John Larroquette half jokingly says that had he been better educated, he might have become something important. But as it is, he's an actor. He developed his distinct, resonate voice, working hard to lose his New Orleans "yat" accent, as a disc jockey during the early days of "Underground" radio in his hometown of New Orleans in the late 60s. That voice made him part of a cult film classic when the director, a friend of Larroquette's, asked him to record an opening narration for a low budget horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

In 1973, Larroquette decided that acting was what he should be doing. He got lucky quickly and began getting jobs on television shows, while at the same time working on the stage in Los Angeles. He then landed a regular role on Baa Baa Black Sheep, a World War II series that ran from 1976 to 1978. Small movie parts gave way to his breakthrough in 1983 with the role of philandering but harmless prosecutor "Dan Fielding" on the hit sitcom Night Court, a part that earned him four consecutive Emmy Awards.

Larroquette took enough time off from the series to appear in a string of movies, and in 1993 he got his own series, The John Larroquette Show. It allowed him to play a recovering alcoholic, a role that wasn't much of a stretch. A prolific drinker during the 70's, the actor got sober in 1982. He has since been sharing his story so that others suffering from the same disease might realize there is a way out of bottle and into life.

Larroquette won his fifth Emmy in 1998 as a guest star in two episodes of the legal drama The Practice, and received another Emmy nomination in 2002 for his reappearance in the series. Additionally, he hosted the A&E show The Incurable Collector, a one-hour series that focuses on the passion for collecting. An avid collector himself, Larroquette's library consists of more than 5,000 modern first edition books. He also collects antique fountain pens, cameras, photographs, and watches.

Larroquette is now in production on his new series for Hallmark. McBride is a series of two-hour movies in which he plays an ex-cop turned lawyer who fights the good fight for those who can't stand up to the legal machine. The series is part of Hallmark's Mystery Movie Wheel. He has also joined the cast of ABC's Boston Legal as a regular. Larroquette will portray a senior partner from the New York offices of Crane Poole & Schmidt who transfers to Boston.