He is Jerry Seinfeld's father. By the finale of Seinfeld, Mr. Ross is fully convinced that George deliberately murdered his daughter. In many ways, Mr. Wilhelm feels like one of the show's few examples of a conscience (until he was kidnapped by a cult), all thanks to Richard Herd's empathetic portrayal. Why Elaine Benes' Father Was Only On One Seinfeld Episode, How Old Elaine Is At the Beginning and End of Seinfeld, he First Seinfeld Episode Elaine Wasn't In (& Why), Young Sheldon Has No Excuse For Failing Missy After Paige's Return, It's True, Matt Smith's Post-Doctor Who Success Breaks A 60-Year Trend, Picard Season 3 Easter Egg Raises A Big Sisko DS9 Question. Story highlights. 14 Elaine's Father Played A Role In The Assassination Of JFK. Tierney is best known for his intimidating screen presence, bringing a gruff and cold demeanor to his characters. 10 Seinfeld Characters And Their Real-Life Counterparts Kramer makes a contact for Cuban cigars. Morty Seinfeld | WikiSein | Fandom A bit later, Jerry and George go back to the apartment and a delivery guy brings some partially burned letters. [4][5] His story is similar to what happened in the episode, as, when they headed out to the restaurant, his jacket was ruined by the snow. For viewers, Mr. Wilhelm's puzzled and shocked face over his 11 Seinfeld episodes often mirrored our own as we watched George's newest antics, amazed that the man somehow never got fired. If the idea was to give Jerry a"harsher parent," Seinfeld and David were successful in that goal, just as they were with George's dad. Here's some Seinfeld trivia for ya: Fans of a certain age may not remember, but Jerry Stiller wasn't always the Festivus-creating patriarch of the Costanza family. Who Played Elaine's Dad On Seinfeld? - Looper One of the more prominent names to guest star on both shows. Both clips appear in "The Clip Show, Pt. Kramer makes a contact for Cuban cigars. "The Jacket" premiered on American television on February 6, 1991, on NBC, it gained a Nielsen rating of 10.4/16 and was praised by critics. In "The Wait Out", Elaine reveals to David Lookner that Alton left her and the rest of her family when she was nine years old. She loses her job at the end of Season 5 when the company goes bankrupt and a misunderstanding resulting from her penchant for chewy, speech-impairing Jujyfruit candies thwarts a merger that might have saved the company. In "The Betrayal", Elaine is so unhappy at receiving an "unvitation" (a deliberately last-minute invitation) to Sue Ellen Mischke's wedding that she travels all the way to India just to attend. This plan was scrapped after Tierney stole a knife from the set of Jerrys kitchen, which the real Seinfeld called him out for doing. Well before his short stint in "Seinfeld," Gordon Jump made an impression on viewers with important and visible TV roles. Instead of enjoying the gift, Morty got impeached as president of his homeowners association after his neighbors believed he stole their collective funds to afford such a sweet new ride. He is a graduate of Wesley College's Bachelor of Media Arts and Master of Sport Leadership programs. Uncredited and unnamed, Ruthie might not always get a speaking line, but during the show's nine seasons, she appeared in the most episodes besides the core cast of Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer. Take, for example, the time Jerry bought Morty a Cadillac after a career boost. In "The Sniffing Accountant" she dates Jake Jarmel, an up-and-coming writer and star client of Pendant Publishing. Bookstore owners won't miss shoplifting Uncle Leo, but Seinfeld fans sure do. NBC executives felt the show was too male-centric, and demanded that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David add a woman to the cast as a condition for commissioning the show, as revealed in the commentary on the Season 1 and 2 DVD. In "The Stock Tip", Elaine mentions she has an Uncle Pete. There's one guy who played different characters in the same episode! Answer (1 of 3): The character of Elaine Benes did not appear in the pilot episode of Seinfeld. Seinfeld S02E03 Elaine's Dad | Jerry and George Lawrence Tierney's 100-project-plus career began in B-movies in the 1940s, per the Los Angeles Times, and his specialty was playing imposing criminals, toughs, and gangsters, such as the title role in the 1945 crime classic, "Dillinger," a bad guy who executes a train accident in the best picture-winning "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952, and as boss Joe Cabot in 1992's "Reservoir Dogs." While a second remarked: 'Think Elaine will be for . The doting, relentlessly sunny and persuasive Helen appeared in 21 "Seinfeld" episodes over the course of the series. She meets him in "The Understudy", the last episode of Season 6. It was filmed in front of a live audience on December 4, 1990. In 2009, Gideon's breast cancer was declared in remission, only for the disease to aggressively return in February 2014. Hollywood icon (and father of Jeff Bridges)Lloyd Bridges died in March 1998 at 85 after several illnesses,Gene Dynarski passed in April 2020 after a series of heart issues, and Mandelbaum patriarch Earl Schuman died of undisclosed causes at 100 years old in March 2016. In the episode she describes herself as a "walking candy apple" after a bird runs into her "giant, freak head.". He was 90 years old. Where the Seinfeld cast is now - cancer hell, glittering awards and After it was discovered that Jerry Seinfeld once dated writer and comedian Carol Leifer, speculation grew that Elaine was based on Leifer, though that was later largely denied. He's prone to wild mood swings and maybe once faced malpractice allegations for botching another bris. In March 1999,Wallace passed away from respiratory failure and emphysema at the age of 73. His favorite games include Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us, God of War, and Hades. . Even though everyone involved with "The Jacket" recognized how great Alton was, those feelings about Tierney influenced the decision to never have him return. 'Seinfeld': Elaine's Most Iconic Moments, Ranked - Showbiz Cheat Sheet Cookies help us deliver our Services. She coins the word "spongeworthy" debating her then-boyfriend's prospects of intimacy at the expense of her inventory.[7]. It's dark out, so Mabel doesn't recognize her assailant until another inopportune moment: when Morty Seinfeld is being impeached. Most of George Costanza's bosses expected far more from him than he was ever able to provide, but not Mr. Kruger, George's beleaguered boss at Kruger Industrial Smoothing. And yet the road that her character paved, as a strong, flawed woman, is still being trod. As they enter Alton Benes' hotel, Elaine has not arrived yet, forcing them to wait with her father for 30 minutes. In that episode, Liz Sheridan portrays Helen, as she did throughout the series. "He was a good man who pushed his love for creativity and the arts into everything he did," his son, screenwriter Zak Olkewicz, said in a statement (via Deadline). He was 70. In the lead-up to the titular event in the 1994 episode "The Dinner Party," Jerry and Elaine head to the stellar Royal Bakery to purchase a chocolate babka, but are unable to because they don't follow procedure and take a number, enabling someone else to buy the last one. Recurring actors like Bryan Cranston and Patrick Warburton found success on hit shows. It's this behavior that gets the foursome arrested under a "Good Samaritan" law, and they're later sent to prison. The following night, Jerry, Elaine and George have dinner with Elaine's father, writer Alton Benes. In the episode, Elaine's father Alton is a war veteran and writer. Both songs are by the Eagles. More than two decades after the series ended, the famed "show about nothing" continues to resonate on a profound level with viewers, who've made it a bonafide hit in both syndication and the streaming realm. Mabel Choate also testifies against Jerry at the trial in the series finale, noting that he never expressed remorse for stealing from her, a little old lady. If we want to understand George Costanza's particular damage, we need not look much further than his apoplectic father, Frank, whose impotent rages have been passed down to his dysfunctional and underachieving son. Chris credits Toy Story and Star Wars with launching a lifelong fascination with movies that led him on the path to his career. The character didn't reappear until season 5's episode "The Puffy Shirt," and this time, it was Jerry Stiller filling the role. Not only do they not try to prevent the crime or assist the victim, but they make fun of poor Howie. Shows don't often recast recurring roles, due to flack from many. Elaine's abortion argument with restaurateur Poppie gets him so angry that he loses control of his bladder in "The Couch" and again in "The Doorman". Eventually, Kramer steps in and forbids Elaine to have any more contact with Noreen. With his deadpan expression and comedic timing, von Bargen's Kruger absolutely steals the scenea remarkable feat among so many other talented actors. In "The Postponement", Elaine confides in a rabbi that she is jealous of George's engagement to Susan Ross because George would be getting married before her and she considers George a loser. In the Season 4 two-parter "The Trip," actor Marty Rackham made his first appearance in the inauspicious role of Officer #1. They eventually go to Tuscany together. George Costanza's two 'Seinfeld' dads didn't make the jump to Netflix The guy who takes it out is not getting higher than last place on this list. In "The Fire", Elaine reveals her hate for her overly energetic, always-happy colleague Toby. When Jerry is shopping for clothes with Elaine, he finds a suede jacket that he loves. "The Jacket" was written by Seinfeld co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Tom Cherones. Either way, the casting worked wonders, and George's dad quickly joined the show's favorites, rivaling even Newman for popularity. Seinfeld: The 5 Best (And 5 Worst) Guest Stars - ScreenRant In her rush to get away from him, Elaine forgets her magazine on the subway seatonly, it's not her magazine, but Frank Costanza's. He simply played Frank too subtly. Kramer gets involved, injures one of Mr. Thomassoulo's employees, and a lawsuit forces the man's company to go bankrupt. The veteran character actor was 82. The son who organized the effort writes he was blown away by the good will. Elaine accompanies Jerry as he visits his parents . It gained a Nielsen rating of 10.4 and an audience share of 16, this means that 10.4% of American households watched the episode, and that 16% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it. He's hired by the very welcoming Mr. Thomassoulo, who appears again in the episode, "The Voice" to fire George, the source of disdain and hatred among all the other employees. In the same episode, when Elaine tells him that they're back together, he answers "Oh, no". Celebrities Who You Got Guest Starred On Seinfeld - BuzzFeed Community Jump's family told the Los Angeles Times that the actor had pulmonary fibrosis, a condition characterized by air sac scarring in the lungs, which leads to fatal respiratory or heart failure. Her dislike of smoking also leads to an argument with a fortune-teller in "The Suicide". Early Seinfeld episodes didnt age well. Sony Pictures Television. TIL that Elaine's father on Seinfeld, played by Lawrence - reddit He mirrors George's lackadaisical manner in so many ways. TIL the character who played Elaine's father on Seinfeld, Alton Benis, was meant to have a recurring role, but the staff became scared of the actor after he stole a butcher's knife from the set. He was hired by Screen Rant in 2013 to write box office prediction posts in conjunction with the Screen Rant Underground's Box Office Battle game, and his role at the site grew from there. Actor Lawrence Tierney played Elaine's father, Alton, on the show. Despite being featured in only a fraction of the show's total number of episodes, these four became integral parts of the series. Howie is one of the first of many to testify to the malicious nature of the main characters. He portrayed the wonderfully and aptly named Lt. Joe Bookman, the stern and relentless "library cop" who tracks down Jerry in the 1991 installment "The Library" over a 20-years-overdue copy of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer.". Don't you just hate being out of the loop? They're impressed with Alton, an accomplished author, while he doesn't think much of Elaine's social group. While Seinfeld was always a dark comedy, it had moments where it flirted with being downright disturbing, like the Ross family arc. In "The Muffin Tops", Elaine convinces her ex-boss Mr. Lippman to start his own business selling just "muffin tops". Then, Raquel Welch (who was recently fired from a musical for dancing without swinging her arms), sees Elaine describing the walk to the police and thinks that Elaine is making fun of her and attacks her. The Danza:. Lawrence Tierney was the veteran tough-guy actor who played the role of Elaine's dad, Alton Benes, on Seinfeld. Tierney was set to join the various parents on the show as a series regular, but the actor who played him exhibited such wild behavior that Dreyfus later labeled him as a nut job., The Seinfeld Decision That Cost Jerry Seinfeld $110 Million. At the end of the third season, Kramer gets annoyed after Jerry takes his keys back and decides he wants to go to Los Angeles to be an actor. Actress Ruth Cohen made a career of extra work on shows like The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote, with her main success as Seinfeld's most prolific background star. Unlike George, Jerry and Kramer, Elaine is not a native of New York City, having grown up in the affluent Baltimore suburb of Towson, and is shown to be a fan of the Baltimore Orioles. Before her signature role of Estelle Costanza on "Seinfeld," Estelle Harris had a few dozen roles. He was hired by Screen Rant in 2013 to write box office prediction posts in conjunction with the Screen Rant Underground's Box Office Battle game, and his role at the site grew from there. Stars Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jason Alexander have continued acting. Corrie fans predict Stephen will KILL Elaine after inadvertently The actor, who played David Puddy, the boyfriend of Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) on 'Seinfeld,' says he used to 'apologize for being on "Family Guy."'. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment In the Season 5 episode, "The Opposite," George is interviewed by a tough hiring manager for the baseball team, Mr. Cushman, who is so impressed by George's resume and candor that he sends him through to team owner George Steinbrenner. Herd had been a familiar face in both movies and television until his death in May of 2020 from cancer complications at the age of 87. . She goes to extreme lengths to get the smell out but nothing works, and he continues to be grossed out. Seinfeld once jokingly stated that this was because the "Fatman" would run in the second half of the show. Even after it comes to light that Uncle Leo sparked the conflagration by leaving a can of cleaning spray in his oven,he still blames Jerry. Tierney booked his most famous early-career role in 1945, portraying legendary gangster John Dillinger in the hit film "Dillinger." Enter Mabel Choate, an elderly woman who simply wants a nice marble rye. I Let My Boyfriend Dress Me For an Entire Year. It is not revealed if Mema is her maternal or paternal grandmother. Then, in "The Little Kicks", she and Frank come to blows after George is arrested along with Elaine's coworker Anna. While Phil Bruns originally played Jerry's dad, Morty Seinfeld, for his first appearance on Seinfeld, it's Barney Martin that Seinfeld fans remember when thinking of the character, since he played him for 19 episodes. For the bulk of the 1990s, there was arguably no single sitcom (save for perhaps "Friends") more prominent in the pop culture zeitgeist than "Seinfeld." From his obsession with TV Guideto his creation of an alternative December holiday called Festivus that violently combats the cheer of Christmas and Hanukkah, Frank Costanza is almost in a class of his own amid the routine madness ofSeinfeld. While that impressive crew all delivered standout work in their brief time on the show, few "Seinfeld" supporting players left quite as memorable a mark on the show as the actor who played the father of Elaine Benes (series star Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Elaine's father Alton, a war veteran and writer, makes Jerry and his friend George Costanza very uncomfortable. It is strongly suggested in the show that Elaine is Catholic when she is seen making the sign of the cross before entering Jerry's apartment to retrieve a manuscript while the apartment is being fumigated in "The Doodle", and crosses herself again in "The Betrayal" after turning her back on a Hindu altar. In February 2012, Lesser passed away from cancer-related pneumonia in Burbank, California, at the age of 88. Stiller, who played Frank . 29. r/seinfeld - The character who played Elaine's father on Seinfeld Jerry offends Elaine's assistant. He was introduced in the season 2 episode "The Jacket," and was played by Lawrence Tierney. Estelle was often a hindrance to George's goals, or a burden to be dealt with. she often rhetorically asked the world of her boy, whom she visits often at his home in New York City when he can't make it down to Florida to visit her and her husband Morty in their retirement community. Peterman also fires her twice: first when her penchant for poppy seed muffins causes her to fail a drug test in "The Shower Head" and later in "The English Patient" when she expresses her hatred for the movie The English Patient. The Cast Of Seinfeld: Where Are They Now? In Pictures - TheRichest 7. [2] The episode also contains the first mention to Elaine's job as a manuscript reader for Pendant Publishing; in early drafts of the script, her job was an optician. Though the film remains a career highlight for both, it's probably best not to ask Tarantino what it was like to work with the irascible screen tough. [8], In "The Andrea Doria", Elaine dates Alan, a "bad breaker-upper", who makes her feel insecure about having a big head. Lloyd Braun suggests this idea to the mayor, who likes it so much that he adds it to his campaign, subsequently leading to his loss in the mayoral elections. Next: Why Seinfeld Killed Off Susan In Season 7. In "The Susie", co-worker Peggy tells Elaine--who she thinks is a woman named Susie--that Elaine is a "dolt" and "disaster".