Jerry Seinfeld

For his character from the TV show, see Jerry Seinfeld (character).

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

Early history

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Seinfeld attended the Birch Lane Elementary School and Massapequa High School, he attended the State University of Oswego (SUNY Oswego) in upstate New York, but transferred after a few semesters. 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 was appearing in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. Seinfeld had a small recurring role as "Frankie", mail delivery boy who had a slew of comedy routines that no one wanted to hear, on the Benson sitcom in 1979, but was abruptly fired from the show. A few years later, in May of 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Seinfeld then became a regular on similar shows, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Merv Griffin Show.

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 2006, the show is still receiving heavy airplay in syndication. The show also starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. On the show, Seinfeld played a caricature of himself. He has said that his show was inspired by the classic 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."

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. 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 Jerry was ranked #12 in Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups 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 Jerry'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 in fact a true Superman fan in real life.

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 falls next to her. The camera moves to a catwalk above the stage that Jerry Seinfeld is standing on holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily mutters something about the curse (apparently angry that Louis-Dreyfus is not cursed). Louis-Dreyfus then continues to say that she is indeed not cursed. Seinfeld's look here was different from that on his sitcom; he sported short hair and a pair of glasses.

He is lending his voice to the DreamWorks project "Bee Movie," which is slated to be released in 2007.

Books

Seinfeld is also a bestselling author, most notably for his book Seinlanguage. Released in 1993, the book went onto 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. More recently, he wrote a children's book titled Halloween (2002). The book was illustrated by James Bennett.

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. ^*.

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

Family

He was born to a Jewish family of a Syrian mother and a Hungarian father.

His most famous pre-marriage dalliance was with Shoshanna Lonstein, who was 17 years old, and still in high school when they first met. He began dating Jessica Sklar after they met at the Reebok Sports Club in 1998, even though she had just married Eric Nederlander, a scion of the Broadway theater-owning family. At one point, Nederlander planned to sue Seinfeld for "alienation of affection", which contributed to the demise of his marriage. 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).

Compensation

Seinfeld received $267 million USD during 2004 according to Forbes magazine (^*), 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.

Car collection

Seinfeld is an avid automobile enthusiast and collector. However, unlike fellow comedian Jay Leno, 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 Seinfield’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. The centre piece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 200 ever built. To Seinfeld's despair, he isn’t allowed to drive it. 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 under 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, 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. 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.

External links

Seinfeld goes on with the show (USA Today Article)

Seinology
Seinfeld Chronicles - A site about nothing for everything Seinfeld
Seinfeld Scripts-

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