John Larroquette

John Larroquette is an American actor born on November 25, 1947, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he grew up in the Ninth Ward near the French Quarter. The son of Berthalla Oramous, a department store clerk, and John Edgar Larroquette Jr., a United States Navy serviceman, he is of partial French descent through his paternal grandfather, Jean Edgar Larroquette Sr., who was born in France in 1881 and emigrated to the United States in 1895. During his childhood and into high school, Larroquette played clarinet and saxophone. He attended Holy Cross School through his sophomore year before transferring to Francis T. Nicholls High School, where he first encountered acting during his senior year. After winning a state high school speech title and being offered a scholarship to Louisiana State University, he chose not to attend.

Larroquette's entry into professional performance came through an unusual credit: he provided the opening voiceover narration for Tobe Hooper's horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974, a favor for the director. His first series regular role followed on the NBC program Baa Baa Black Sheep, which ran from 1976 to 1978, in which he portrayed World War II Marine Corps fighter pilot 2nd Lt. Bob Anderson. He later reprised his Texas Chain Saw Massacre narration for the 2003 remake.

The role that defined much of his television career was Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding on the NBC sitcom Night Court, which ran from 1984 to 1992. Larroquette, Harry Anderson, and Richard Moll appeared in every episode of the series. His performance earned him four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988, a record at the time. In 1989, he asked not to be considered for the award. He later returned to the franchise in the 2023 revival of Night Court, which ran through 2025, as the only regular character carried over from the original series. In 1998, he guest-starred on three episodes of the David E. Kelley legal drama The Practice, portraying Joey Heric, a role that earned him a fifth Emmy Award. He reprised the character in 2002 and received another nomination. From 2004 to 2008, he appeared in the ABC legal comedy-drama Boston Legal as Carl Sack. Between 2014 and 2018, he was a series regular on TNT's The Librarians, playing Jenkins, a character revealed to be the long-lived Camelot knight Sir Galahad.

Rather than pursue a Night Court spinoff centered on Dan Fielding, Larroquette collaborated with Don Reo to develop The John Larroquette Show, which aired on NBC from 1993 to 1996. The series, titled at NBC's insistence, starred Larroquette as John Hemingway and drew on themes related to alcoholism. Critics praised the show, though it struggled in the ratings, ranking around number 97 for much of its first season. After NBC threatened cancellation, Larroquette and Reo retooled the series, which continued for just over two additional seasons before ending during its fourth season after 84 episodes, the final six of which were never broadcast.

His film work includes Stripes (1981), Choose Me (1984), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Blind Date (1987), Madhouse (1990), JFK (1991), and Richie Rich (1994). He also starred alongside Bronson Pinchot in Second Sight (1989) and alongside Kirstie Alley in Madhouse (1990). From 2004 to 2006, he played the title role across ten Hallmark Mysteries television films in the McBride series.

Larroquette made his musical stage debut in the Los Angeles production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 2009, playing Old Max. His Broadway debut came in 2011 with the revival of Frank Loesser's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in which he played J. B. Biggley alongside Daniel Radcliffe. The performance earned him the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, and a Theatre World Award, all in 2011. The following year, he appeared on Broadway in the revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man, directed by Mike Nichols, playing William Russell in a cast that included James Earl Jones, Candice Bergen, and Angela Lansbury.

Larroquette met his wife, Elizabeth Ann Cookson, in 1974 while working on the play Enter Laughing. They married on July 4, 1975. Cookson had a daughter, Lisa, from a prior relationship, and she and Larroquette have two sons together, Jonathan and Benjamin. Jonathan co-hosts a comedy podcast called Uhh Yeah Dude.