Jason Alexander

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Jason Greenspan Alexander
Jason Greenspan Alexander (standing) at the 44th Emmy Awards
Born
Jason Scott Greenspan
SpouseDaena E. Title (1981-)
For the comic book artist see J. Alexander (Comics Artist)

Jason Alexander (born Jason Scott Greenspan on September 23, 1959) is a television, cinema and musical theatre actor, best known for his role as George Costanza on the hit television series Seinfeld.

Biography

Early life

Greenspan Alexander was born in Newark, New Jersey to Josh and Ruth Greenspan. He has a half-sister, Karen Van Horn, and a half-brother, Michael Greenspan. Alexander is Jewish.[1] Alexander is a 1977 graduate of Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey. He had also attended Boston University, but abandoned his studies the summer before his senior year after getting work in New York City. He was later given an honorary degree. In September 2006 on Access Hollywood [1], he identified Robert Lampf as his favorite teacher and the teacher that most influenced and encouraged him to pursue his acting career.

Career

Stage

Alexander began his acting career on the New York stage and is an accomplished singer. On Broadway, he appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, The Rink, Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, Accomplice, and Jerome Robbins' Broadway, for which he was awarded the 1989 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Returning to the stage in 2003, Alexander was cast in a successful run, opposite Martin Short, in the Los Angeles production of Mel Brooks' The Producers [2].

Alexander also appeared with Kelsey Grammer in the 2004 musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. He played Jacob Marley to Grammer's Ebenezer Scrooge. In the fall of 2004, he appeared in the short-lived CBS sitcom Listen Up, costarring Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

Alexander continues to appear in live stage shows, including Barbra Streisand's memorable birthday party for Stephen Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl, in which he appeared with Angela Lansbury, performing selections from Sweeney Todd.

Alexander was recently named the Artistic Director of Reprise Broadway's Best in Los Angeles, CA, where he previously directed Sunday in the Park with George. He will be directing the upcoming revival of Damn Yankees at Reprise and promises it will be Damn Yankees "like you've never seen in before."

Television

Alexander is best remembered as a cast member of the award-winning television sitcom Seinfeld, in which he played the neurotic ne'er-do-well George Costanza, Jerry Seinfeld's best friend. Concurrently with his Seinfeld duties, Alexander provided the voice of the lead character in the cult animated series Duckman, which lasted from 1994-1997. Alexander also voiced Catbert, the evil director of human resources, in the short-lived Dilbert animated series based on the popular comic strip. He appeared in the second season of Curb Your Enthusiasm playing himself.

Jason Greenspan Alexander also had a part in Dinosaurs on ABC as a character named Al (Sexual) Harass. His character used to talk about sexual harassment in the work place.

Despite a relatively successful career in film and on stage, Alexander never managed to re-capture his Seinfeld reputation on the small screen. 2001 marked a brief but highly-touted return to prime-time with the sitcom Bob Patterson, canceled after 5 episodes.

Alexander appears on the Family Guy: Live in Vegas CD singing a verse in the song "All Cartoons are Fuckin' Dicks".

Alexander is credited with coining the term "asshat" in a well known blooper from the show "Seinfeld".

He was featured in the Friends episode "The One Where Rosita Dies" as a suicidal supply manager named Earl. Phoebe rings him trying to sell him toner and she learns about his problem and tries to convince him not to commit suicide. This is referred to in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Alexander appears as a neurotic and critical loner called Leonard. He describes himself as free and mentions that he makes money with a job "selling toner over the phone". Also in the episode, he is repeatedly harassed by a man named George - his character's name on Seinfeld.

Alexander appeared on Star Trek: Voyager on the episode "Think Tank" playing a genius alien named Kurros who was trying to get Seven of Nine on his ship.

He appeared in the first episode of the short-lived 2002 revival of The Twilight Zone, playing Death.

He featured in the 2005 Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective" as Monk's eponymous rival, Marty Eels.

On the June 26, 2006 episode of the Jimmy Kimmel Live talk show, Alexander demonstrated several self-defense techniques. He was also the Host of the 230th July 4, 2006 of the PBS July 4 "A Capitol Fourth" Celebrations in Washington, D.C. in which he sang, danced, and played tuned drums.

Alexander has appeared twice on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown and won the final table in the 8th season. Alexander played for United Way of the greater New Orleans area and won $500,000 for the charity.

On August 6, 2006, Alexander signed on to feature as a regular cast member in the second season of Everybody Hates Chris.

Alexander was the host of the Comedy Central roast of actor William Shatner on August 13, 2006, which first aired on August 20, 2006.

In 2007, Alexander was a guest star in the third episode of the improv comedy show Thank God You're Here.

Movies

He has also appeared in a number of movies, achieving limited success in Hollywood in notable supporting roles, such as the unlikeable womanizer Mauricio in the movie Shallow Hal (2001) with Jack Black. Other film appearances include Love! Valour! Compassion!, Dunston Checks In, The Last Supper and as Richard Gere's business partner in Pretty Woman. Alexander dabbled in the art of directing, starting with 1996's For Better or Worse and 1999's Just Looking.

Other

Alexander is also featured in country music star Brad Paisley's music videos "Celebrity" and "Online," the latter of which he directed.

In January 1995, Alexander did a commercial for Rold Gold pretzels to be broadcast during the Super Bowl. The commercial depicts Jason with Frasier dog "Eddie" jumping out of an airplane with a parachute over the stadium. After the commercial, we're brought back to a supposedly "live feed" of the playing field hearing startled sports commentators as we see Jason and the dog landing in the field to applause from the crowd.

In the summer of 2005, he appeared with Lee Iacocca in ads for DaimlerChrysler.

Alexander has also done a McDonald's commercial advertising the McDLT, in which he sings. He has also appeared in KFC commercials, including one with baseball superstar Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and another one opposite Trista Rehn of The Bachelorette. It was rumored that he no longer appears in these commercials due to the alleged cruelty to animals by KFC suppliers and slaughterhouses, but he refuted that in Adweek [August 2, 2006]. Alexander said, "That's PETA bullcrap. I loved working for KFC. I was targeted by PETA to broker something between them. I think KFC really stepped up to the plate; unfortunately PETA did not."

He performed a mentalism and magic act at the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, California on April 24-30 2006.

Alexander is the national spokesman for the Scleroderma Foundation, a leading organization dedicated to raising awareness of the disease and assisting those who are afflicted.

An avid poker player Jason is also one of the "famous faces" [2]. due to being a regular player on the online poker website Hollywood Poker which is run in conjunction with Ongame Network. Alexander also played in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event, but was eliminated on the second day.

Preceded by Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical
1989
for Jerome Robbins' Broadway 		Succeeded by

Personal life

Alexander has been married to Daena E. Title since May 31, 1981. They have two children, Gabriel (b. May 1992) and Noah (b. February 1996).

Trivia

  • According to an FX trivia question during a viewing of Shallow Hal, Alexander started losing his hair at the age of 16.
  • Jason Alexander is the uncle and Godfather of the Irish born actor, Stephen Mullan, who appeared in movie's such as 'She's All That', and 'Tigerland'.
  • His brother-in-law is actor/writer/director Jonathan Penner (husband to Daene Title's sister Stacy) who appeared on SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS.

Filmography

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ziffer, Daniel (2006-12-13). "The ghost of George Costanza". The Age. Retrieved 2006-12-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ "Jason Alexander Biography". Retrieved July 19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links


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