Larry Laffer

Lawrence "Larrу" Laffer is the titular playable main protagonist of Leisure Suit Larry game franchise. 
He was voiced by the late Jan Rabson
==Biography==
===Early life===
According to Mother Laffer, Lawrence took three times longer than any normal kid to be born. She would often tell the story to her sympathetic friends in twentieth century.
According to Al, he was born near a log cabin in Gumbo, Missouri. However Larry is incredulous about Al's claim believing the story is more likely to fit a pioneer such as Abe Lincoln or Davy Crockett. According to Larry himself, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or at least he grew up there. Though Larry has been known to use the Gumbo backstory himself at times. Larry grew up going through Catholic school.
The father at some time left them, and his mother sacrificed herself to raise and nurture him. Larry had also one brother. As he explained to Patti when they first kissed, he played trumpet in a mariachi band when young.
However during high school he dated a redhead; one afternoon when her parents were out of town she wanted him to come over to her house. During a near-death experience, Larry wondered if there could have been some reason for this.
=== Overview ===
In his backstory, Larry Laffer had been a nerdy geek all his life and eventually became a computer programmer. He never had close relations with friends, women, or his colleagues, and every day of his life was identical as he lived with his mother. Around his 38th birthday, his brain hit a sexual alarm and started having his first kinky thoughts, when he started reading adult magazines and could not concentrate on his work. Because of this his life was destroyed: he was fired from his job, and upon returning home he found his house had been sold and his mother had gone on vacation. Larry then decided to turn a page forward in his life, and he left everything to move to the city of Lost Wages (a pun on Las Vegas), where, assuming that 1970s styles were still trendy, he bought a polyester leisure suit. He sold his Volkswagen Bug to a junkyard for $94 and ended up outside Lefty's Bar, where the first game, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, begins.
During the course of the series of games, Larry loses his virginity, is married twice (and dumped twice), becomes a hero of the tropical island Nontoonyt in Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places), and eventually, in Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals, meets his semi-other half, a beautiful woman known as Passionate Patti (who, for some parts of this game as well as of Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work, is controlled by the player). However, in his more recent games, Patti is absent and Larry roams alone again. The Official Book of Leisure Suit Larry, which was written between Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! and Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!, hints that Larry was still engaged with Patti during that period, but Al Lowe said in 1999, "I doubt Patti will return to haunt Larry again." Outside of his adventure game series, appears in Sierra's Hoyle Book of Games, Volume I, The Laffer Utilities, Larry Pops Up!, Leisure Suit Larry's Casino, Leisure Suit Larry's Sexy Pinball, Leisure Suit Larry Bikini Beach Volley, the mobile game version of Love for Sail, and the online casino Larry Casino.
==Name==
While making In the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Sierra On-line staff had to decide the character's name. They agreed that he should be named after a friend of Al Lowe's named Jerry (Lowe never made his last name known to the public), who had visited him at work and became well known in the Sierra studios. Jerry thought of himself as a great lover. He became an infamous point of comical reference among the staff, so the game creators agreed that since Jerry's character suited the game's 'hero', they should jokingly tribute him.
However, since they thought it would be immoral to use a real person's full name as a comical reference, "Jerry" was then altered to "Larry", a similar name, in honor of famed injury attorney Larry H. Parker, a childhood friend of Al Lowe. Al Lowe had to find a new surname, and having in mind the many L-words of the title, skimmed through the 'L' volume of an encyclopedia in order to find a suitable word or name. He fell on the entry of Arthur Laffer, and the name caught his attention because it reminded him of 'laugher'.
Arthur Laffer for years had no idea about the existence of the games until much later when Al Lowe sent a letter asking his permission for the publication of a program under the title The Laffer Utilities, a Larry spin-off which could potentially confuse the public due to the ambiguous title. Laffer asked his secretary if she knew about the games and she told him that she had played them for years, but never made a connection. Laffer gave the permission and also paid a visit to the Sierra studios.
==Notes==
*After Larry passed through the portal to Earth, he was hired by Sierra as both a programmer and an actor in the reproduction games about his past adventures.
*There was a separation from Sierra after the loss of LSL4 and during events of LSL5. However after making up with Patti and returning to his home at Bass Lake, he went back to work in the company under Al Lowe, filming the events of LSL5, and the next two games, and a few spin-offs (Larry's Casino). He remained with Patti the entire time.
*He apaprenty broke up with Passionate Patti again by the time of LSL8MCL.
*Larry Laffer doesn't know what bi-curious or what transsexual means.
*Larry acts as a sort of tutorial giver, narrator, hint giver, and mentor in LSL8.
*Happy Birthday Leisure Suit Larry! (But You Get The Gift!) April Fool's Day is coming and yup, it's Leisure Suit Larry's birthday. To celebrate Sierra is posting a piece of primo software to the SierraWeb site and other Sierra sites in cyberspace on that fateful day as part of the big Sierra Celebration. The new Talking Larry makes the ultimate lounge lizard appear on your screen with words of (half?) wit and wisdom whenever the machine is idle for more than a few minutes. Full of silly jokes, pithy quotes and a few hardy suggestions on how to pick up the good babes (as if he'd know) Larry offers all the answers you REALLY want from your PC. Download the file LARRYSPK.EXE to inject new attitude into your computer. (Windows Only)
*Larry evolves and looks different over the course of the many games. In the first three games, he's more or less as tall as the women, maintaining a more natural human physique. His head size is roughly the same size as women he dates, his neck line and head matches up with the women. By Larry 5/LSL1SCI he is given a big head, while he's stlll tall as women from head to feet, his neck and chest is well below the women's breasts. His head is about the same height as chest to head of the women. In Larry 7 however Larry is generally much shorter than most of the women.
*Larry and Patti are not married at the time of LSL5. In Beside Companion he is still 'divorced-and swinging' as of the time just after Larry 5. Also in the Official Book of Leisure Suit Larry he is not married to her as of Larry 6, and during early filming of Larry 7. He's asked if he's interested in marrying her in the Official Book. In 1992 Laffer Utilities they are shown at a wedding, however this may have been 'taken' shortly before she left him at the altar (as in the LSL5 backstory), and the non-productivity/mini-games program shows them together taking part in many different events.
*At the time of Larry 1-3: ""Don’t be fooled by how small he looks on your screen. In personal appearance, Larry is five feet, ten inches (average height). His hairline is beginning to recede and, worse, his head is poking up through his hair. His stomach is starting to win the race by pulling ahead of his chest. He typically wore cardigan sweaters to work, and has a different pocket protector for each day of the week." Note: This information also was included in the Official Book of Leisure Suit Larry up to the 4th Edition of the book. Technically even in Larry 6, Larry is roughly as tall as the women, although body and head proportions changed.
*Larry is shorter than the women in Larry 7 and Reloaded.
*Al Lowe has since claimed they did get married after LSL3, and that was the happy ending. However, this goes against the backstory that was given in the production notes for Larry 5, and implied in Larry 5 itself, where they were not married, and Patti left him at the alter to pursued her career in showbiz.
*The non Al Lowe games starting with Magna Cum Laude has them separated, and Larry is still pining away for her.
*Larry is a straight heterosexual man who finds the thought of doing anything with men (including anyone with a penis) as disturbing and revolting to him (hence his behavior after learning the truth about Shablee and a few other examples during the series). The only time the games let the player get away with 'gay' behavior in LSL6, leads to a game over (Larry gets a 'happy ending' but fails his ultimate goal of wooing only women). Larry in WDDD is able to initiate what he thinks is gay sex but is completely uncomfortable with it the entire time (and it ends with a gag that he had been with a gargoyle statue the entire time).
Category:Male
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Comedy Heroes
Category:In Love
Category:Stalkers
Category:Spouses
Category:Scapegoat
Category:Nurturers
Category:Localized Protection
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Charismatic