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Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld (born on April 29, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) is a Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor and writer. He is often described as an observational comedian. He is best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the long-running situation comedy, Seinfeld, (1989 - 1998), which he co-created, helped write and, in the show's final two seasons, executively produced. He also starred as "Barry B. Benson" in the film Bee Movie, his first major foray back into the media industry since the finale of Seinfeld. For his place in entertainment history as the co-creator and star of TV Guide’s “#1 Greatest TV Show of all time,” “Seinfeld” (1989-1998), Jerry Seinfeld’s real life path seemed as simple and effortless as the sitcom that was supposedly “about nothing.” He became a successful stand-up comic, parlayed that into a sitcom based on his life as a successful stand-up comic, and after nine years on TV returned to being a successful standup comic. Without a doubt, Seinfeld was the definitive observational comedian, naturally funny and obsessively hard-working, but the oft-overlooked secret to his success was his singularity of focus. He knew what he did best irreverent, observational humor about the everyday minutiae of modern life and he became the best at it. Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn. His father, Kálmán was of Hungarian-Jewish background and his mother, Betty, is of Syrian-Jewish descent. He grew up in Massapequa, New York, where he attended Massapequa High School. In 1970, while aged 16, he spent a short period of time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar, in Israel. He went to SUNY Oswego, and after his sophomore year he transferred and graduated from Queens College, City University of New York. He developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions. Right after graduation from Queens College, 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 snowstorm 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. Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1989 for NBC. The show was later renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short-lived teen sitcom The Marshall Chronicles and, by its fourth season, had become the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. The show left the air in 1998; as of 2008, it 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." Seinfeld also holds the distinction of being the only actor to appear in every episode of the show. From 2004–2007, the former Seinfeld cast and crew recorded audio commentaries for episodes of the DVD releases of the show. Seinfeld himself provided 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", Season 8's "The Chicken Roaster", "The Abstinence" and "The Pothole" and Season 9's "The Strike". After his sitcom ended, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy instead of pursuing a film career as 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. 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. 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 & 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. On November 18, 2004, Seinfeld appeared at the Smithsonian Museum where the "Puffy Shirt" he wore in the famous Seinfeld episode of the same name, 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-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 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 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 presenter 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, Laurie. On October 4, 2007, Seinfeld made a brief return to NBC, guest-starring in the second-season premiere of 30 Rock. During an interview in relation to his appearance on 30 Rock, Seinfeld stated that this was his first time as a guest star on a sitcom. In fact, Seinfeld has guest starred or had cameos in NewsRadio, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The New WKRP in Cincinnati. On November 1, 2007, Jerry Seinfeld appeared at the Daily Show to promote his animated movie and suggested that he might shoot another scene for Seinfeld. On November 30, 2007, while promoting Bee Movie, Seinfeld appeared on The Late Late Show in Ireland. However, when Seinfeld came out on stage presenter Pat Kenny seemingly had no clue who Jerry Seinfeld was and engaged in an awkward interview for about five minutes. Kenny would go on to call Seinfeld "Jerry Seinfield" twice before the interview was over and then handed Jerry a cheaply made Superman action figure as a Christmas gift. At first, Seinfeld believed this to be a joke, due to the cheapness of the doll, but soon realized that it was meant to be a genuine gift and seemed somewhat confused. Kenny then asked Seinfeld "what's next for him?", a question generally asked to up and coming actors, not renowned stars, such as Seinfeld. Seinfeld later stated that he found the entire incident "highly perplexing." On February 24, 2008, Seinfeld appeared as the voice of his Bee Movie animated character Barry, at the 80th Academy Awards as the presentor for "Best Animated Short". Before anouncing the nominees, he showed a montage of film clips featuring bees, claiming that they were some of his early work (as Barry). Amidst his spring 2008 tour Jerry Seinfeld will be making a stop in his hometown of New York City for a one-night-only performance on June 2, 2008 at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden to benefit Stand Up for a Cure SUFAC, a charity aiding lung cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. 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 2003, 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. Broth did not attend. Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook, from his favorite sandwich shop in New York City. Seinfeld hit the general radar in the fall of 2007 with a guest appearance (as himself, of course) in the season premiere of “30 Rock” (2006- ). The wildly inventive plot about NBC devising a plan to lift footage of Seinfeld from the old shows and insert him into new programming caused an instant wave of nostalgia for the days of fresh “Seinfeld” episodes. And all just in time for the release of the show’s final season on DVD. However Seinfeld’s biggest news of the year was the release of his feature debut, “Bee Movie” (2007). The animated Dreamworks tale of an ambitious bee who sues the human race for unlawful harvesting of honey was co-written and co-produced by Seinfeld, featuring his voice as the main character, Barry. Unfortunately, at a time when a Seinfeld-loving nation should have been cheering at the prospect of a new offering from this beloved comedian, he began to experience possibly the most blatant backlash of a career that, heretofore, could do no wrong. Blogs were abuzz over the relentless “Bee Movie” promotion campaign. One of a series of TV ads was criticized for its perceived anti-gay sentiment. Furthermore, McDonald’s tie-in with the film incited claims of hypocrisy as Seinfeld’s wife Jessica was concurrently promoting a cookbook of healthful cooking for kids. To make matters worse, the author of a similarly themed cookbook stepped forward to protest that Mrs. Seinfeld’s recipes bore a striking resemblance to her own, which prompted Seinfeld to defend his wife in an ill-considered rant on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Adding to the swirling personal controversy, early reviews for “Bee Movie” rated it somewhere closer to a C movie, suggesting that Seinfeld might have been better served sticking to his low-profile life as a revered stand-up and eternal TV institution. On January 7, 2008, Missy Chase Lapine, author of "The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals", sued Jerry Seinfeld and wife Jessica Seinfeld for plagiarism, or copyright and trademark infringement in the Manhattan, U.S. District Court. Richard Menaker, the Seinfelds' counsel, accused Lapine of seeking publicity on the book's sales. In October 2007, HarperCollins had published Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food." |
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