Michael Richards

Michael Richards (born 24 July 1949) is an American actor and comedian best known for playing Cosmo Kramer in the television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998). Born Michael Anthony Richards in Culver City, California, he grew up in the Los Angeles area, particularly around Baldwin Hills, where he was raised by his mother, Phyllis Nardozzi, a medical records librarian. As a child, he developed an interest in performing and frequently explored the surrounding neighbourhoods by bicycle. He later recalled sneaking onto the backlot of MGM Studios in nearby Culver City, where he explored abandoned film sets. The studio complex would eventually become Sony Pictures Studios.

Richards graduated from Thousand Oaks High School before attending Ventura College and Los Angeles Valley College. His education took an unexpected turn in 1970 when he was drafted into the United States Army and sent to West Germany. Rather than spending his entire service in conventional military duties, he became involved in the V Corps Training Road Show, a touring theatrical programme that performed educational productions for American troops. After returning to California, he studied acting at the California Institute of the Arts before moving to Olympia, Washington, where he earned a degree from The Evergreen State College. Back in Los Angeles, he developed a physical comedy act with fellow actor Ed Begley Jr. and began performing in comedy clubs. His early television work included the sketch comedy series Fridays (1980–1982), where he worked alongside future Seinfeld co-creator Larry David.

One of Richards’ earliest international film productions was the horror comedy Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), in which he played the eccentric butler Fejos. Although the story takes place in Transylvania, Romania, the film was largely shot in what was then Yugoslavia. Filming locations included Zagreb and Samobor in present-day Croatia, as well as Mokrice Castle near the Slovenian border. The medieval castle provided the setting for several of the film’s scenes, allowing the production to recreate a fictional Transylvanian landscape without filming in Romania.

Richards subsequently appeared opposite musician and comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic in UHF (1989), playing Stanley Spadowski, a television station janitor who becomes an unlikely children’s television star. The film was shot primarily in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the summer of 1988. Numerous businesses and buildings around the city were used as filming locations, while the former Kensington Galleria shopping centre was converted into a temporary film studio. The production also used a radio transmitter site west of Tulsa to represent the fictional U62 television station. The film later developed a cult following, particularly among fans of Yankovic and Richards’ physical comedy.

His defining role came with Seinfeld, which ran for nine seasons on NBC. Although the series is closely associated with Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Richards spent most of its production working thousands of kilometres away in Los Angeles. The pilot was filmed at Desilu Cahuenga Studios in Hollywood, while subsequent episodes were primarily produced at CBS Studio Center in Studio City. Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment, Kramer’s neighbouring apartment and the familiar interiors of Monk’s Café were constructed on sound stages. Even many of the outdoor New York street scenes were filmed on the studio’s backlot rather than in Manhattan.

The production nevertheless incorporated numerous real locations to establish its New York setting. The exterior of the apartment building shared by Jerry, Kramer and Newman was actually filmed at 757 South New Hampshire Avenue in Los Angeles, despite the characters supposedly living at 129 West 81st Street in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Tom’s Restaurant at Broadway and West 112th Street in New York provided the recognisable exterior of Monk’s Café. Richards won three Primetime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Kramer, a character whose popularity became closely associated with the fictional geography of the series.

During the Seinfeld years, Richards also starred alongside Jeff Daniels and Charlize Theron in Trial and Error (1997), a courtroom comedy set in the fictional Nevada town of Paradise Bluff. Much of the film was shot in Independence, a small community in California’s Owens Valley, beneath the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The Inyo County Courthouse became an important location for the courtroom scenes, while the historic Winnedumah Hotel and other buildings around Independence were used to recreate the fictional Nevada town. Additional filming took place around Lone Pine and in the Los Angeles area.

After Seinfeld ended in 1998, Richards starred in the short-lived sitcom The Michael Richards Show (2000) and continued making occasional appearances in film and television. His stand-up career was severely damaged in November 2006 following an incident at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Hollywood, where he directed racist insults at audience members during a performance. He subsequently apologised and largely withdrew from public performances. In 2024, he published his memoir Entrances and Exits, reflecting on his childhood, his career in Los Angeles, the development of Kramer and the controversy that had overshadowed his later career.

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