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Michael Richards
Michael Richards at the 44th Emmy Awards, August, 1992, photo by Alan Light
Height6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
For other people named Michael Richards, see Michael Richards (disambiguation).

Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor, three-time Emmy Award winner, writer, producer, and comedian, best known for playing Cosmo Kramer on the television show Seinfeld.

Biography

Early life

Richards was born in Culver City, California to William Richards, an electrical engineer, and Phyllis (nee Nardozzi), a medical records librarian. He 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.

Career

Richards got his big TV break nine months later appearing in Billy Crystal's first cable TV special. 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 (Richards later claimed he was 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 the real-life 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.

Personal life

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. Richards is a Master Mason, and also holds 33° in the Scottish Rite; he is very active in preservation of masonic research, and in his personal life is an avid reader. He is a member of the following lodges: Riviera Lodge No. 780, Culver City–Foshay No. 467 lodge, Southern California Research Lodge. He is also a Life Member of the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Valley and a Life Member of the Scottish Rite Research Society.

After Seinfeld

The lead role in the series Monk was originally written for Richards, but there was concern that audiences, used to seeing him do comedy, might not accept him in the role. The role later went to Tony Shalhoub, and after moving from ABC to USA, the show became a critically acclaimed hit.

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 failed to do well 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.

Starting in 2004, he and his fellow Seinfeld cast members have provided interviews and audio commentaries for the Seinfeld DVDs.


Laugh Factory incident

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File:Michael richards on letterman.jpg

During a November 17, 2006 standup comedy routine at The Laugh Factory in West Hollywood, California, Richards responded to an African American heckler with racially charged comments captured on a patron's cell-phone camera, yelling, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside-down with a fucking fork up your ass" (widely interpreted as a lynching reference), and repeating "He's a nigger". Richards' outburst lasted about two minutes until audience members began leaving. Richards dropped his microphone and walked offstage without a further word, and an employee walked onstage and apologized. Richards played the same venue the following evening without incident but made no comment about his earlier tirade, prompting them to ban him.

During a November 20, 2006, satellite appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman (with Jerry Seinfeld as the guest) Richards apologized, saying, "For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this." He described his outburst as one of rage.

Filmography

Faye Dunaway and Michael Richards at the 47th Emmy Awards Governor's Ball, September 11, 1994, photo by Alan Light

Footnotes

  1. "Michael Richards Height" (HTML). CelebHeights.com. 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  2. Michael Richards 'Speaking Freely' transcript. via First Amendment Center, Recorded Feb. 28, 2002, in Aspen, Colorado
  3. Brother Michael A. Richards: Renaissance Man, not "Kramer" The Scottish Rite Journal, September 2000, accessed 10 February, 2006.
  4. "The Scottish Rite Journal of Freemasonry", Southern Jursidiction USA, August 2003, accessed 7 August, 2006
  5. Iqbal, Navid (August 8, 2006). Creator of 'Monk' gets behind show's act. Daily Record
  6. Battaglio, Stephen (August 16, 2002). 'Monk': ABC loss was cable's gain. New York Daily News
  7. "Seinfeld's Richards utters racial taunts during routine" (HTML). News wire. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  8. TMZ Staff (2006). ""Kramer's" Racist Tirade -- Caught on Tape" (HTML). In The Zone. TMZ.com. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  9. ""Seinfeld" star Richards under fire for racial outburst" (HTML). News wire. Reuters. 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  10. Mariel Concepción (2006). "Comedian Michael "Kramer" Richards Goes Into Racial Tirade, Banned From Laugh Factory" (HTML). News wire. Vibe.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
  11. "Richards Apologizes for Racial Slurs". Retrieved 2006-11-20.
  12. http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/

External links

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