Award-winning actor John Larroquette will share his personal battle with booze on Sept. 28 when he delivers the keynote address at a luncheon benefiting Arapahoe House and its addiction treatment programs.
“Out of the Bottle and Into Life: A Personal Account of Achieving Sobriety” is the topic for his noontime address in the Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
“Arapahoe House relies on celebrities with a strong message and personal experience to help educate our community that addiction is a disease and not a failure of willpower,” says chief executive officer David Murphy. “It is an honor to have a high-caliber actor like John Larroquette continue this tradition.”
Larroquette transitioned from radio roles to the big screen in the 1970s. 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 Emmys.
Larroquette took time off from the series to appear in a string of movies, and in 1993 he landed his own TV 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 70s, 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 for a guest role on another hit TV series, “The Practice.” He has also appeared on “Boston Legal,” “House” and “Chuck.” Larroquette won a Tony in 2011 for his role as J. B. Biggley, alongside Daniel Radcliffe, in the Broadway revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
Previous luncheon speakers Drew Pinksy (2010) and Christopher Kennedy Lawford (2011) each attracted 600-plus attendees and helped raise more than $200,000 in gross revenue for Arapahoe House.
Tickets for the 2012 edition will go on sale in May.
Arapahoe House has been providing substance abuse treatment and mental health services to vulnerable individuals and families in metro Denver since 1975. It has 13 locations and more than 20 specialized services, and is considered Colorado’s leading nonprofit provider of quality, affordable drug and alcohol treatment.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, jdavidson@denverpost.com and @GetItWrite on Twitter
