Laurence Luckinbill was born on November 21, 1934, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the son of Agnes and Laurence Benedict Luckinbill. A Catholic, he attended parochial schools, including St. Anne’s Academy. Following his graduation from St. Anne’s, he attended Fort Smith Junior College and then the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, graduating in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in theater. He completed his master’s degree in playwriting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1958.

After completing his graduate education Luckinbill was employed by the U.S. States Department, spending two years in Italy and Africa as a lecturer on theater and acting. After returning to the United States he acted professionally in theater, which included a role in the Broadway production of "A Man for All Seasons" in 1961. He married actress Robin Strasser in 1966, with whom he had two children; they later divorced. From 1968-1970 he played the role of Hank in the Off-Broadway play "The Boys in the Band;" he also played Hank in the 1970 movie production of The Boys in the Band. Afterwards he moved to Los Angeles to continue his film career, starring in the short-lived television series The Delphi Bureau. In 1980 he married Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Together the couple had three children. They also became business partners, cofounding ArLuck Enterprises and promoting each other’s projects. A prolific script writer, he and Lucie frequently costarred in films and plays he had written.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Luckinbill continued appearing in movies and guest starring in television series. His most prominent acting role was that of Spock’s brother Sybok, the antagonist in the 1989 feature film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In 1987 he had starred in an acclaimed one-man performance in the made-for-TV movie Lyndon Johnson; its success resulted in one-man plays becoming his career trajectory for the next two decades. In addition to the play “Lyndon,” an adaptation of Lyndon Johnson, he starred in several one-man plays which he had written or co-written, including “Clarence Darrow, Tonight!;” “George Washington: A Portrait;” “Teddy, Tonight!,” about Theodore Roosevelt; and “Hemingway,” about Ernest Hemingway. He performed “Lyndon” and “Clarence Darrow, Tonight!” during the festivities celebrating Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1987; both plays received frequent booking by the American Bar Association as well as state bar associations. He performed his one-man plays throughout the United States, with venues including Fort Smith and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In 2007, Luckinbill was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, and in 2012 he served as the McIlroy Family Visiting Professor in Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Arkansas. He currently lives in retirement with Lucie Arnaz.