobbies and interests

Larroquette enjoys collecting rare books. Authors whose works he has focused on include Samuel Beckett, Charles Bukowski, Anthony Burgess, William Burroughs and Robinson Jeffers.^[4] He is an avid fan of the New Orleans Saints.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Early career

Larroquette's first role was uncredited, as a U.S. soldier in Follow Me, Boys! (1966). He also provided the opening voiceover narration for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). His most memorable non-comedy role was in the 1970s NBC program Baa Baa Black Sheep where he portrayed a WWII U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot named 2nd Lt. Bob Anderson. Larroquette first broke into TV on the soap opera Doctors' Hospital. During the filming of the Bill Murray/John Candy hit comedy film Stripes (1981), his nose was nearly cut off in an accident. He was running down a hall into a door which was supposed to open, but it didn't, and his head went through the window in the door.^[4]

Night Court (1984-1992)

Larroquette is perhaps best known for his role as boorish, sex-obsessed attorney Dan Fielding on Night Court, a role for which he won Emmy Awards in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988. In 1989, he asked not to be considered for an Emmy.^[5] His four consecutive wins were, at the time, a record. Night Court ran on NBC from 1984 until 1992. Only Larroquette, Harry Anderson (as Judge Harry Stone), and Richard Moll (as Bull Shannon) appeared in every episode of the series.

The John Larroquette Show, other roles

Larroquette later starred on The John Larroquette Show as the character John Hemmingway. The show was lauded by critics and enjoyed a loyal cult following. In 1998, he guest-starred on three episodes of the legal drama The Practice. His portrayal of Joey Heric, a wealthy, wisecracking, narcissistic psychopath with a habit of stabbing his gay lovers to death, won him his fifth Emmy Award. He reprised the role for one episode in 2002, for which he was once again Emmy-nominated. He also appeared on several episodes of The West Wing as Lionel Tribbey, White House Counsel.

His starring roles include the 1989 movie Second Sight, with Bronson Pinchot, and Madhouse, with Kirstie Alley. Other movies Larroquette had significant roles in include: Blind Date, Stripes, Meatballs Part II, Summer Rental, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, JFK, and Richie Rich.

McBride, Boston Legal, and other roles

In 2003, Larroquette narrated the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From 2004 to 2006, he played the title role in the McBride series of American TV movies. In 2007 he joined the cast of Boston Legal playing Carl Sack, a serious, ethical lawyer (the polar opposite of his more famous lawyer character, Dan Fielding). He also guest starred in the drama House where he played a previously catatonic father awakened to try to save his son, and on Chuck as veteran spy Roan Montgomery.^[6]

Filmography

Larroquette has made many appearances on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and on both of David Letterman's shows. He has hosted Saturday Night Live twice. He also won another Emmy Award for his guest spot on "The Practice."

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Larroquette

• John Larroquette at the Internet Movie Database
• John Larroquette at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Onion A.V. Club Random Roles interview