Actors - Jerry Seinfeld

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	Actors - Jerry Seinfeld

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

Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld (born April 29, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor, writer and observational comedian from Massapequa, New York, a Long Island hamlet. 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

Seinfeld attended the Birch Lane Elementary School and Massapequa High School. Straight from graduation at Queens College, Seinfeld tried out at an open mic night at New York's Catch A Rising Star in 1976. Soon after, he was appearing in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. Seinfeld had a small recurring role as "Frankie" 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 Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. 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 one of the most popular and successful sitcoms 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.

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 in which he appeared together with an animated rendering of Superman, voiced by Patrick Warburton (who had portrayed David Puddy on Seinfeld). The webisodes were aired in 2004 and directed by Barry Levinson.

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 at the height of his television show, deals with Seinfeld's musings on trivial events such as shushing in a movie theater. Seinfeld also wrote a children's book titled Halloween (2002). The book was illustrated by James Bennett.

Seinfeld also wrote the forewords to Ted L. Nancy's Letters From A Nut series of books, as well as 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 still in secondary 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).

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