On this date in 1947, entertainer Lawrence Gene David was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Jewish immigrant parents: Regina (Brandes) and Mortimer David. After earning a history degree from the University of Maryland and enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve, he worked as a stand-up comedian and was hired as a writer for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” TV show.
He teamed in 1989 with comedian Jerry Seinfeld to create a pilot called “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” which became the successful sitcom “Seinfeld” and aired until 1998, winning David two Primetime Emmys for writing and best comedy in 1993. He wrote 62 episodes, appeared occasionally and was the inspiration for the character George Costanze. Syndication of “Seinfeld” earned David an estimated $250 million in 1998 alone.
The HBO Network aired David’s special “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm” on Oct. 17, 1999. The series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” described on its website as “Larry David, living the good life out in Los Angeles and stumbling through one faux-pas after another,” aired from 2000-2011. After a six-year hiatus, it returned in 2017. A tenth season started airing in 2020.
David married television producer Laurie Lennard in 1993 and was divorced in 2007. They have two daughters, Cazzie Laurel (b. 1994) and Romy March (b. 1996). David is nothing if not irreverent. In Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book (2006), he is described as an atheist by author Deirdre Dolan.
The online American Catholic urged people to “pray for Larry David” after a 2009 “Curb” episode depicted him urinating so forcefully due to a medication he was taking that it spattered a picture of Jesus hanging in the bathroom at his assistant’s home. He didn’t wipe it off. When the assistant used the bathroom a few minutes later, she noticed the moisture and concluded Jesus was crying. She summoned her mother and they both fell to their knees in prayer.
David apologized for a 2017 “Saturday Night Live” monologue in which he mused whether he would “be checking out” the women in a German concentration camp had he been a prisoner. “I think I would. Of course, the problem is there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp: ‘How’s it going? They treating you OK? You know, if we ever get out of here, I’d like to take you out for some latkes.’ ”
David also wrote and starred in the 2015 Broadway play “Fish In The Dark,” which centered on the death of a family patriarch.
David at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival; David Shankbone photo under CC 3.0.
