Jerry Seinfeld
Jewish Name - Jerome Allen Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up
comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, best
known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the sitcom
Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry
David, and, in the show's final two seasons, co-executive-produced.
In his first major foray back into the media since the finale of
Seinfeld, he co-wrote and co-produced the film Bee Movie, also
taking on the lead role of Barry B. Benson. In February 2010,
Seinfeld premiered a reality TV series called The Marriage Ref on
NBC. Seinfeld directed Colin Quinn in the Broadway show Long Story
Short at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York which ran until January
8, 2011.
Seinfeld is known for specializing in observational humor, often
focusing on personal relationships and uncomfortable social
obligations. Comedy Central ranked Jerry Seinfeld as one of the
twelve greatest stand-up comedians of all time in its four-part
special The 100 Greatest Standups Of All Time.[6]
Early life
Seinfeld was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His
father, Kalmen Seinfeld (1918–1985), was of Austrian Jewish
background and was a sign maker;[7][8] his mother, Betty (1915-
),[9] is of Syrian Jewish descent.[10] Her family identified their
nationality as Turkish when they emigrated to the United States in
1917.[10]
Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, New York. In September 1959, his
mother enrolled him at Birch Lane Elementary School, Massapequa High
School.[11] At the age of 16, he spent a short period of time
volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel.[12] He went to SUNY Oswego,
and after his sophomore year he transferred to Queens College, City
University of New York, graduating with a degree in communications
and theater.[7]
Seinfeld developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints
in college productions.[13] In 1976 after graduation from Queens
College, he tried out at an open-mic night at New York City's Catch
a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield
HBO special.[7] In 1979 he had a small recurring role on the Benson
sitcom as "Frankie", a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines
that no one wanted to hear, but he was abruptly fired from the show
due to creative differences.[7] Seinfeld has said that he was not
actually told he had been fired until he turned up for the
read-through session for an episode, and found that there was no
script for him.[14] In May 1981 Seinfeld made a highly successful
appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressing
Carson and the audience and leading to regular appearances on that
show and others, including Late Night with David Letterman.[7]
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 final episode aired in 1998, and the show
has been a popular syndicated re-run. 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
influenced by the 1950s sitcom The Abbott and Costello Show. Citing
Jean Shepherd as an influence in his commentary for "The Gymnast"
episode on "Seinfeld, Season 6," he 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.[15] 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 numerous episodes.
Post-Seinfeld
1998–2006
After his sitcom ended, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy instead
of pursuing a film career. In 1998, Seinfeld went on tour and
recorded a comedy special titled 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 several books, mostly archives of past
routines.
In the late 1990s, Apple Computer 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.[16]
Seinfeld at the 1997 Emmy Awards.
In 2004, Seinfeld also appeared in two commercial webisodes
promoting American Express, titled 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.
On November 18, 2004, Seinfeld appeared at the National Museum of
American History to donate the "Puffy Shirt" he wore in the famous
Seinfeld episode of the same name. 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, "Dammit!", angry
that it didn't hit her. Louis-Dreyfus then continued to say that she
is indeed not cursed.
2007
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 episode "SeinfeldVision" of 30 Rock as
himself.[17]
2008
On February 24, 2008, Seinfeld appeared as the voice of his Bee
Movie animated character Barry, at the 80th Academy Awards as the
presenter for "Best Animated Short". Before announcing 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 Seinfeld made a stop in his hometown of
New York City for a one-night-only performance on June 2, 2008 at
the Hammerstein Ballroom to benefit Stand Up for a Cure, a charity
aiding lung cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center.
In August 2008 the Associated Press reported that Jerry Seinfeld
would be the pitchman for Windows Vista, as part of a $300 million
advertising campaign by Microsoft. The ads, which were intended to
create buzz for Windows in support of the subsequent "I'm a PC"
advertisements, began airing in mid-September 2008 and were cut from
television after just 3 installments, Microsoft opting instead to
continue with the "I'm a PC" advertisements,[18] and instead
continued running the Seinfeld ads on the Microsoft website as a
series of longer advertisements.[19]
2009
In March 2009, it was announced that Seinfeld and the entire cast of
Seinfeld would be appearing for a reunion in Larry David's HBO
series Curb Your Enthusiasm. The fictional reunion took place in the
seventh season's finale.
Seinfeld appeared on an episode of the Starz original series Head
Case. Like many of his previous guest appearances on sitcoms he
played himself.
In Australia, Seinfeld appears on a series of advertisements for
Greater Building Society, a building society based in New South
Wales and south eastern Queensland.[20] His appearance in these ads
were highly publicized and considered a coup for the society, being
only the third time Seinfeld had appeared in a television
commercial.[21] The advertisements were filmed in Cedarhurst, Long
Island, with the street designed to emulate Beaumont Street in
Hamilton, where the Greater's head offices are located.[22] Seinfeld
also wrote the scripts for the fifteen advertisements that were
filmed. The ads largely aired in the Northern New South Wales
television market, where the society has most of its branches.
Seinfeld was the first guest of Jay Leno's new talk show, The Jay
Leno Show, which premiered on September 14, 2009.
2010s
Seinfeld was featured on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update sketch
to do the "Really!?!" segment with Seth Meyers. Seinfeld was also
executive producing and occasionally starring as a panelist in The
Marriage Ref. On August 30, 2010, Seinfeld made a notable surprise
guest appearance on The Howard Stern Show, repairing the falling out
the two had in the early 90s.
Seinfeld toured the U.S. in 2011 and made his first appearance on
stage in the U.K. in thirteen years. In July 2011, he was a surprise
guest on The Daily Show, helping Jon Stewart to suppress his urge to
tell "cheap" "Michele Bachmann's husband acts gay" jokes.[23] He
launched a personal archives website at JerrySeinfeld.com. In 2011,
he appeared in the HBO special Talking Funny with fellow comedians
Chris Rock, Louis C.K. and Ricky Gervais. He has a new comedy series
called Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
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 for which
the show was responsible.
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 wrote the forewords to Ted L. Nancy's Letters from a Nut
series of books and Ed Broth's Stories from a Moron. Both authors
were rumored to be pseudonyms for Seinfeld or a friend of his.
Neither Nancy nor 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.[24]
Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the Peanut Butter & Co.
Cookbook, from his favorite sandwich shop in New York City.
Personal life
Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld in 2010.
Seinfeld dated Carol Leifer, a fellow comedian and rumored to be the
inspiration for the character of Elaine from his eponymous sitcom
Seinfeld, although both parties deny it.[citation needed] When he
was in his late thirties, Seinfeld began a romantic relationship
with then-seventeen year old high school student Shoshanna Lonstein.[25]
A while later, after meeting Jessica Sklar at the Reebok Sports
Club, he began dating her. Sklar, a public relations executive for
Tommy Hilfiger, had just returned from a three-week honeymoon in
Italy with Eric Nederlander, a theatrical producer and scion of a
theater-owning family. Sklar divorced Nederlander and married
Seinfeld on November 14, 1998.[26] Comedian George Wallace was the
best man at the wedding. After the nuptials Jerry and Jessica
Seinfeld bought Billy Joel's Amagansett, Long Island house for $32
million in March 2000.
Seinfeld and his wife have one daughter and two sons; daughter
Sascha was born in 2000,[27] son Julian Kal was born in 2003,[28]
and Shepherd Kellen was born in 2005, all in New York City.[29][30]
His son Julian's middle name, Kal, is the first name of Seinfeld's
father and also the first name of Seinfeld's hero Superman, aka Kal-El.
Among Seinfeld's best friends are fellow comedians Larry Miller,
George Wallace, and Mario Joyner.[31]
In 2000, Jessica Seinfeld launched Baby Buggy, a charity that
provides clothing and gear for underprivileged women and children.
She is the author of the best-seller Deceptively Delicious: Simple
Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, released by HarperCollins
in October 2007.[32]
Seinfeld is recorded as having made several political contributions,
including George W. Bush and Al Gore's presidential campaigns in
2000, and subsequently to four Democratic Party primary candidates
in 2000 and 2004.[33]
Seinfeld says that he has practiced Transcendental Meditation for
most of his life,[34] and he appeared at a 2009 benefit for TM.[35]
Seinfeld has admitted dabbling in Scientology when he was in his
twenties,[36] though he says he was never in the
organization.[37][38] The association came to light in 1992.[37]
A fan of the New York Mets, Seinfeld periodically calls Steve
Somers' show on WFAN-AM, a sports talk radio station, as "Jerry from
Queens."[39] Seinfeld called four innings of a Mets game on
SportsNet New York June 23, 2010, reuniting with analyst Keith
Hernandez who appeared in the Seinfeld two part episode The
Boyfriend.[40]
Personal wealth
According to Forbes magazine, Jerry Seinfeld's annual earning from
Seinfeld in 1998 was $267 million, making him the highest-earning
celebrity that year.[41] He reportedly turned down $5 million per
episode, for 22 episodes, to continue the show for a tenth
season.[42] He earned $100 million from syndication deals and
stand-up appearances in 2005 and $60 million in 2006.[43][44] He
also earned $10 million for appearing with Bill Gates in Microsoft's
2008 ads for Windows.[45] Between June 2008 and June 2009, Seinfeld
earned $85 million, making him the highest-paid comedian during that
12-month period.[46]
Car collection
Seinfeld, an automobile enthusiast and avid collector, owns a large
Porsche collection. He rented a 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 multi-story garage to contain the cars.
One tally has Seinfeld owning 46 Porsches. Reporter Paul Bannister
reports that Seinfeld's collection includes Porsche 911s from
various years, 10 Porsche Boxsters each painted a different color,
and the famous 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, the same model and
pearl-grey color that actor James Dean was driving when he crashed
and died. The Discovery Channel television show "Chasing Classic
Cars" claims that Seinfeld owns the first and last original Porsche
911s produced. The centerpiece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of
only 337 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 four Porsche 959s for destruction tests,
rendering the car "not street-legal". He imported the car "for
exhibition purposes", which stipulates the car may never be driven
on American roads.[47] The car was made US street legal in 1999
under the "Show and Display" federal law.[48][49] 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 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 the February 2004 issue of
Automobile, reviewing the Porsche Carrera GT. For the story he was
awarded Road Pest — Silver at the 2004 International Automotive
Media Awards.
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