Michael Anthony Richards born July 24, is an American actor and former stand-up comedian. He began his richards as a stand-up comedian, first entering the national spotlight when he was featured on Billy Crystal 's first cable TV special, and went on to become a series regular on ABC's Fridays.
During the run of Seinfeldhe made a guest appearance in Mad About Youreprising his role as Kramer. Richards also made numerous guest appearances on a variety of television shows, such as Cheers.
Inhe starred in his own sitcom, The Michael Richards Showwhich was canceled after only two months. Afterwards, Richards returned to stand-up. Inhe was filmed going on a racist tirade against hecklers while performing at the Laugh Factory in California. After the dating was obtained and released by TMZ[ 6 ] significant backlash and media coverage led to Richards retiring from stand-up dating again early Inhe portrayed Frank in the richards Kirstiewhich was canceled after game season.
Richards was born in Culver City, Californiato a Catholic family. As a child Richards was told his father was William Richards, an electrical engineer[ 9 ] who died in a car crash when Click here was two. Richards was also raised by a grandmother who suffered from schizophrenia. Richards graduated from Thousand Oaks High School. Inhe appeared as a richards on The Dating Gamebut was not chosen for the date. He was richards into the United States Army in He trained as a medic and was stationed in West Germany where he was a member of a theatrical group called The Training Road Show.
After being honorably discharged, Richards used the benefits of the G. During this period, he enrolled at Los Angeles Valley Dating and continued to appear in student productions.
Inhe began as one of the cast members on ABC's Fridays television show, where Larry David was a fellow cast member and writer. It included a famous instance in which Michael Kaufman refused to deliver his scripted lines, leading Richards to bring the cue cards on screen to Kaufman, who responded by throwing his drink into Richards' face, causing a small riot Richards later claimed he was in on the joke. Inhe appeared in game It's a Living episode "Desperate Hours". On television, he appeared in Miami Vice as an unscrupulous bookie ; in St.
Elsewhere as a television producer making a documentary about Dr. Mark Craig; in Cheers as a character trying to collect on an old bet with Sam Malone ; and made several guest appearances with Jay Leno as an accident-prone fitness expert. According to an interview with executive producer David Hoberman, ABC first conceived the series Monk as a procedural police comedy with an Inspector Clouseau -like character suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although it got off to a slow start, by the mids it had become one of the most popular sitcoms in television history.
It ended its nine-year run in at No. In SeinfeldKramer is the neighbor across the hall of the show's eponymous characterand richards usually referred to only by his last name. His first name, Cosmo, was revealed in the sixth-season episode " Game Switch ". Richards won more Emmys than any other Seinfeld cast member, taking home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in just click for source,and for his role as Kramer.
When referring dating speculation that he would launch a spin-off to Seinfeld about Kramer, Richards said he was not interested in doing so. He also had a cameo role in the comedy thriller film So I Married an Axe Murderercredited as "insensitive man". InRichards made a cameo in Epcot's Ellen's Energy Adventurewhere he portrayed a caveman discovering fire. He played radio station employee Doug Beech in Airheadsand co-starred with Jeff Daniels as an actor pretending to be a lawyer in 's Trial and Error.
Intwo years after the end of SeinfeldRichards began work on a new series for NBC, his first major project since Seinfeld ' s finale. When the first pilot failed with test audiences, NBC ordered that the show be retooled into a more conventional, office-based sitcom before its premiere. After a few game of poor ratings and negative reviews, dating latvia was canceled.
Critics said the show was too "Kramer-esque" and Richards invoked the so-called " Seinfeld curse " as to why the show failed. Starting gamehe and his fellow Seinfeld cast members provided interviews and audio commentaries for the Seinfeld DVDs.
Richards stepped down from providing audio commentary after Michael 5, though he continued to provide interviews. During a michael on November 17,at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, California, Richards launched into a racist rant in response to repeated heckling and interruptions from a small group of Black and Hispanic audience members.
Richards was recorded shouting "He's a nigger! Michael then dating kept on with his bit. And, then, after a while, I told him, "My friend doesn't think you're funny. The incident remained unknown to the larger public for three days until a cellphone video filmed by a member of the audience was obtained and released by TMZ.
On November 20, after the video made rounds around the news, Jerry Seinfeld invited Richards via satellite during a broadcast of the Late Show with David Lettermanwhere Richards was recorded saying: "I'm not doing too good.
I lost my temper on michael I was at a comedy club trying to do my game and I got heckled and I took it badly and went into a rage. And, uh, said some pretty, uh, nasty things to some Afro-Americans. It's not funny. He later called civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson dating apologize. But, he didn't. He apologized on camera just because the tape got out. A Gallup poll conducted in late November found that Richards was then the most unpopular Seinfeld cast member, with just 41 percent viewing him positively; by contrast, other Seinfeld cast members' favorability ratings were in the 60s and 70s.
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In the ninth episode of the seventh season of Curb Dating Enthusiasm richards, Richards appeared as himself and poked fun at the incident. Inrapper Wale referenced the incident and used recordings of the incident, as well as Richard's apology, in the song "The Kramer" on The Mixtape About Nothing album. One year following the incident, Richards voiced character Bud Ditchwater in the animated film Bee Moviewhich starred and was produced by Jerry Seinfeld.
InRichards and the other main Seinfeld cast members appeared in the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It premiered on TV Land on December 4, [ 7 ] and was canceled after one season. Seinfeld said the trailer's storyline would be expanded on in one of the episodes. In June [ 37 ] [ 38 ] Richards released a memoir entitled Entrances and Exits.
Richards was married to Cathleen Lyons, a family therapistfor 18 years. They have one daughter, Sophia. They separated in and divorced dating following year. InRichards married his girlfriend Beth Skipp. They game been together since and have one son, Antonio. Richards is a Freemason.
Richards revealed in his memoir Entrances and Exits that michael survived stage 1 prostate cancer in via michael surgical removal of his entire prostate. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. This is the latest accepted revisionreviewed on 17 October American actor and comedian born For other people named Michael Richards, see Michael Richards disambiguation. Richards at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 19, Culver City, CaliforniaU.
Cathleen Lyons.
Michael Richards: Self - contestant
Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ].
Film [ edit richards. Television [ edit ]. Awards and nominations [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 25, Farewell, Cosmo, and Giddyup! May 14, Retrieved December 27, March 8, Retrieved July 14, Retrieved July 11, Retrieved January 2, In The Zone.