Michael Richards adolescence and pre-Seinfeld years.
Kramer grew up in the Los
Angeles suburbs of Van Nuys. His father worked
as an electrical engineer and died when Michael was just
a toddler. That left
his mother to raise Michael by herself. She was a medical
librarian.
As a kid, Richards perfected his comic entrances by mimicking
a friend who
had crashed his bike into a tree. Richards recalls: "Every
time I saw him, I
would ride my bike into a tree. That was my greeting. It
cracked everyone
up...the fool is always the one who takes the fall for everyone
else. Every-
body laughs at their own fall as it's formed by the clown."
Michael took drama class at the Thousand Oaks High School,
and he played
the Scarecrow in a production of The Wizard of Oz.
Richards boasts that his
high school yearbook said of him "Funniest man alive".
Richards obstained his degree in theater from The California
Institute of the
Arts. Upon graduation, he appeared in several productions
with the San Diego
Repertory Company. Later he starred in American Clock
and Wild Oats at
the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
But the call of comedy was getting louder - especially
when hanging out when
hanging out with one of his closest friends. "Ed Begley Jr.
and I were always
making everyone laugh" Richards recalls. "People would say:
You guys ought
to get up on stage somewhere". They did team up and worked
out a routine
at the famed Troubadour.
With a lifelong interest in comedy, Richards continued
to perform stand-up
routines in 1979, and appeared nightly for nine months at
clubs like The
Comedy Store and the Improvisation. Billy Crystal gave him
his first "paying
job" on HBO's The Billy Crystal Special. He spent the next
two and a half
years on Fridays.
Richards' TV credits included a regular role on the syndicated
show Marble-
head Manor, guest appearances on The Larry Sanders
Show, Bob Hope:
The First 90 years, St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, Hill Street
Blues, Cheers,
Night Court, It's A Living, Sidekicks, Scarecrow and Mrs.
King and the mini-
series Fresno. Richards also kept busy with five pilot shows,
which where
never picked up by the networks.
He still lives in L.A. and his birthday is Aug 24. He is
now divorced and he
have a daughter (Sophia) who goes to college.
Back to my Kramer page.