In the 1990s, Seinfeld was a pop culture phenomenon.
While some of the show's stars have achieved further professional success, others haven't
been so lucky.
Heck, even the show's biggest names have endured serious struggles.
Keep watching to find out what they've been through.
Michael Richards is of course best known as the lovable and wacky neighbor Cosmo Kramer.
But after Seinfeld ended, he gained infamy for an incident he would surely rather forget.
He was working out material at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006, when heckling from some
audience members prompted him to go into a racist tirade.
The outburst was caught on video and posted to TMZ. Richards made a reference to lynching
and used the n-word multiple times.
Much of the audience reportedly left in disgust.
Richards went on an apology tour, but that only further fueled the disaster.
He announced that he was sorry during an incredibly awkward appearance on Late Show with David
Letterman.
Jerry Seinfeld sat in to assist with damage control, but Richards' missive via satellite
revealed how out of touch he still was, as he referred to black people as "Afro-American."
Seinfeld later gave Richards another chance to dig himself out of this hole on a 2012
episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
"I busted up after that event-"
"I know."
"-seven years ago.
It broke me down.
It was a selfish response.
I took it too personally."
The scandal led Richards to take a voluntary seven-year break from showbiz.
He attempted a comeback in 2013 on the TV Land sitcom Kirstie, but that show only lasted
one season.
No actor has gone on to bigger post-Seinfeld success than Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
She's taken home a staggering seven Emmys for Lead Actress in a Comedy, one for The
New Adventures of Old Christine and six for Veep.
But in 2017, she learned that she had breast cancer.
She revealed her diagnosis on Twitter as she wrote,
"One in eight women get breast cancer.
Today, I'm the one."
Her public bravery belied a private battle that was deeply frightening, even after the
ordeal was over.
For an otherwise healthy woman at the peak of her fame and professional success, it was
a shocking blow.
"I was stunned."
"I'm sure you were."
"Yeah."
Dreyfus had to undergo six rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, but she's now, thankfully,
in remission.
She faced the entire situation with her trademark bawdy style, seeming almost bored by the obligatory
questions as she made her public return.
"I know we have to get this cancer s--- out of the way."
Dreyfus admitted that she couldn't keep the situation private because it caused delays
on Veep, so she used the public attention to rally support for universal healthcare.
Jason Alexander may be one of the most affable actors in Hollywood, but when he played George
Costanza on Seinfeld, he absolutely hated working with Heidi Swedberg, who played George's
girlfriend Susan.
Alexander made his frustrations public in 2015 when he said on The Howard Stern Show,
"Her instincts for doing a scene, where the comedy was, and mine were always misfiring."
Legend has it, the rest of the cast also had the same problem with Swedberg, and that's
why Seinfeld co-creator Larry David decided to kill off her character so unceremoniously
in the infamous envelope-licking incident.
Alexander essentially confirmed this version of events in the interview.
A truly candid moment about on-set friction is rare, so this revelation naturally went
viral.
Swedberg then faced a swell of online harassment, which prompted Alexander to then defend her.
He took to Twitter to say,
"Oh dear God, leave Heidi alone."
In a longer statement, he added,
"I feel officially awful [...] [Heidi] was generous and gracious and I am so mad at myself
for retelling this story in any way that would diminish her."
Jerry Seinfeld's fictionalized version of himself was a serial dater who always found
a fatal flaw in his romantic partners and then sabotaged the relationships.
In real life, the actual Seinfeld met the woman of his dreams at a Manhattan gym in
1998.
She was young enough to be his daughter, but that wasn't a problem.
But there was a problem, as she was already married.
Jessica Sklar had been hitched for only two months when Seinfeld devised their first date
to be a taping of his upcoming HBO special.
Sklar's then-husband, Eric, was understandably furious, which prompted him to air his grievances.
He told Page Six,
"I was manipulated, misled, and completely caught off guard by Jessica's infidelity.
Jerry and Jessica have no respect for decent values.
They deserve each other."
Sklar reluctantly disputed this interpretation of events to The New York Times, as she claimed
that she'd already broken up with her husband days before she met Seinfeld.
She also added that they'd been having troubles before their impulsive wedding, and had even
been in couples counseling.
Regardless of what actually happened at the time, Seinfeld and Sklar remain married to
this day, and now have three children together.
Debra Messing is best known for her starring role on Will & Grace, but her two-episode
Seinfeld run as Jerry's casually racist girlfriend is unforgettable.
As for her life off-screen, she had a memorable moment when she was dragged by the leader
of the free world online in 2019.
President Donald Trump took to his Twitter and called Messing a "bad actress," accusing
her of both racism and trying to create a "blacklist" of his political donors.
Two of these charges have some merit.
Messing's mess started when she liked an image on Twitter that called black Trump voters
"mentally ill."
Sure enough, the hashtag #RacistDebraMessing then began to trend.
She quickly apologized and unliked the tweet.
But that wasn't the end of it, as she then tweeted,
"Black people are targeted by Trump's GOP for voter suppression."
This came on the heels of Messing and her Will & Grace co-star Eric McCormack urging
The Hollywood Reporter to publish the names of attendees at an upcoming Trump fundraiser
in Beverly Hills, hence the blacklist accusation.
Messing also mentioned on Twitter that political donations are already public and that, as
a consumer, she merely wanted to know where her money is going when she pays for entertainment.
Brad Garrett is, by most accounts, a gentle giant.
Best known for his role as Robert Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, he also played an
overzealous mechanic on Seinfeld who was so obsessed with proper maintenance of Jerry's
Saab that he eventually stole the vehicle.
The six-foot-seven actor usually plays his gargantuan frame for good-spirited laughs,
but that doesn't mean he never gets angry.
In 2007, Garrett snapped after being called a racist by a paparazzo.
A video was posted on TMZ of the actor smashing the camera of the photographer, a black man
who was set off by Garrett's alleged racist comments a month earlier.
A separate incident in 2009 saw Garrett telling another paparazzo to go "wear a turban."
The photographer in the original 2007 incident claimed that Garrett broke his camera, but
a Los Angeles judge eventually decided that the actor was provoked, and no charges were
filed.
Ben Stein is best known for droll performances in movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and
for the Comedy Central game show Win Ben Stein's Money.
He also played Kramer's attorney in a Season 8 Seinfeld episode.
Though his most famous on-screen role is his appearance as an economics teacher, in real
life, he has a decidedly anti-science bent.
As a prominent spokesman for both climate change denial and the teaching of creationism
in public schools, he's lost credibility among his more liberal Hollywood peers.
Or at least that's what he believes.
In 2012, a judge dismissed most of Stein's rather complex lawsuit against a Japanese
computer company that had hired him to hawk a line of printers.
Stein claimed that his free speech was being infringed upon in California, because he was
allegedly dropped from a $300,000 contract for his views on global warming.
The judge, however, believed that the suit was a smokescreen for Stein's larger pro-carbon
agenda, and dismissed all but one of his many claims for damages.
This isn't to say that his politics haven't had an effect on his career, though.
After the 2008 release of his propaganda film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, his IMDB
page tells the tale of a story of a man who hasn't exactly been in high demand for quite
a while.
Nickelodeon veteran Drake Bell wasn't just a child star who was beloved by tweens for
his time starring on Drake & Josh.
In 1998, he landed a bit part on Seinfeld as a kid playing the arcade game Frogger.
He was a brief thorn in the side of George Costanza, who desperately wanted a turn at
the traffic-hopping classic video game.
But the adult Bell had a tougher time crossing the actual streets of Los Angeles after his
second DUI conviction sent him to real-life jail in 2016.
His bespectacled mugshot from that incident is truly a tabloid sight to behold.
TMZ even jokingly referred to him as "Clark Kent."
Truth be told, the resemblance is uncanny, but the similarities didn't extend to superpowers
that might've helped him escape justice.
You might think that a celebrity could plea deal himself down with a couple of selfies
with fans, but Los Angeles takes drunk driving seriously, and time inside is mandatory on
a second offense.
Bell's sentence came with four years of probation and a mandated alcohol education program.
Fortunately for him, his original 96-hour sentence was knocked down to only two days
for good behavior.
Since this particular incident, he's remained out of trouble.
Daniel von Bargen is perhaps best known to TV viewers as Edwin Spangler on Malcolm in
the Middle.
But before that, he appeared on four episodes of Seinfeld as Mr. Kruger of Kruger Industrial
Smoothing, George Constanza's clueless corporate overlord.
Like most Seinfeld characters, Kruger was detached and cynical, existing only to torment
the hapless George.
In reality, von Bargen was a tortured man who died suddenly in 2015 at the age of 64,
under somewhat murky circumstances.
His cause of death initially wasn't specified, and no family members ever made any statements
on his behalf.
What we do know is that von Bargen endured a long battle with diabetes.
In 2012 he was set to have his leg amputated, but the night before the operation, he shot
himself in the temple.
He remained conscious and called 911 himself.
The recording of the call is rather shocking, as von Bargen sounds lucid as he pleads for
help with a bullet lodged in his skull.
Though he survived this particular brush with death, he passed away only three years later,
likely from diabetes complications.
Phil Hartman is one of the most legendary cast members in Saturday Night Live history.
He was on the show for eight seasons from 1986 to 1994.
He followed that up with a starring gig on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, which only further
cemented his iconic status.
He also made time for an uncredited voice-only cameo as "man on phone" in one episode of
Seinfeld in 1996.
"Is this Elaine Marie Benes?"
"Uh, yeah.
Who's this?"
"We're with the American Medical Association.
The AMA."
While his career was going strong throughout the 90s, his offscreen life wasn't quite as
rosy.
In 1998, his life met a tragic end when he was shot to death by his troubled wife Brynn.
After complaining to her friend, Ron Douglas, about her husband's frequent absences one
night, Brynn returned to the couple's home where she retrieved Phil's revolver and shot
him in his sleep.
He died instantly, but his suffering in their relationship had been going on for a while.
Brynn would reportedly time tirades against her husband to throw him off before SNL dress
rehearsals, as she grew increasingly resentful of his success.
A stint at rehab also failed as she became heavily addicted to cocaine and alcohol.
Soon after Hartman's death, Brynn went back to Douglas while clearly drunk.
Douglas followed her home and, upon seeing what she had done, he called the police, while
Brynn locked herself in the bedroom.
As the authorities arrived, she crawled into bed and pulled the trigger once more, this
time on herself.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.