Jerome "Little Jerry" Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954, in Brooklyn New York. His father, Kalman Seinfeld, was a pretty funny guy, and made a living for his family as a professional sign maker. Kalman relocated his family to the suburbs of Long Island (Massapequa) for a better life while Jerry was still very young. This is where Jerry spent his childhood until he went to SUNY Oswego for college in upstate New York. After just a couple of semesters, he transferred to Queens College.
During his matriculation at Queens College Jerry Seinfeld took a stab at stand up comedy and theatre on campus. After his graduation in 1976, Seinfeld made his way to amateur night at Catch a Rising Star in New York. He continued to try-out for amateur nights at local New York comedy clubs until he landed a guest appearance on Rodney Dangerfield’s HBO special in 1976.
After the HBO special, Jerry Seinfeld’s career seemed to take off. He played Frankie, a young, corny comedian/mail delivery guy on the famous sitcom Benson, in 1979. Unfortunately, Seinfeld was fired from the show and vowed to never perform on a sitcom again unless he was in charge. Seinfeld appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1981 and the American viewers embraced his wit and humor. His charisma landed him additional regular spots on late night talk shows such as The Merv Griffith Show and The Late Show with David Letterman in 1982.
Jerry Seinfeld has been quoted as saying, "I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything."
If you can create a show about nothing and make it into the highest rated sitcom ever, you’ve got to be pretty special. In 1989, Jerry Seinfeld teamed up with Larry David to co-create and produce The Seinfeld Chronicles, which was later renamed Seinfeld. Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis Dreyfus (of Saturday Night Live), Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander, Seinfeld had a comedic chemistry like no other show and became an instant success. Seinfeld reined the late night television rates for an entire decade. None of the NBC executives anticipated the multitude of success the show would create. Causing loyal watchers much distress, Seinfeld stopped airing in 1998. Seinfeld earns more money as a syndicated show, than most television sitcoms airing today. Jerry Seinfeld received a whopping 225 million dollars for the syndication rights of the Seinfeld show.
From 1993 to 1997, Jerry Seinfeld stayed in the tabloids and celebrity gossip ring for his relationship with the very young Shoshanna Lonstein, who was only seventeen years old and still in high school. Years before, he also had been linked to comedian Carol Leifer, who claims the character Elaine on Seinfeld was a replica of her. Jerry finally gave up the life of a bachelor on December 25, 1999, when he married Jessica Sklar, who he met in the Reebok Sports Club in New York. The fact that Jessica was already married to Eric Nederlander, of the famous Broadway theatre family, did not stop Jessica and Jerry from dating and falling head over heels in love. There were talks of Eric suing Seinfeld for "alienation of affection" and causing distress in his new marriage to Jessica, but nothing ever materialized. Jerry Seinfeld moved his family into Billy Joel’s former Hampton home in 2000 for a record-breaking 32 million dollars. Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld have one daughter and two sons: Sascha, born in 2000; Julian Kal, born in 2003; and Shepherd Kellen, born in 2005.
Today, Jerry Seinfeld’s post-Seinfeld stand-up comedy tours still sell-out fast. Seinfeld is close friends with other celebrities such as Chris Rock and Sarah Jessica Parker. As a spokesperson for American Express, an author of a children’s book called Halloween, and the envied collector of twenty Porsches, Jerry Seinfeld is one of America’s most successful comedians living the celebrity dream.
YUDDY
