Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome Allen Seinfeld (/saɪnfɛld/ SYNE-feld; New York, April 29, 1954) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He is known for playing himself on the comedy series Seinfeld, which he created and wrote with Larry David. As a comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy; in 2005, Comedy Central named Seinfeld the "12th Greatest Comedian of All Time".

Seinfeld produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 2007 film Bee Movie. In 2010, he debuted a reality show called The Marriage Ref, which ran for two seasons on NBC. He is the creator and host of the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, currently owned by Netflix.

Early Years

Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Kálmán Seinfeld (1918–1985), was of Hungarian-Jewish descent, and collected jokes he heard while serving in World War II. His mother, Betty (born Hosni; 1915–2014), was of Mizrahi Jewish descent; his parents, Selim and Salha Hosni, were from Aleppo. His second cousin is musician and actor Evan Seinfeld. Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, New York, and attended Massapequa High School on Long Island. At the age of 16 years old, spent time volunteering at Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel.

She studied at the State University of New York at Oswego and moved as a sophomore to Queens College, City University of New York, graduating with degrees in communications and theater.

Career

Beginnings

Seinfeld developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions. He appeared at open mic nights at Budd Friedman's Improv Club while attending Queens College. After graduating in 1976, he tried out for an open mic night at the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in New York City., which led to an appearance on a Rodney Dangerfield special on HBO. In 1980, he had a small recurring role on the sitcom Benson, playing Frankie, a mail delivery boy who he had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. Seinfeld was abruptly fired from the show due to creative differences. Seinfeld has said that he was not actually told he had been fired until he showed up for an episode reading session and discovered there was no script for him.

In May 1981, Seinfeld made a successful appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressing Johnny Carson and the audience and leading to several appearances on that show and others, including Late Night with David Letterman.

On September 5, 1987, his first stand-up special, titled Stand-Up Confidential, first aired on HBO.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld at the 44th Emmy Awards in 1992

Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1988 for NBC. The show later changed its name to Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short-lived teen comedy The Marshall Chronicles. In its fourth season, it had become the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. The last episode aired in 1998, and the show has been a popular syndication.

Along with Seinfeld, the show featured Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus and seasoned actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. Alexander played George, a caricature of Larry David. Seinfeld is the only actor to appear in every episode of the show.

Seinfeld has said his show was influenced by the 1950s sitcom The Abbott and Costello Show. On the "Seinfeld Season 6' DVD set, commenting on the episode "The Gymnast," Seinfeld cited Jean Shepherd as an influence, saying, "It really shaped my whole life. comedic sensibility: I learned comedy from Jean Shepherd".

From 2004 to 2007, the former Seinfeld cast and crew recorded audio commentaries for episodes of the show's DVD releases. Seinfeld provided commentary for multiple episodes.

After Seinfeld

After his sitcom ended, Seinfeld returned to New York City to return to his stand-up rather than stay in Los Angeles and continue his acting career. In 1998 he went on tour and recorded a comedy special, titled I tell you for the last time. The process of developing and making new material in clubs around the world was described in a 2002 documentary, Comedian, which also featured comedian Orny Adams and was directed by Christian Charles. Seinfeld has written several books, mostly archives of past routines.

In the late 1990s, Apple Computer created the advertising slogan "Think Different" and produced a 60-second commercial to promote the catchphrase. This ad featured people who could "think differently," such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others. The commercial was later cut down to 30 seconds and altered so that Seinfeld was included at the end, while he had not been in the original cut. This shorter version of the commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld.

Seinfeld at the Emmy Awards 1996

In 2004, Seinfeld appeared in two web commercials promoting American Express, titled The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman. In these, Seinfeld appeared with an animated cartoon of Superman, who was referred to in numerous Seinfeld episodes as the hero of Seinfeld, voiced by Patrick Warburton (who plays the character of David Puddy on Seinfeld). The online episodes were directed by Barry Levinson and aired briefly on television. Seinfeld and "Superman" they 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" that he wore in the Seinfeld episode of the same name. He also made a speech introducing the "puffy shirt," humorously saying that "this is the most embarrassing moment of my life."

On May 13, 2006, Seinfeld made an appearance on Saturday Night Live as the assassin of host Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Louis-Dreyfus in her opening monologue mentioned the "curse of Seinfeld". While he was talking about how ridiculous the "curse" was, a stage light suddenly fell next to him. The camera panned to a catwalk above the stage where Seinfeld was standing, holding a large pair of bolt cutters.

On February 25, 2007, Seinfeld appeared at the 79th Academy Awards as a presenter for the "Best Documentary" category. Before announcing the nominations, he did a short comedy routine about the unspoken agreement between movie theater owners and movie sponsors.

On October 4, 2007, Seinfeld made a brief return to NBC, guesting on the episode "SeinfeldVision" from the comedy series 30 Rock.

On February 24, 2008, at the 80th Academy Awards, Seinfeld appeared as the voice of his animated character Barry from Bee Movie, submitting in the category of "Best animated short film". Before announcing the nominees, he showed a montage of movie clips featuring bees, saying they were some of his (as Barry's) early work.

On June 2, 2008, in the middle of his Spring 2008 tour, Seinfeld appeared in his hometown of New York for a one-night only show at the Hammerstein Ballroom to benefit Stand Up for Cure, a lung cancer research charity at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

In August 2008, The Associated Press reported that Jerry Seinfeld would launch Windows Vista, as part of a $300 million Microsoft ad campaign. The ads, which were intended to create a buzz for Windows in support of the later 'I'm a PC' ads, began airing in mid-September 2008. They were cut from television after three installments; Microsoft chose to continue the 'I'm a PC' ads and run the Seinfeld ads on Microsoft's website as a series of longer ads.

In March 2009, it was announced that Seinfeld and the entire cast of Seinfeld would appear for a reunion on the series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David. The fictional meeting took place in the seventh season finale.

Seinfeld appeared in an episode of the Starz original series Head Case. As was the case in many of his previous sitcom guest appearances, he played himself.

In Australia, Seinfeld appeared in a series of advertisements for the Greater Building Society, a property loan company based in New South Wales and South East Queensland. His appearance in these advertisements was highly publicized and a hit with the public. public, marking the third time Seinfeld had appeared in a television commercial. The spots were filmed in Cedarhurst, Long Island, with the street designed to emulate Beaumont Street in Hamilton, where the Greater Building Society headquarters are located. Seinfeld also wrote the scripts for the 15 commercials that were filmed. The advertisements aired largely in the northern New South Wales television market, where the society has most of its branches.

Seinfeld was the first guest on Jay Leno's talk show The Jay Leno Show, which premiered on September 14, 2009.

Seinfeld appeared on the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment to play himself with Seth Meyers. He executive produced and occasionally starred as a panelist on the reality show The Marriage Ref. On August 30, 2010, Seinfeld made a surprise appearance on The Howard Stern Show, mending the feud the two had in the early '90s.

Seinfeld toured the United States in 2011, making their first UK appearance in 11 years. In July 2011, he was a surprise guest on The Daily Show, helping Jon Stewart suppress his urge to tell him "on the cheap"; that Michele Bachmann's husband made gay jokes. Seinfeld also launched a personal archives website, JerrySeinfeld.com, and appeared in the HBO special Talking Funny, with comedians Chris Rock, Louis C.K. and Ricky Gervais in the same year.

In 2012, Seinfeld began a web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which he would pick up a fellow comedian in a different car each episode and take them out for coffee and a chat.. The initial series consisted of ten episodes that ran from 7 to 25 minutes each. Season 2 (2013) had six episodes, with guests including Don Rickles and David Letterman.

In June 2013, he was featured on rapper Wale's album The Gifted on the song "Outro About Nothing".

Seinfeld received coverage for his speech at the 2014 Clio Awards ceremony, where he received an honorary award, as media reporters said he had "mocked" and "shattered" to the advertising industry; his statement of "I love publicity because I love to lie"; received particular attention.

On February 15, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance as a host on "SNL 40", the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special.

In January 2017, Seinfeld signed a comedy deal with Netflix. As part of the deal, all episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee are available on the streaming, in addition to a new twenty-four-episode season. The deal also included two new deals for Seinfeld and the development of scripted and unscripted comedies for Netflix. On September 19, 2017, Netflix released the stand-up special -up Jerry Before Seinfeld.

Books

Seinfeld wrote the book Seinlanguage, released in 1993. Written while Seinfeld was rapidly rising in popularity, it is primarily an adaptation of his stand-up routines. The title comes from an article in Entertainment Weekly that listed the many catchphrases for which the show was responsible.

In 2002, he wrote the children's book Halloween, illustrated by James Bennett.

Seinfeld also wrote the forewords to the book series Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy and Stories from a Moron by Ed Broth. Seinfeld he also wrote the foreword to Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook.

Influences

Seinfeld has cited among his influences humorist Jean Shepherd, comedians Jerry Lewis, Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Jay Leno, Robert Klein, duo Abbott and Costello, and actor Ricardo Montalbán.

Artists and producers influenced by Seinfeld include Judd Apatow, Kevin Hart, and Dennis Miller.

Personal life

Jessica Sklar and Jerry Seinfeld in 2010

Years before the creation of Seinfeld, the actor began dating Carol Leifer, a fellow comedian and one of the sources of inspiration for the character of Elaine on Seinfeld. In a national television interview with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, he explained how, in 1984, he became engaged to Carol Leifer, but later called off the engagement. When he was about 38 years old, Seinfeld had a romantic relationship of four years with high school student Shoshanna Lonstein, who was 17 when they began dating.

In August 1998, Seinfeld met Jessica Sklar at the Reebok Sports Club and they began dating. Sklar, a Tommy Hilfiger public relations executive, had just returned from a three-week honeymoon in Italy with Eric Nederlander, a theater producer and scion of a theater-owning family. Sklar divorced Nederlander (she explained in a 2007 interview that they had participated in couples therapy sessions before their marriage) and she married Seinfeld on December 25, 1999. Comedian George Wallace was best man at the wedding..

After the nuptials, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld bought a home that had belonged to Billy Joel in Amagansett, Long Island, for $32 million, after news of the couple's interest in the property broke. in the year 2000.

The Seinfelds have a daughter and two sons. Their daughter Sascha was born on November 7, 2000; their first son, Julian Kal, was born on March 1, 2003; and their second son, Shepherd Kellen, was born on August 22, 2005, all in New York City. York. Julian's middle name, Kal, is related to the first name of Seinfeld's father, Kalman, and that of Seinfeld's hero Superman, also known as Kal-El.

Seinfeld's best friends include fellow comedians George Wallace, Larry Miller and Mario Joyner.

In the year 2000, Jessica Seinfeld launched Baby Buggy, a charity that provides clothing and equipment for underprivileged women and children. She is also the author of the best-selling book Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Getting Your Kids to Eat Good Food, released by HarperCollins in October 2007.

Seinfeld has made various political contributions, including to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000, and subsequently to four major Democratic Party candidates in 2000 and 2004.

Seinfeld claimed he joined Scientology when he was 30, though he says he was never in the organization. The association came to light in 1992.

As a fan of the New York Mets, Seinfeld regularly calls in on the Steve Somers Show on WFAN-AM, a sports talk radio station, under the pseudonym "Jerry from Queens". Seinfeld called four innings from a Mets game on SportsNet New York on June 23, 2010, meeting with analyst Keith Hernandez, who appeared on the Seinfeld episode "The Boyfriend".

In December 2012, Seinfeld said that he had practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) for 40 years. He promoted the use of the technique in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder with Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation in December 2012 on the television program Good Morning America, and also participated in an event a 2009 David Lynch Foundation benefit for TM, featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

On November 5, 2015, the David Lynch Foundation hosted a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City, called "Change Begins Within," to promote transcendental meditation for mind control. stress. "It's been the best company technique I've ever seen, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this movement that seems to have been reinvigorated by Bob [Roth] and David Lynch," Seinfeld said. "I would do everything I could to promote it to the world, because I think it's the best thing as a life tool, as a work tool and just to make things make sense," he added.

Wealth

According to Forbes magazine, Seinfeld's cumulative earnings as of 2004 were $267 million, which puts him at the top of the "money rank" of celebrities that year, he reportedly turned down $5 million per episode, for 22 episodes, to continue Seinfeld for a tenth season.

Seinfeld earned $100 million from syndication deals and stand-up performances in 2004, and $60 million in 2006. He also earned $10 million for appearing alongside Bill Gates in Microsoft ads in 2008 for Windows.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, Seinfeld earned $85 million, making him the highest-paid comedian in the world during that 12-month period. In 2013, Forbes documented Seinfeld's annual income at $32 million. In mid-2013, Seinfeld disputed Forbes's claims about his income and net worth on Howard Stern's radio show. Seinfeld was ranked by Forbes as the highest-paid comedian of 2015, the second-highest-paid of 2016, and the highest-paid again in 2017. According to reports, Seinfeld's earnings between June 2016 and June 2017 were 69 million dollars.

Car Collection

Seinfeld has a wide range of cars, including numerous Porsche cars

A car enthusiast and avid collector, Seinfeld owns a collection of approximately 150 cars, including a large collection of Porsche automobiles. He rented a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, in Santa Monica, California, for a period extended period of time during the 1990s to store some of the vehicles in his collection. In 2002, Seinfeld purchased a property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York, where he built a two-story garage for $1.4 million. to store part of his Porsche collection on the East Coast.

According to reports, Seinfeld owns 43 Porsches. Paul Bannister has written that Seinfeld's collection includes a Porsche 911 of various years, 10 Porsche Boxsters, each painted a different color, and the 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, the same model and pearl gray color as the one that actor James Dean was driving when he crashed and died.

The Discovery Channel TV show Chasing Classic Cars claims that Seinfeld owns the first and last air-cooled Porsche 911 produced. The centerpiece of his collection is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 337 built. He was not allowed to drive it, because the car was "not street legal," which is because crash and emissions tests were not done in the United States for the model, since Porsche refused to donate four Porsche 959s for destruction testing. He imported the car "for show purposes", on the condition that it would never be driven on the roads of the United States. The car was made legal on the streets of the United States in 1999 under federal law &# 34;Show and display". Seinfeld wrote an article for the February 2004 issue of Automobile, reviewing the Porsche Carrera GT.

In 2008, Seinfeld was involved in a car accident when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat 500 failed and, to avoid an intersection, he slammed on the emergency brake, causing the car to stop on its side. Seinfeld was uninjured.

In an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Seinfeld stated that he believed the Lamborghini Miura was "the most beautiful car ever designed".

Discography

Comedy Albums

Comedy Videos

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Screenwriter

The following list only includes episodes primarily written by Seinfeld for the series of the same name, as he (and Larry David in seasons 1-7) rewrote drafts for each episode.

Season 1

• "The Seinfeld Chronicles" (with Larry David)
• "Male Unbonding" (with Larry David)
• "The Stake Out" (with Larry David)
• "The Stock Tip" (with Larry David)

Season 2

• "The Ex-Girlfriend" (with Larry David)
• "The Pony Remark" (with Larry David)
• "The Busboy" (with Larry David)
• "The Jacket" (with Larry David)
• "The Chinese Restaurant" (with Larry David)
• "The Phone Message" (with Larry David)

Season 3

• "The Stranded" (with Larry David and Matt Goldman)

Season 4

• "The Shoes" (with Larry David)

Season 5

• "The Sniffing Accountant" (with Larry David)
• "The Raincoats" (with Larry David, Tom Gammill and Max Pross)
• "The Opposite" (with Larry David and Andy Cowan)

Season 6

• "The Kiss Hello" (with Larry David)

Season 7

• "The Cadillac", parts 1 and 2 (with Larry David)

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

List of Emmy Awards and nominations received by Jerry Seinfeld.

Other awards

• American comedy award for the most fun male actor in a television series (1992)
• American comedy award for the most fun male actor in a television series (1993)
• Nominee: American Comedy Award to the best male actor in a television series (1996)
• Nominee - American Comedy Award to the best male actor in a television series (1999)
• Golden Globe Award for Best actor - Musical TV Series or comedy (1993)
• Nominee - Golden Globe Award for Best actor - Musical TV Series or comedy (1994)
• Nominee - Golden Globe Award for Best actor - Musical TV Series or comedy (1995)
• Nominee - Golden Globe Award for Best actor - Musical TV Series or comedy (1997)
• Award of the Union of Actors for the best distribution on television - Comedia (1994)
• Nominee: Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Comedy Series (1995)
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Comedy Series (1996)
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Comedy Series (1997)