Once synonymous with playing the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, actor Michael Richards is now associated with something far less appealing. While Kramer was the lone empath in a group of thoroughly apathetic and selfish friends, the actor who played him appears to be an entirely different man.
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Infamously, Richards went on an expletive-filled, racist rant when performing stand up at the Laugh Factory in California in 2006. Unsurprisingly, Richards faced a major backlash for the foul rant and was canceled long before celeb cancellations were the norm. So what happened to the once respected star after the shocking incident? Here's everything we know.
Updated on August 25, 2022: Since his movie Faith, Hope & Love in 2019, Michael Richards has stayed out of Hollywood. It seems as though Richards is trying to stay away from the spotlight and instead focus on living his life as a devoted husband and father. He is supporting his spouse, Beth Skipp, as she reenters her career as an actress in the upcoming film Ten Tricks.
Days after his racist tirade, Michael Richards' former co-star, Jerry Seinfeld encouraged him to make an appearance on Letterman. Accordingly, Richards made an apology on the show via satellite.
"I'm deeply, deeply sorry. I'm not a racist, that's what's so insane about this," he explained, causing audience members to laugh. Seinfeld chastised them, saying "Stop laughing. It's not funny." Many were unconvinced by his apology, and it was subsequently parodied on Family Guy.
To the surprise of many, Richards appeared in the 2007 DreamWorks production Bee Movie, which was produced and written by Jerry Seinfeld. Richards voiced the human character Bud Ditchwater. However, the small role wasn't the break that Richards so sorely needed to bounce back after his offensive outburst.
Richards eventually crept back into the public eye in 2009 when he appeared in the 7th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the entirety of which revolved around a Seinfeld reunion. Larry David isn't one to avoid controversial topics in his storylines and he poked fun at Richards' past indiscretions.
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In the episode "The Table Read," Richards fears that he may have the fictional condition "groats disease." Larry gets his African-American pal Leon to pretend to be Danny Duberstein, a man who supposedly survived the disease. When Richards finds that he's been lied to, he furiously confronts Leon in front of a shocked crowd, harking back to the Laugh Factory.
One pleasant event in Richards' otherwise continuing downward spiral was his marriage to longtime girlfriend Beth Skipp in 2010. Skipp is noticeably and significantly younger than Richards. Together they had a son, Antonio, who was born in 2011.
For his first major appearance since the Laugh Factory incident, Richards was the guest of honor in an episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He featured in the season 1 episode "It's Bubbly Time, Jerry", in which Seinfeld asks him about the past controversy.
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"It broke me down," admitted Richards, who said that the incident continues to haunt him. He then thanked Seinfeld for not giving up on him: "And thanks for sticking by me. It meant a lot to me."
Some sitcom stars just can't catch a break. Unfortunately, Kirstie Alley is one of them. After decades of struggling to make a post-Cheers comeback, she landed her own sitcom, Kirstie, in 2013. Richards starred as Kirstie's driver.
Following a series of terrible reviews, the show was canceled after just one season. In a scathing review, the Salt Lake Tribune wrote, "It's terrible. A throwback to '70s sitcoms in the worst way possible. With an emphasis on 'worst.'"
Seeing as his return to sitcoms didn't pan out as expected, Richards tried his hand at the big screen instead. After all, he is famed for having appeared in 1990 comedy film Problem Child.
In 2019, he acted in the religious romcom Faith, Hope & Love as the father of one of the supporting characters. Although it has a poor rating of 6.2 on IMDb, it was fairly popular among viewers.
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Fans were heartbroken to learn of the passing of Seinfeld actor Jerry Stiller, who played the hilarious Frank Costanza, in 2020. Richards was so upset by Stiller's death that he actually made an Instagram account for the sole purpose of paying tribute to his late friend.
"Until today, I have avoided social media completely, but I've created this account in order to say something, belatedly, about a person I loved," Richards wrote.
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Earlier this year, Richards and his wife infuriated their Los Angeles neighbors when they cut trees on a property that doesn't belong to them.
Neighbor Maxine Adams is suing the actor, alleging that he "maliciously" chopped down her 18-foot, 30-year-old trees in order to get a better view of the ocean. Adams is suing for $262,000 for the destruction of the trees, as well as the loss of her property's aesthetic value.
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Long before the Laugh Factory, Seinfeld fans knew that Richards had a bad temper. Various outtakes show him losing patience with his giggling co-stars, particularly Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whom he scolded during bloopers. Earlier this year, Sarah Silverman spoke out about Richards' "s****y behavior" when she guest starred on Seinfeld.
A young Silverman played Kramer's girlfriend in the season 8 episode "The Money," but the experience was unpleasant for her. Describing Richards' aggressive outburst when she got her line wrong, Silverman said, "f*** this guy. Nobody calls him on his sh** because he's Kramer from 'Seinfeld'. He walks through the front door and he gets a standing ovation."
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