Seinfeld Reference: The Complete Encyclopedia (12 page)

Alexander not only pays the medical bills out of respect for a sibling and friend, he also promotes awareness of Scleroderma.  In May 1996 he spoke before a special committee of the United States Senate regarding the Scleroderma Research Foundation, and later that year hosted a Los Angeles fund-raiser and was the keynote speaker for the United Scleroderma Foundation.

Alexander is also active in other charitable organizations and public service events.  In 1994 he lent his voice to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a 30-second commercial on the benefits of condoms and hazards of AIDS, and a similar promotion for the nonprofit organization, America Responds to AIDS, to prevent the spread of HIV.  In addition, Alexander teamed with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for two readings of
Bunny Bunny
for the late Gilda Radner's charity, Gilda's Club.

Acting

Although his appearance is deceptive, Alexander is a wonderful singer-dancer-performer--mellifluous, statuesque, and lithe.  In an auspicious fourth-grade acting debut, he appeared as a Norse explorer but the stage fright was so acute, he retched onstage.  Although momentarily deterred, Alexander found a renewed interest four years later while attending junior high school.  The intense stage fright never dissipated, but he was eventually able to control the malady through psychotherapy, which remains a part of Alexander's regular routine.

By age 14 Alexander appeared in local television commercials, and one year later starred in nearly every Livingston High School play, having the lead role in
Oliver Twist
, as well as surfacing in various community theater productions.  To avoid being recognized by peers, the pubescent teen used the stage name Jason Alexander, which was devised by combining his mother's repeated references to "Jay-my-son," and his father's forename.  (However, Alexander never legally changed his name.)  In 1975 Alexander joined the local stage group The Pushcart Players, and performed in their children's specials
The Pushcart Players: Feelings and Friends
.  Ironically, prior to taping the PBS pilot, one of the lead actors became ill, so Alexander assumed the role.  In addition to performing children's theater, Alexander also participated in dinner theater.

After high school, Alexander attended Boston University on a drama scholarship, winning the prestigious Harold C. Case Award for scholarship and service.  According to Alexander, he received the scholarship after a spectacular William Shatner imitation.  During his junior year, Alexander began appearing in national commercials for McDonald's, Western Union, and Hershey's Kisses, and was cast for the off-Broadway play
Stop the World, I Want to Get Off
.

Later that year Alexander debuted in the feature film
The Burning
(1982), a low-budget slasher movie influenced by
Friday the 13th
, costarring then unknown actress Holly Hunter.  After only four weeks of summertime filming, he moved to New York to work for a casting director.  The following year he responded to an open casting call, and received a roll in Stephen Sondheim's
Merrily We Roll Along
.  Following a nine-month delay, the play opened, was universally panned, and closed two weeks later.

Acting - Theater/Musicals

Based on his acting experience--the theater, one movie, and several television commercials--in 1979 Alexander was convinced to drop out of college and pursue a full-time acting career.  Ironically, despite never graduating, fourteen years later Boston University honored him with a School for the Arts Alumni Award.  Alexander moved to New York City and rented an apartment on Amsterdam Avenue with Holly Hunter, in a purely platonic relationship, and after nine months found a place on 90th Street and York.  Despite an inauspicious Broadway acting debut in Sondheim's
Merrily We Roll Along
, Alexander remained steadily employed as an actor, and appeared in various Broadway productions, such as Neil Simon's Broadway
Bound
and Terrence McNally's
The Rink
, and off-Broadway plays
Personals
and
Forbidden Broadway
.

By 1989 Alexander received overwhelming critical acclaim for his narrative role in
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
, garnering three awards (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics) for Best Actor in a Musical.  The performance also won a Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album.  Ironically, he initially rejected the emcee role because of the character's limited range.  After a significant revision, however, the part evolved into a clever raconteur with Alexander dancing through twenty years of musicals.

After six years on "Seinfeld," Alexander returned to his roots and gave television viewers a stunning glimpse of his singing and dancing talents.  With the small-screen version of "Bye Bye Birdie," Alexander plays a rock star manager who sheds his smothering mother, regroups his life, and finds romance with his assistant.  According to costar Vanessa Williams, Alexander has the soul of Gene Kelly inside the body of a tax accountant.

Two years later Alexander collaborated with Whitney Houston, Whoopi Goldberg and Brandy, in the television adaptation of "Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical 'Cinderella.'" Although made-for-television, the $12 million budget surpasses many feature film allotments with considerably better talent, quality and results.

In Los Angeles, Alexander portrayed Harry Truman in the one-man play
Give 'Em Hell Harry
and starred in "Promises, Promises" for Reprise! Broadway's Best in Concert.  In addition, he received rave reviews for song-and-dance performances in the NBC specials "The Comedy Hall of Fame," "The Kennedy Center Honors," and "The 1995 Emmy Awards."

Acting - Television

By 1984, Alexander was bicoastal, appearing in New York City for Broadway productions and in Hollywood for silver screen and television appearances.  He had a small regular role as hospital administrator Harold Stickley in the 1984 CBS sitcom "E/R."  The series involved a medical specialist who moonlights at a Chicago hospital emergency room to afford alimony payments for his two ex-wives.  The series intertwined humor with serious trauma but only lasted one year before its cancellation.

Figure 5 Jason Alexander

In 1987 Alexander earned a costarring role with John Bolger and Anne Jackson on the CBS sitcom "Everything's Relative."  Alexander plays a sagacious 33-year-old businessman who shares a loft apartment with his henpecking mother and womanizing blue-collar brother.  The series was panned as the worst series of the season--inept, idiotic, and unentertaining--and was canceled after five dreadful episodes.

For the next two years, Alexander avoided television and accepted the uncharacteristic role as a lawyer who attempts to rape Julia Roberts in the feature film sensation
Pretty Woman
, costarring Richard Gere.  Later that year he was handed a script for another television pilot, "The Seinfeld Chronicles," and thought it was ideal for his talents because the character was seemingly based upon a comedic actor he used to impersonate.

"Seinfeld" Role

Alexander was the first to sign a contract to appear in "Seinfeld."  When he read for the part, which was videotaped, it was only him and the camera.  After reading the script, Alexander thought the appropriate persona for George Costanza would necessitate a Woody Allen impersonation.  He bought glasses and practiced a halting, nasally delivery.  The producers loved the prop, and Larry David was impressed the moment he watched Alexander’s videotaped audition.  Alexander's second reading, before studio executives, was a mere formality.  The Woody Allen parody won him the role, which he admits to shamelessly incorporating into the series.  However, Alexander slowly deviated from the impersonation after the first few episodes to cultivate a singular persona for George Costanza.  By the third season, he claims the character was more like an impersonation of Larry David than Woody Allen.

According to Alexander, although George Costanza emulates Larry David, the portrayal also contains a proportionate share of himself.  Alexander is known for having allergies and numerous ailments, though not nearly to the same level of hypochondria as George Costanza.  In addition, he also suffers many of the neurotic tendencies and self-image problems that derived from his mortifying childhood.

For his role on "Seinfeld," Alexander earned numerous industry nominations: six Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guilds.  In addition, he was recognized for his comedic talent by winning two American Comedy Awards, and an American Television Award.

Acting - Movies

After the television series "E/R" was canceled in 1985, Alexander returned to feature films with small roles in
The Mosquito Coast
, starring Harrison Ford, and
Brighton Beach Memoirs
.  After a four-year hiatus, he returned to the silver screen in
Jacob's Ladder
, a mediocre tale involving a Vietnam veteran's bout with flashbacks, and
White Palace
, starring James Spader and Susan Sarandon in a critically-acclaimed chronicle of a May-September romance.

Based on the strength of his silver screen performances, the early critical acclaim of "Seinfeld," and a successful Broadway career, in 1991 Alexander became a top candidate to star in a feature film.  He received the opportunity with the romantic comedy
I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore
with costar Nia Peeples.  Alexander plays a chubby store owner who is romantically interested in a psychology student (Peeples), but she only wants to study his compulsive eating disorder.  The film was lambasted but the actors received some recognition for their performances.  In 1993 Alexander costarred opposite Helen Hunt and Anthony Edwards in the Showtime special
Sexual Healing
, where Hunt is sexually frustrated with her husband Alexander, so she begins a phone sex relationship with Edwards.  Alexander also had a supporting role in
Coneheads
(1993), starring Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin in their reprisal of a "Saturday Night Live" skit.

The following year Alexander starred in
Down on the Waterfront
, a short film nominated for an Academy Award, and appeared in three feature films. 
The Paper
, starring Michael Keaton and Glenn Close, has Alexander playing a drunkard who goes too far; in
Blankman
he accepts an uncharacteristic role as a bald paraplegic; and
North
, costarring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, involves Alexander's role as a self-absorbed husband and parent whose son leaves home to find better parents.

In the next set of films, Alexander sought acting roles with greater diversity and vast story lines.  He has a cameo appearance in
The Last Supper
(1996), a significant voice role as the gargoyle Hugo in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1996), and a costarring role with an orangutan in
Dunston Checks In
(1996).

The Last Supper
has a star-studded cast with bit parts and cameos in a plot where five self-righteous Iowa graduate students are hell-bent on exterminating evil right-wingers. 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
is another Disney animated classic involving the ridiculed Quasimodo, his evil guardian Frollo, and the kind gypsy Esmerelda.  Finally,
Dunston Checks In
offers a change of pace for the celebrated actor, who wanted the opportunity to make a family film.  In fact, he resisted the producers' efforts to expand the role because he did not want to outshine the real star--the orangutan.

Success also provides Alexander with the luxury of hand-selecting performance roles.  For instance, he was offered a significant sum to star opposite Tom Arnold in the comedy
McHale's Navy
, but declined because of an atrocious script.  Instead, he accepted scale wage to costar in the low-budget ($2.1 million) feature
Love! Valour! Compassion!
  The movie involves eight gay men sharing a house on three summer holiday weekends.  Alexander replaced the unavailable Nathan Lane, and received panegyric reviews for his performance.

Acting - Other Roles

Naturally, with all the success and recognition that flows from an immensely popular television series, Alexander had a legitimate fear of being typecast.  With a watchful eye on image, he made a conscious effort to remain publicly visible but in a variety of non-Costanza personas.  By appearing in musicals, offering voice roles in animated features, and becoming an advertising spokesperson, Alexander boldly changed the perception of American viewers, and broadened his marketability beyond pathetic-loser roles.  Along with his publicist, Colleen Schlatter, wife of actor Charlie Schlatter ("Diagnosis Murder"), Alexander made a concerted effort to create a favorable media image.

For instance, Alexander appeared in two television musicals "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Cinderella.'" From 1994-97 he had the lead voice role in "Duckman," an animated cable series from the creators of "The Simpsons," and played a homosexual in the feature film
Love! Valour! Compassion!
where he donned a tutu and exposed his bare buttocks.  Since money is no longer the primary motivation for accepting employment, in 1998 he was able to decline a $3 million offer to sit in the center cubicle for a reprisal of the classic game show, "Hollywood Squares."