The Characters

Jerry

Jerry is played by, of course, Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry was born on April 29th, 1954 in New York City. He started out as a stand-up comic in the late seventies, and appeared semi-regularly on The Tonight Show. According to Jerry at this year's Juno Awards (for excellence in Canadian Music), he owes his success to Anne Murray since the two of them appeared on a Tonight Show together, after which Anne asked him to be the opening act for her in Las Vegas. While spending the eighties performing and perfecting his stand-up routine, Jerry became more and more popular, in no small part to his numerous spots on "Late Night With David Letterman". He continues to tour when there are breaks in the taping of the TV show. When Jerry first got the go-ahead to do the show, he only expected it to last six or seven weeks, since he was doing it "his way"-- something that surely wouldn't be hugely popular with the masses. As surprising as the success of the show is (to him, especially), he has publicly stated many times that he wouldn't do the show past five years simply so that it goes down as a "gem", not like "a bolt of cloth that keeps unwinding".



Elaine

Played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Julia was born in New York City on January 13th, 1961. She was raised in Washington, D.C. She majored in theatre at Northwestern University (alma mater of such important people as Charlotte Rae, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, Shelley Long, Ann-Margaret, Cindy Crawford and Dick Gephardt and Karen Kurotsuchi) She was a member of the Practical Theatre company in Evanston, Illinois before joining Second City in Chicago. While at the PTC, she met her present husband Brad Hall. Both Julia and Brad went on to be regulars on "Saturday Night Live" in 1982 (the start of the "dead years" for the show). Shelley Long noted that at about this time, when she was auditioning for the role of Diane Chambers, J.L.-D. was also trying out... J.L.-D. and Brad Hall have one child together, Henry, born in between "Seinfeld" seasons. The character Elaine does not appear until "The Stakeout". We do know that Elaine is from Maryland, went to college (I can't remember where... Anyone?)... The character is apparently based on stand-up comedian Carol Leifer (ex-host of "Caroline's Comedy Hour", among other projects). -



Kramer

Un-official idol of the SDGs, played with panache by Michael Richards. Richards is 43, born in Los Angeles. He received a bachelor's degree in Drama from the California Institute of the Arts in 1975 (he also had a short-lived Improv act with Ed Begley, Jr. during this period). He then spent two years in the Army developing educational skits, and then he spent a couple more years "finding himself" at a commune in the Santa Clara Mountains. Before he made it big (or small, for that matter), he drove a bus and developed a stand- up act in 1979. He got his big break nine months later appearing in Billy Crystal's first cable TV special. He married a former casting director (married 19 years, divorced in 1990), has a 17-year-old daughter, Sophia, and now lives in the San Fernando Valley. Tim Connors quotes Debbie Snook of the Cleveland Plain Dealer interviewing Michael Richards (got all that?): ``This great story is told: MR is in NYC with "girlfriend actress Ann Talman" and they're scrambling for a cab. MR: "I'd be standing on a corner and people would be looking out of their windows, pointing to us from their cars and waving. So I'd size them up -- get a sense of who looked safe -- and I'd go, 'Listen can you give us a ride down to ...,' and they'd go, 'Yeah, sure.' So for two days, I never took a cab. And these people were completely blown. They'd say, 'Oh my God! Oh my God! I've got Kramer in my car!" MR says K is based on a fella Larry David knew "in New York named Kramer who lived across the hall and was a jack of all trades, the kind of guy who can live in a $2000 a month apartment for only $450 a month. Co-workers compare MR's careful reworking of bits to the craftsmanship of Chaplin. MR: "Next to him, I'm an ant." MR "has given Kramer a scent -- Calvin Klein's "Eternity" cologne, a gift from the designer after an episode in which Kramer posed in his underwear for the fashion firm. 'I saturate myself so the other actors know when I'm coming in.'" MR reminisces about the time he and Andy Kaufman conspired to stage a fight in the middle of a sketch (on "Fridays"), with MR yelling "Go to commercial!" "His genius was to fool us," says MR about Kaufman. (Andy, did you hear about this one?) He would like to do a serious part a la Gleason as Minnesota Fats but reckons that "with the popularity of Kramer it would probably be difficult for me to be in a picture with Al Pacino right now."'' Since Kramer's entrances have become so famous (and annoying since they added that inane "Fonzie-esque" applause whenever he comes in for the first time, if you ask me), Michael says he's going to work on his exits for next year.



George

Played by Jason Alexander (born Jay Greenspan on September 23, 1959 in Newark, New Jersey). Jason started out on Broadway (in fact, he won a Tony Award in 1989 for best actor in a musical for "Jerome Robbins' Broadway"). Alexander is married to actress Daena Title and they have a son, Gabriel. The actor grew up Livingston, NJ and attended Boston University. In an interview on "Fresh Air," a National Public Radio show out of Philadelphia, Jason Alexander admitted that George is loosely based on the show's producer, Larry David. Also, he admitted that in both his audition and the first few shows he was doing an unabashed imitation of Woody Allen. He also states that he owes his entire career to William Shatner, who's acting style he tries to emulate. George's defining characteristic (to me, anyway) is his cheapness. Some of his best lines are asking for money in a difficult situation, like asking Susan for his change back while her father's cabin burns to the ground, or asking his Senior "friend" to pay for his soup after he drives him out of the restaurant. Another favourite is his obvious neuroses and insecurity. In a recent "Rolling Stone" magazine, Jason parallels himself and George: "I never had a good year. I had nine years of orthodentia, and the day the braces came off, the hair started falling out.''



Newman

Played by Wayne Knight, Newman hangs out with his pal Kramer. Newman works for the United States Post Office, and dreads "Publishers Clearinghouse Day"



Re-occuring characters

Morty and Helen Seinfeld (Jerry's Parents)
Frank and Estelle Costanza
Uncle Leo
Crazy Joe Davola




The Diner

The diner that the gang frequents on the show is called "Monk's". The exterior shots are of "Tom's Diner" in New York City (located on Broadway at 112th St.) Tom's is the subject of the song "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega on the album "Solitude Standing".



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