JERRY SEINFELD

'Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld' (born April 29, 1954) is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor and writer. He is often described as an observational comedian. He was best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself, Jerry Seinfeld in the long-running sitcom ''Seinfeld'' (1989 - 1998), which he co-created, helped write and executive produced in the show's final two seasons.

Contents

Early life

Post-''Seinfeld''

Books

Credits

Film

Television

Private life

Personal income

Car collection

References

External links

Early life

Seinfeld was born in New York City. His father, Kálmán, was of Hungarian Jewish background and his mother, Betty, was of Syrian Jews background. He grew up in Massapequa, New York. His first store bought Halloween costume was a superman costume that did not fit. His mother made him wear his winter coat over it. He attended Birch Lane Elementary School and Massapequa High School. In 1971, while aged 17, he spent a short period of time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He went to State University of New York at Oswego but transferred and graduated from Queens College, City University of New York. During his time in college, he was an amateur wrestler who called himself "The Jewish Terror". He developed interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions.^[1] Right after graduation from Queens College, City University of New York, he tried out at an open mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star in 1976. Soon after, he appeared in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. When he first started doing stand-up comedy, his mother and sister said he would never be as funny as his father.
Seinfeld had a small recurring role as "Frankie", a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear, on the ''Benson'' sitcom in 1979 but he was abruptly fired from the show.
In May 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. He then became a regular on similar shows, including ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''The Merv Griffin Show''. He was known for his incredibly dedicated and devoted work ethic, it is said that he traveled in an intense snow storm to a comedy club just to find it empty. He was ranked #12 in Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

Post-''Seinfeld''

After his sitcom went off the air, Seinfeld chose to return to stand-up comedy instead of pursuing a film career like most other popular comedians have done. In 1998, Seinfeld went on tour and recorded a comedy special entitled ''I'm Telling You for the Last Time''. Many of the performances were performed free of charge, those who paid for tickets in advance were given refunds. A poor-selling album of the same name was also released that year and it featured samples of his stand-up performance.
The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, ''Comedian'', which focused also on fellow comic Orny Adams, directed by Christian Charles. His stand-up routine is highly acclaimed and he was ranked #12 in Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. He has written a few books, mostly archives of past routines.
In 2004, Seinfeld also appeared in two commercial webisodes promoting American Express, entitled ''The Adventures Of Seinfeld And Superman'', in which he appeared together with an animated rendering of Superman, who was referenced in numerous episodes of ''Seinfeld'' as Seinfeld's hero, voiced by Patrick Warburton, who had portrayed David Puddy on ''Seinfeld''. The webisodes were aired in 2004 and directed by Barry Levinson. Seinfeld and "Superman" were also interviewed by Matt Lauer in a specially-recorded interview for the ''Today Show''.
Apple Computer in the late 1990s came up with an advertising slogan called "Think different" and produced a 60-second commercial to promote the slogan which showed people who were able to "think differently", like Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and many others. This commercial was later cut short to thirty seconds and ended up paying tribute to Jerry Seinfeld. This commercial aired only once, during the series finale of ''Seinfeld''.
As of 2004, he and his former ''Seinfeld'' cast and crew have been recording commentaries for the DVD releases of the show. So far Seinfeld has recorded audio commentary for Season 1's ''The Stakeout'', Season 2's ''The Deal'', Season 3's ''The Pen'' and ''The Pez Dispenser'', Season 4's ''The Contest'' and ''The Junior Mint'', Season 5's ''The Opposite'', Season 6's ''The Gymnast'' and ''The Race'', Season 7's ''The Soup Nazi'', ''The Pool Guy'' and ''The Calzone'' and Season 8's ''The Chicken Roaster'', ''The Abstinence'' and ''The Pothole''.
On November 18, 2004, Seinfeld appeared at the Smithsonian Museum where the "Puffy Shirt" he wore in the famous ''Seinfeld'' episode, ''The Puffy Shirt'', was being donated. He also gave a speech when presenting the "Puffy Shirt", claiming humorously that "This is the most embarrassing moment of my life."
Seinfeld had a special appearance on May 13, 2006 ''Saturday Night Live'' episode as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' assassin. Louis was the host of that episode and in her opening monologue she mentioned the "Seinfeld Curse".
While talking about how ridiculous the "curse" was, a stage light suddenly fell next to her. The camera moved to a catwalk above the stage that Seinfeld was standing on, holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily muttered something about the curse, apparently angry that Louis is not cursed. Louis then continued to say that she is indeed not cursed.
On an episode of ''The Daily Show'', host Jon Stewart remarked on the fact that Seinfeld did not change his name for the purpose of show business but then went on to ask what he would call himself if he did change it. Jerry then jokingly said, "Well, I would keep my last name, so as not to offend my parents and I would have to go with Jesus."
On February 25, 2007, Seinfeld appeared at the 79th Academy Awards as the presentor for "Best Documentary". Before announcing the nominations he did a bit of a stand-up comedy routine about the unspoken agreement between movie theater owners and movie patrons. One of the winners of the award was Larry David's now ex-wife. On October 4, 2007, Seinfeld will make a brief return to NBC, guest-starring in the second-season premiere of ''30 Rock''.^[2]

Books

Seinfeld is also a bestselling author, most notably for his book ''Seinlanguage''. Released in 1993, the book went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller. The book, written as his television show was first rising in popularity, is primarily an adaptation of the comedian's standup material. The title comes from an article in Entertainment Weekly listing the numerous catch-phrases the show was responsible for.
In 2002, he wrote a children's book titled ''Halloween''. The book was illustrated by James Bennett. There are also several books about both the sitcom and Seinfeld himself, though many of them are not written by Seinfeld.
Seinfeld completed the forewords to Ted L. Nancy's ''Letters From A Nut'' series of books and Ed Broth's ''Stories From A Moron''. Both authors are rumored to be pseudonyms for Seinfeld or a friend of his. Neither Nancy or Broth have been seen publicly, although Seinfeld is heavily involved in pitching their books for television. In promoting Broth's book, Seinfeld hosted a toast in the author's honor, although Broth did not arrive to the event.^[3]
Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the ''Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook'', from his favorite sandwich shop in New York City.

Credits

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	''The Ratings Game''	Network Rep
1999	''Pros & Cons''	Prison Man #2
2002	''Comedian''	Jerry Seinfeld
2004	''A Uniform Used to Mean Something''	Jerry Seinfeld
	''Hindsight is 20/20''	Jerry Seinfeld
2007	''Bee Movie''	Barry B. Benson	Voice

Television

Year	Title	Role
1989 - 1998	''Seinfeld''	Jerry Seinfeld

Private life

Seinfeld has been in multiple highly publicized relationships. At one time while in his 30s, during his time on his sitcom, he was engaged for a brief time to 17 years old high school student Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss^[4]. He later began dating Jessica Sklar after they met at the Reebok Sports Club, even though she had just married Eric Nederlander, a scion of the Broadway theater-owning family. They married on December 25, 1999. George Wallace was the best man at his wedding. He bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett village for the price of $32 million in March 2000. They have three children, 1 daughter and 1 son. Their daughter Sascha was born on November 7, 2000, son Julian Kal was born on March 1, 2003 and Shepherd Kellen was born on August 22, 2005. His son Julian's middle name, Kal, is the first name of Jerry's father, Kal, as well as the first name of Seinfeld's hero Kal-El, AKA "Superman".

Personal income

Seinfeld received $267 million during 1998 according to ''Forbes magazine'',^[5] making him the highest-earning celebrity that year. Even though many believed the sitcom suffered after Larry David's departure, it continued for two more years, ending in May 1998, ''Seinfeld'' still generates more revenue than most current shows, through syndication. He reportedly turned down $5 million per episode, for 22 episodes, to continue the show beyond .

Car collection

Seinfeld is an avid automobile enthusiast and collector and is rumored to own one of the largest Porsche collections in the world. He rented out an entire hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California for an extended period of time during the 1990s for storage of some of the vehicles in the collection. After his return to New York City he was involved in an extended dispute with several neighbors over the proposed building of a $1.4 million multistory garage to contain the cars.
A current tally puts Seinfeld at 47 Porsches. Reporter Paul Bannister reports that his collection includes Porsche 911s from various years, 10 Porsche Boxsters each painted a different color and the famous, some would say infamous, 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, the same model and pearl-grey color that actor James Dean was driving when he crashed and died in September 1955 near Cholame, California. The centerpiece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 268 ever built. To his initial despair, he was not allowed to drive it as US emission and crash tests were never performed because Porsche refused to donate 4 Porsche 959s for destruction tests, rendering the car "not street legal". He imported the car "for exhibition purposes", which stipulates the car may never set rubber on American roads. The Comedians, , Paul, Bannister, , , The car was made street legal in 2003 / 2004.
In several episodes of ''Seinfeld'', Seinfeld drives a Saab 900 (NG) convertible but a Porsche themed painting, depicting a Porsche 904 GTS race car competing in the 1964 Targa Florio race in Italy, is visible on a wall in his apartment as well as a Porsche racing poster featuring a Porsche 550 Spyder depicting the 1958 Targa Florio. In another episode, he is seen hiding behind a red Porsche 911RS parked on the street. In addition, an issue of Excellence, a Porsche-centered publication, is featured prominently on an outdoor magazine rack in one episode and on at least one occasion he is seen reading an issue of Road and Track magazine from circa 1990 with a cover article on the Porsche 964. He also wrote an article for February 2004 issue of Automobile Magazine, reviewing the Porsche Carrera GT. For the story he was awarded Road Test - Silver at the 2004 International Automotive Media Awards.

References

1. http://web.archive.org/web/20010223215641/israeliculture.about.com/culture/israeliculture/library/weekly/aa042098.htm
2. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=22046
3. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-04-27-seinfeld_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA
4. http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.19.02/arts/books.php
5. Forbes.com: Forbes Celebrity 100 1999

External links

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