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 Michael Richards at the 44th Emmy Awards, August, 1992, photo by Alan Light | |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) |
Michael A. Richards (born July 24, 1949 in Culver City, California) is an American actor, three-time Emmy Award winner, Freemason writer, producer, and comedian, best known for playing Cosmo Kramer on the television show Seinfeld.
Education and early life
Richards attended the California Institute of the Arts but received a BA degree in drama from The Evergreen State College in 1975 (he also had a short-lived Improv act with Ed Begley, Jr. during this period).
Enrolled at Los Angeles Valley College, he continued to dominate student productions. He later said, "I am grateful that the public schools introduced me to the performing arts." He was drafted during the Vietnam war and stationed in Germany as one of the co-directors of the V Corps Training Road Show. He produced and directed shows dealing with race relations and drug abuse; "This was a successful, educational operation, boosting the morale of our men and incorporating the arts into the service." He then spent two years in the Army developing educational skits and a couple more years "finding himself" at a commune in the Santa Clara Mountains; he drove a bus and developed a stand-up comedy act in 1979. Richards got his big TV break nine months later appearing in Billy Crystal's first cable TV special.
Richards married former casting director Cathleen Richards and they had a daughter, Sophia. The two were divorced in 1990 and he now resides in the San Fernando Valley.
Television Career
In 1980, he began as one of the cast members on ABC's Fridays television show, including a famous instance in which guest Andy Kaufman refused to deliver his scripted lines, leading Richards to bring the cue cards on screen to Kaufman, before a small riot ensued (it was later found out that Richards was actually in on the joke). He was also famous for a sketch that he did on the show, during which he simply improvised with a large pile of dirt and some army toys. Richards had a guest starring role on NBC's Miami Vice as an unscrupulous bookie. He also had a guest role on Cheers as a character trying to collect on an old bet with Sam Malone. He made several guest appearances with Jay Leno as an accident-prone fitness expert, and gained a screen credit portraying "Stanley Spadowski" in "Weird Al" Yankovic's movie UHF in 1989. His famous improvisation skills can be witnessed in this movie. As is confirmed in the feature commentary and in the deleted scenes special feature on the UHF DVD, the scene where Stanley Spadowski was playing with the toy man he found in the box of Corn Flakes was completely improvised by Michael.
In the same year, he was cast as Cosmo Kramer (based on real-life counterpart Kenny Kramer) in the NBC television series Seinfeld, which was created by fellow Fridays cast member Larry David and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Although it got off to a slow start, by the mid-1990s, the show had become one of the most popular sitcoms in television history. The series ended its nine-year run in 1998 at #1 in the Nielsen Ratings. He also played himself in Episode 6 of Season 1 "The Flirt Episode" (1992) of the acclaimed HBO series, The Larry Sanders Show.
Richards also played a cameo role in So I Married an Axe Murderer where he was an "insensitive man," and had a supporting role as an escaped convict in the John Ritter movie Problem Child.
He also made guest appearances on the popular sitcom Night Court.
After Seinfeld
In 2000, Richards began work on a new series for NBC, his first major project since Seinfeld's high-profile finale. The Michael Richards Show was originally conceived as a comedy/mystery, but the first pilot fared poorly with test audiences. NBC ordered that the show be retooled into a more conventional, office-based sitcom before its premiere. After a few weeks of poor ratings and negative reviews, it was cancelled.
Richards was also slated to star as the title character in the USA series Monk, but pulled out of the project. The role later went to Tony Shalhoub, who would go on to win three Emmy awards, two SAG awards, and a Golden Globe for his role.
Starting in 2004, he and his fellow Seinfeld castmembers have provided interviews and audio commentaries for the Seinfeld DVDs.
2006 Laugh Factory Controversy
On Friday, November 17, 2006, Richards was performing at The Laugh Factory comedy club in Los Angeles when two hecklers began bothering him. In response, Richards began using multiple racial epithets at the two African-American audience members, including the word "nigger". During this exchange, another audience member began an audio-video recording of the verbal confrontation. The video was soon spread around the internet by the celebrity gossip website, TMZ.com. Richards performed the next night at the club without incident and stated that he feels sorry about his behavior and claims to have made amends.
Filmography
- 1980 Fridays TV Series
- 1982 Young Doctors in Love .... Malamud Callahan
- 1983 Herndon TV Series .... Dr. Herndon P. Stool
- 1984 The House of God .... Dr. Pinkus
- 1985 Transylvania 6-5000 .... Fejos
- 1986 Whoops Apocalypse .... Lacrobat
- 1986 Fresno (mini) TV Series .... 2nd Henchman
- 1987 Jonathan Winters: On the Ledge
- 1989 UHF .... Stanley Spadowski
- 1990 Problem Child .... Martin Beck
- 1993 Coneheads .... Motel Clerk
- 1993 So I Married an Axe Murderer .... Newspaper reporter
- 1994 Airheads .... Doug Beech
- 1995 Unstrung Heroes .... Danny Lidz
- 1996 Ellen's Energy Adventure (uncredited) .... Caveman discovering fire
- 1996 London Suite (TV) .... Mark Ferris
- 1997 Redux Riding Hood (voice) .... The Wolf
- 1997 Trial and Error .... Richard 'Ricky' Rietti
- 2000 The Michael Richards Show TV Series .... Vic Nardozza
- 2000 David Copperfield (TV) .... Mr. Wilkins Micawber
- 2008 Cat Tale (pre-production) (voice) .... Ace
References
- http://www.celebheights.com/s/Michael-Richards-1324.html
- Brother Michael A. Richards: Renaissance Man, not "Kramer" The Scottish Rite Journal, September 2000, accessed 10 February, 2006.
- "The Scottish Rite Journal of Freemasonry", Southern Jursidiction USA, August 2003, accessed 7 August, 2006
- "Kramer's" Racist Tirade -- Caught on Tape, TMZ.com, November 20, 2006.
- "Michael Richards yells ‘n’ word at hecklers", Associated Press, November 20, 2006.
- 'Kramer' actor spews racial slurs at comedy club, Globe and Mail, November 20, 2006.