David was born on July 2, 1947, in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. His parents are Rose (née Regina Brandes) and Mortimer Julius "Morty" David, a men's clothing manufacturer, and he has an older brother, Ken.[11] David's family is Jewish. His American Jewish father's family moved from Germany to the U.S. during the 19th century, while David's mother was born into a Polish-Jewish family in Ternopil, now in Ukraine, and her mother's family name was Superfein.[12]
David graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School, now defunct and operating as Frank J. Macchiarola Educational Complex, in 1965. A sign with his photo is displayed in one of the complex's hallways. He then attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was a brother in Tau Epsilon Phi.[13] He graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in history.[14][15] At college, he discovered that he could make people laugh simply by being himself.[12] After college, David enlisted in the United States Army Reserve and received training as a petroleum storage specialist.[16] To avoid the final year of his six-year enlistment, he paid a psychiatrist to write a letter declaring him unfit for duty.[17]
Career
1980–1987: Stand-up and SNL
While a stand-up comedian, David also worked as a store clerk, limousine driver, and historian. He lived in Manhattan Plaza, a federally subsidized housing complex in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, across the hall from Kenny Kramer, the inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character in Seinfeld.[18] From 1980 to 1982, David became a writer and cast member for ABC's Fridays, where he worked with Michael Richards, who later played Kramer on Seinfeld.[19]
From 1984 to 1985, David was a writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) and met Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who also worked on the show in this period.[20][19][21] During his time at SNL, he was able to get only one sketch on the air, which aired at 12:50 am, the show's last time slot.[20][22] David quit his job at SNL in the first season, only to show up to work two days later acting as though nothing had happened. That event inspired the second-season Seinfeld episode "The Revenge".[23][24] He can be heard heckling Michael McKean when McKean hosted SNL in 1984, and can be seen in the sketch "The Run, Throw, and Catch Like a Girl Olympics" when Howard Cosell hosted the season finale in 1985.[25][26] In 1987, David was a writer and performer for Way Off Broadway, a variety talk show on Lifetime hosted by Joy Behar.[27][28]
In 1989, David teamed up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld to create a pilot for NBC called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which became the basis for Seinfeld, one of the most successful shows in history,[29] reaching the top of TV Guide'slist of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the third-best TV show of all time. David made occasional uncredited appearances on the show, playing such roles as Frank Costanza's cape-wearing lawyer and the voice of George Steinbrenner. He was also the primary inspiration for the show's character George Costanza.[30] David left Seinfeld on friendly terms after the show's seventh season and returned two years later to write the series finale in 1998.[31] He also continued to voice Steinbrenner.[32]
The HBO cable television channel aired David's one-hour special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, on October 17, 1999.[37] This was followed by Curb Your Enthusiasm, an HBO television series whose first episode aired on October 15, 2000.[38] The show revisits many of the themes of Seinfeld[39] and is improvised from a story outline only several pages long written by David (and, from the fifth season onward, additional writers).[40]
The actors improvise their dialogue based on the outline, direction, and their creativity. David has said that his character in the show, a fictionalized version of himself, is what he would be like in real life if he lacked social awareness and sensitivity.[41] The character's numerous and frequent social faux pas, misunderstandings, and ironic coincidences are the basis of much of the show's comedy and have led to the entry into the American pop culture lexicon of the expression "Larry David moment", meaning an inadvertently created socially awkward situation. Curb Your Enthusiasm has been described as depicting "the things nobody wants to say, but wish they could".[42]
The show is based on David's life following the fortune he earned from Seinfeld; semi-retired, he strives to live a fulfilled life.[43] Alongside David is his wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), his manager and best friend Jeff (Jeff Garlin), and Jeff's wife Susie (Susie Essman). Celebrities, including comedians Richard Lewis, Wanda Sykes, and Bob Einstein, appeared on the show regularly. Actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen have had recurring roles as themselves.[43]
The show is critically acclaimed and has been nominated for 30 Primetime Emmy Awards, with one win, as well as a Golden Globe win. In the first six seasons, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander appear in several episodes, and Jerry Seinfeld has a cameo. In season 7, the cast of Seinfeld, including Michael Richards, return in a story arc involving David's attempt to organize a Seinfeld reunion special. On June 2, 2010, the series premiered on the TV Guide Network, its network television debut. TV Guide Network also produced a series of related discussions with high-profile guest stars, media pundits, and prominent social figures called "Curb: The Discussion" debating the moral implications of each episode. David is quoted as saying "Finally, thanks to the TV Guide Network, I'll get a chance to watch actual, intelligent people discuss and debate the issues addressed on 'Curb'. Now if only someone could tell me where this alleged 'Network' is, I might even watch it."[44] The show's 12th and final season premiered in January 2024.[45]
David played the leading role in Woody Allen's 2009 comedy film Whatever Works alongside Evan Rachel Wood.[46] He had a cameo appearance on the HBO series Entourage as a client of Ari Gold, and because his daughters were Hannah Montana fans, David and his daughters guest-starred as themselves in the episode "My Best Friend's Boyfriend", in which they wait for a table at a fancy restaurant.[47] David appeared as a panelist on the NBC series The Marriage Ref and also played Sister Mary-Mengele in the 2012 reboot of The Three Stooges.[48] He co-wrote and starred in the 2013 HBO television film Clear History. David wrote and starred in the Broadway play Fish in the Dark. Also appearing were Rita Wilson, Jayne Houdyshell, and Rosie Perez. The play centers on the death of a family patriarch. It opened on March 5, 2015. Jason Alexander took over David's role in July. The play closed in August.[49][50] As of February 1, 2015, its advance sale of $13.5 million had broken records for a Broadway show.[50]
Bernie Sanders
Since 2015, David has made multiple guest appearances portraying 2016 and 2020 United States presidential election candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live; he also hosted the show on February 6, 2016, with musical guest The 1975 and a cameo by Sanders himself, and on November 4, 2017, with musical guest Miley Cyrus.
In 2017, PBS's Finding Your Roots discovered through genealogical research that David and Sanders are distantly related. Sanders told David the news. "I was very happy about that," David said, according to Variety. "I thought there must have been some connection." The comedian explained that Sanders is "a third cousin or something."[51][10] He is in fact David's sixth cousin once removed.[52][53][54][10]
On January 8, 2020, David joked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, "I would say, I would beg him [Bernie] to drop out so I don't have to keep flying in from Los Angeles to do SNL. I thought when he had the heart attack that would be it, I wouldn't have to fly in from Los Angeles. But, you know, he's indestructible. Nothing stops this man!" He later added, "If he wins, do you know what that's going to do to my life? Do you have any idea? I mean, it will be great for the country—great for the country, terrible for me."[55]
In 2013, Charlie Rose estimated David's net worth at around $500 million.[69] Two years later, two other estimates put the number between $400 million[70] and $900 million.[71] In 2020, National Review offered an estimate of about $400 million.[72]
Most of David's wealth originates from syndication deals of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, the former having netted $3.1 billion in rerun fees as of 2013.[71] The syndication of Seinfeld earned David an estimated $250 million in 1998 alone.[73] In 2008, David was reported to have grossed $55 million, mostly from Seinfeld syndication and work on Curb Your Enthusiasm.[73][74]
David's net worth was parodied in a 2001 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, "The Shrimp Incident", in which HBO executive Allan Wasserman yells at David: "If you want shrimp, take your $475 million, go buy a shrimp boat."[75]
In a 2015 interview with CBS, David confirmed that half of his wealth was eroded by his 2007 divorce in the community property state of California.[69] "I have a lot of money", he said, adding that the "figures out there are crazy".[69]
^Levine, Josh (2010). Pretty, pretty, pretty good : Larry David and the making of Seinfeld and Curb your enthusiasm. Toronto: ECW Press. p. 25. ISBN978-1550229479.
