Jerry Seinfeld

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Jerry Seinfeld
Born:	April 29, 1954 (age 52) Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Medium:	Stand-Up Television
Nationality:	American
Years active:	1976 – Present
Genres:	Observational Humor
Subjects:	everyday life
Influences:	George Carlin, Robert Klein, Abbott & Costello,Bill Cosby , Jean Shepherd

Jerome Seinfeld (born April 29, 1954) is an American comedian, actor, and writer from Massapequa, New York. Seinfeld is often described as an observational comedian. He is best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the long-running sitcom Seinfeld, which he co-created and executive produced.

[edit] Early life

Seinfeld was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Jewish parents. His father, Kalman, was of Hungarian Jewish background and his mother, Betty, was of Syrian Jewish background. He went to Massapequa High School. He then attended the State University of New York at Oswego in upstate New York, but he transferred out after a few semesters. During his time in college, he was an amateur wrestler who called himself "The Jewish Terror." Right after graduation from Queens College, he tried out at an open mic night at New York's Catch a Rising Star in 1976. He was known for his incredibly dedicated and devoted work ethic (it is said that Seinfeld traveled in an intense snow storm to a comedy club just to find it empty). Soon after, Seinfeld appeared in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special.

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.

A few years later, in May of 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on The Tonight Show. Seinfeld then became a regular on similar shows, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Merv Griffin Show.

[edit] Seinfeld

Main article: Seinfeld

Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1989 for NBC. The show was later renamed Seinfeld and, by its fourth season, became the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. The show left the air in 1998. As of 2007, the show is still receiving heavy airplay in syndication. The show also starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as experienced actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. On the show, Seinfeld played a caricature of himself. He has said that his show was inspired by the 1950s sitcom The Abbott and Costello Show. About his influences, Seinfeld, in his commentary for "The Gymnast" episode on "Seinfeld, Season 6," said, "He really formed my entire comedic sensibility--I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd."

[edit] Post-Seinfeld

In 1998, Seinfeld went on tour and recorded a comedy special entitled I'm Telling You for the Last Time. An album of the same name was also released that year and it featured samples of his stand-up performance.

Seinfeld on the cover of Time magazine; January 12, 1998. Seinfeld's decision to end one of television's most popular programs sparked a significant public reaction.

After his sitcom went off the air, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy. The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, Comedian, 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. Jerry Seinfeld has written a few books, mostly archives of past routines.

Seinfeld also appeared in two commercial 'webisodes' promoting American Express Credit Cards, 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 is a Superman fan in real life.

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.^{[citation needed]} This commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld.

As of 2004, Jerry and his former Seinfeld cast and crew have been giving audio commentary for the DVD releases of the show. So far Jerry has given 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 and Season 6's The Gymnast and The Race.

Seinfeld had a special appearance on the May 13, 2006 Saturday Night Live episode as Julia Louis-Dreyfus's assassin. Louis-Dreyfus 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 Jerry Seinfeld was standing on, holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily muttered something about the curse (apparently angry that Louis-Dreyfus is not cursed). Louis-Dreyfus 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 didn't 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 25th 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 routine about the unspoken agreement between movie theater owners and movie patrons. Larry David's wife, Laurie David, produced the Award winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth

[edit] 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.

More recently, he wrote a children's book titled Halloween (2002). The book was illustrated by James Bennett. There are also several books about both Seinfeld the man and Seinfeld the TV show, but not written by Jerry Seinfeld himself.

Seinfeld is also rumoured to be working on a collaboration book with Stephen King. The book is said to revolve around the lives of a German family who move into a new house, only to find it is haunted by the ghost of Anne Frank.^{[citations needed]}

He 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. [1].

Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook, from his favorite sandwich shop in New York City.

[edit] Movies

Seinfeld is making his film debut with the Dreamworks animated movie "Bee Movie". This film is slated to be released in early November, 2007. In the film he will voice the main character, Barry B. Benson, a bee who discovers that humans are stealing the honey in his hive. Meanwhile, he falls for another bee, Vanessa, voiced by Renée Zellweger.

[edit] Private life

Seinfield has been in multiple highly publicised relationships. At one time while in his 30's he dated 17 year old high school student Shoshanna Lonstein^[1]. 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. Seinfeld and Sklar married on December 25, 1999. They have three children: daughter Sascha (born November 7, 2000), son Julian Kal (born March 1, 2003), and son Shepherd Kellen (born August 22, 2005). His son Julian's middle name, 'Kal', is the first name of Jerry's father, Kal Seinfeld. Jerry is a suporter of the Democratic Party.

[edit] Personal income

Seinfeld received US$267 million during 1998 according to Forbes magazine ^[2], making him the highest-earning celebrity that year. Even though the sitcom ended in May 1998, Seinfeld still generates more revenue, through syndication, than most current shows. It is believed that Jerry has earned more money for the portrayal of a single character than any other actor.^{[citation needed]} He reportedly turned down $5 million per episode (for 22 episodes) to continue the show beyond its final season.

[edit] Car collection

Seinfeld is an avid automobile enthusiast and collector. However, unlike fellow comedian Chris Rock, he is far more focused—he 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 he was involved in an extended dispute with several neighbors over the proposed building of a massive $1.4 million multistory garage to contain the cars.

A current tally puts Seinfeld at 47 Porsches. Reporter Paul Bannister reports that Seinfeld’s collection includes 911s from various years, 10 Boxsters each painted a different color, and the famous (some would say infamous) 1955 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^{[citation needed]}. The center piece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 200 ever built. To Seinfeld's despair, he is not allowed to drive it as U.S. emission and crash tests were never performed because Porsche refused to donate four 959s for destruction tests (rendering the car "not street legal"). Seinfeld imported the car "for exhibition purposes", which stipulates the car may never set rubber on American roads (Paul Bannister, The Comedians, p.74-75).

In several episodes of his sitcom he uses a Saab 900 (NG) convertible, but a Porsche themed painting (depicting a 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 550 spyder depicting the 1958 Targa Florio. In addition, an issue of Excellence magazine, a Porsche-centered publication, is featured prominently on an outdoor magazine rack in one episode, and on at least one occasion Seinfeld 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 Seinfeld was awarded Road Test - Silver at the 2004 International Automotive Media Awards (no Gold award was given).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Jerry Seinfeld

• Seinfeld goes on with the show (USA Today Article)

• Jerry Seinfeld at the Internet Movie Database
• Seinology
• Seinfeld Chronicles—A site about nothing for everything Seinfeld
• Seinfeld Scripts
• In Pursuit Of Nothing Seinfeld DVD Trivia Board Game
• A collection of Jerry's best lines in Seinfeld