Jason Alexander

Jason Alexander (born Jason Scott Greenspan, September 23, 1959, in Newark, New Jersey), is a television, cinema and musical theatre actor.

Personal life

Family

Alexander is the son of Alex and Ruth Greenspan. He has a half-sister, Karen Van Horn, and a half-brother, Michael Greenspan. He has been married to Daena E. Title since May 31, 1981. They have two children, Gabriel and Noah.^*

Education

Alexander is a 1977 graduate of Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey. He attended Boston University, but left the summer before his senior year after getting work in New York City. He was later given an honorary degree. ^*

Acting roles

Alexander was one of the stars of the award-winning television sitcom Seinfeld in which he played the neurotic ne'er-do-well George Costanza, Jerry Seinfeld's best friend. He has also appeared in a number of movies (Love! Valour! Compassion!, Dunston Checks In, and Pretty Woman among them) and did some work as a director, including a recent successful Hollywood concert version of the musical Hair, for which he was also the emcee. He is also known for providing the voice of the lead character in the cult animated series Duckman, as well as the voice of Catbert, the evil director of human resources, in the short-lived Dilbert animated series, based on the popular comic strip.

Alexander began his acting career on the New York stage. On Broadway, he appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, The Rink, Sweeny Todd co-staring with Angela Lansbury for which he has won several awards, Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, Accomplice, and Jerome Robbins' Broadway, for which he was awarded the 1989 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Alexander has also done a McDonalds commercial advertising the McDLT, in which he sings. He has also appeared in KFC commercials, including one with baseball superstar Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and another one opposite Trista Rehn of The Bachelorette. He no longer appears in these commercials due to the alleged cruelty to animals by KFC suppliers and slaughterhouses. He is also featured in country star Brad Paisley's music video, "Celebrity".

In the fall of 2004, he began appearing in a new sitcom on CBS, Listen Up, costarring Malcolm-Jamal Warner. His character was based on sportswriter Tony Kornheiser, but the show did not last the entire season and was not renewed for a second season. He had previously starred in the failed sitcom Bob Patterson (2001) and, years prior to Seinfeld, was featured in the 1984-1985 sitcom E/R.

Alexander continues to appear in live stage shows including in 2005 Barbara Streisand's Memorable, Birthday Party for Stephen Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl in which he and Angela Landsbury again appeared doing selections again from Sweeny Todd. This appearance was memorable because of the outstanding performance and the ending in which Angela Lansbury tripped over a wire on stage and fell injuring her leg near the end of the performance. Ever the trouper, Angela and Alexander went on as if nothing had ever happened. Angela's fall required surgery and a hospital stay.

In the summer of 2005, he appeared with Lee Iacocca in ads for DaimlerChrysler vehicles which is coincidental, considering the fact that his character on Seinfeld, George Costanza, once bought a Chrysler convertible solely on the belief that it was previously owned by Jon Voight (the actual owner was a John Voight, a New York dentist)

In one of his few cinematic appearances, he played another memorable character (aside from Costanza) — an unlikeable womanizer Mauricio — in the movie Shallow Hal (2001) against Jack Black.

Alexander also appeared with Kelsey Grammer in the musical adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. He played Jacob Marley to Grammer's Ebenezer Scrooge. Alexander also appeared in Rob Reiner's 1994 film North starring Elijah Wood and Bruce Willis along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, one of his Seinfeld co-stars.

Alexander appears on the Live in Vegas CD singing a verse in the song "All Cartoons are Fuckin' Dicks".

He featured in the Friends episode "The One where Rosita dies" as a suicidal supply manager named Earl. Phoebe rings him trying to sell him toner and she learns about his problem and tries to convince him not to commit suicide. This is referred to in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Alexander appears as a neurotic and critical loner called Leonard. He describes himself as free and mentions that he makes money with a job "selling toner over the phone", also in the episode, he was repeatedly harassed by a man named George; his character's name on Seinfeld.

Alexander is also the national spokesman for the Scleroderma Foundation, a leading organization dedicated to raising awareness of the disease and assisting those who are afflicted.

He performed a mentalism and magic act at the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, California on April 24-30 2006.

On the June 26, 2006 episode of the Jimmy Kimmel Live talk show, Alexander demonstrated several self-defense techniques. He was also the Host of the 230th July 4th, 2006 of the PBS July 4th "A Capitol Fourth" Celebrations in Washington, D.C. in which he sang, danced, and played tuned drums.

Alexander has also appeared several times on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, and won the final table in the 8th season, finishing ahead of (in order) Robin Tunney, Michael Ian Black, Ida Siconolfi, and Keegan-Michael Key. At one point, Alexander was down to less than $12,000 in chips, when MIchael Ian Black imploded, finishing third after having had nearly 80% of the chips on the table. Alexander played for United Way of the greater New Orleans area, and won $500,000 for the charity.

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Jason Alexander

Personal life

Family

Education

Acting roles

External links