Pool may refer to:

Pools of water[link]

Swimming pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming

Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings

Tide pool, a rocky pool on an ocean shore that remains filled with seawater when the tide goes out

Plunge pool, a small, deep body of water

Stream pool, a quiet slow-moving portion of a stream

Sports and gambling[link]

Pool (cue sports), a group of games played on a pool table

Pool (poker) or pot, money wagered during a single hand of poker

Pool betting or parimutuel betting, a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together

*Betting pool, a form of pool betting where gamblers pay a fixed price into a pool

**Football pool, an association football (soccer) betting pool

Pool play or group stages, the round robin stage of many sporting championships

Singapore Pools, Singapore's sole legal lottery

Geography[link]

Pool, Cornwall, in England

Pool, West Virginia, in the United States

Pool Department, a division of the Republic of the Congo

Pool-in-Wharfedale, in West Yorkshire, England

Pool of London, a stretch of the River Thames

River Pool (London), a river in England, tributary to the River Ravensbourne

River Pool, Cumbria, a river in Cumbria, England, tributary to the Gilpin

Computing[link]

Pool (computer science), a set of initialised resources that are kept ready to use

Connection pool, a cache of database connections maintained by the database

Memory pool, a dynamic memory allocation method

Memory Pool System, a memory management system

Object pool pattern, a pattern to construct sets of initialised programming objects that are kept ready to use

Thread pool pattern, a programming method where a number of threads are created to perform a number of tasks

Media[link]

''Pool'' (album), an album by John Zorn

''The Pool'' (2004 film), a short British film

''The Pool'' (2007 film), a 2007 drama film co-written and directed by Chris Smith

''The Pool'' (2009 film), an adaptation of the 2006 play

''The Pool'' (game), a role-playing game by James V. West

''The Pool'' (play), a 2006 play by James Brough and Helen Elizabeth

Other uses[link]

Pool (surname), a surname (and list of people with the surname)

Pooling (resource management), grouping together of resources or effort

*Press pool, group of news gathering organizations pooling their resources

*Secretarial pool, group of secretaries available to assist executives

Egyptian pool, a water symbol used in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing

Risk pool

See also[link]

Gene pool, complete set of unique alleles in a species or population

Poel, an island in the Baltic Sea

Pool Group, a trio of inter-war experimental artists and film-makers

Pool-type reactor, nuclear reactor that has a core immersed in an open pool of water

Poole (disambiguation)

Poul, a given name

Winter Pool, a part of the admissions process for Cambridge University

de:Pool fa:استخر (ابهام‌زدایی) fi:Pooli fr:Pool it:Pool ja:プール (曖昧さ回避) li:Pool nl:Pool nds:Pool pl:Pool pt:Pool simple:Pool sn:Dziva sv:Pool zh:池

name	Efren Reyes
Birth date	August 26, 1954
Birth place	Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines
sport country
nickname	''Bata'' (Kid)The Magician
world champ	}}

Efren Manalang Reyes (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player and a two-time world champion.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954. He moved to Manila with his family at the age of 5. In Manila, he worked as a billiards attendant at his uncle's billiards hall, where he started learning the various cue sports. Because he was not tall enough to reach the pool table, he played while standing on Coca-cola cases that he moved around. At night, while he was dreaming of playing pool, the pool table was his bed.

He is called ''Bata'', which is Filipino for "Kid", because there was another older pool player named Efren when he was young. To distinguish between the two, he was referred to as Efren ''Bata''.

Career[link]

Gambling from a young age, Reyes played three cushion billiards in the 1960s and 1970s. After establishing himself as a winner, he was discovered by promoters. This gave him the opportunity to compete in big time tournaments.

Reyes began winning a number of tournaments in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia. Thus, he started to gain attention and recognition worldwide. At the start of his career, he used aliases to hide his identity so he would be allowed to compete. By the mid-1990s, he had become one of the elite players of the Philippines, alongside Jose Parica and Francisco Bustamante.

Reyes' fame began when he won the US Open Nine Ball Championship in 1994 by defeating Nick Varner in the finals. He was the first non-American to win the event.

Two years later, Efren Reyes and Earl Strickland were chosen to face each other in an event called the Color of Money, named after the movie. The event was a three-day race-to-120 challenge match of 9-ball. It was held in Hong Kong, with a winner-take-all prize of US$100,000. Reyes won the match 120-117. This was the largest single-winning purse in a pool event.

Although Earl Strickland was the first to win the WPA World 9-ball Championship, Reyes, in 1999, became the first to win while it was broadcast on television. This tournament was not recognized at the time by the WPA, but Reyes was later retrospectively acknowledged as the winner of one of two world championships held in 1999. Nick Varner won the "official" world title. The two tournaments were merged for the following year, with both men listed as the champion for 1999. At the time, the Matchroom Sport-organised event in Cardiff, Wales, was called the World ''Professional'' Pool Championship (despite the entry of many non-professional players).

In 2001, Reyes won the International Billiard Tournament. The event was held in Tokyo, with over 700 players and a total purse of ¥100M ($850K). Reyes dominated the event and beat Niels Feijen in the finals 15-7 and earned the ¥20M ($170K) first prize. At the time, this was the biggest first prize in a pool tournament.

In 2002 he won the $50K winner-take-all International Challenge of Champions, defeating Mika Immonen in a deciding rack after both players split sets.

Near the end of 2004, Reyes beat Marlon Manalo to become the first-ever WPA World Eight Ball Champion. With the win, he became the first player in WPA history to win world championships in two different disciplines.

In December 2005, Reyes won the IPT King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout. Reyes won a record-breaking $200K for first place by beating fellow Hall of Fame member Mike "the Mouth" Sigel two sets to none (8-0 and 8-5).

In 2006, Reyes and Francisco Bustamante represented their country as Team Philippines in the inaugural World Cup of Pool. They defeated Team USA, Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, to capture the title.

That same year, Reyes won the IPT World Open Eight-ball Championship over Rodney Morris 8-6. He earned $500K which was the largest prize money tournament in the history of pocket billiards. Unfortunately, due to IPT's financial problems, he has not been able to claim much of this money as of 2007.

In 2009, the Filipino tandem of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante beat the German pair of Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann by a grueling 11-9 score to take their second championship title. This, together with the semifinal finish of the other Filipino team of Ronato Alcano and Dennis Orcollo, was the best performance by a host nation in the tournament's history.

In 2010, Reyes clinched his fifth title in the 12th annual Derby City Classic as the overall champion, making him the most successful player in the tournament's history.

He has topped the AZ Billiards Money List five times: in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2006, he set a record by earning $646K in a single year.

Family[link]

He is married to Susan Reyes. They have three children. His son, Frennie Reyes, once competed in the Asian Nine-ball Tour.

Accolades[link]

Numerous fellow professional players have credited Reyes with being the greatest living player in the world. During ESPN television commentary on a semi-finals match between Reyes and Mika Immonen at the 2000 Billiard Congress of America Open 9-Ball Championship, veteran professional Billy Incardona stated that Reyes was "indisputably the best player in the world—especially when you consider all games—he can play any game as well as anyone, maybe better than anyone.... In my opinion we're watching probably the greatest player in my lifetime and I've been watching pool for the better part of forty years."

In 1995 ''Billiards Digest Magazine'' named Reyes the Player of the Year. The following year, when Reyes was ranked number one on the U.S.'s Pro Billiards Tour, the June 1996 issue of the magazine featured a poll of "billiard cognoscenti"—pro players, billiards writers, industry insiders and the like—to pick the best in billiards in various categories. Billiards' own elite named Reyes the best one-pocket player of all time. The magazine wrote, "While a bevy of one-pocket geniuses abound, Efren Reyes, whose prowess in one-pocket is sometimes obscured by his 9-ball stardom, was the popular pick. Is there anything Bata can't do?"

In 2003, he became the first Asian to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.

Reyes was appointed Philippine Sports Ambassador of the 2005 South East Asian Games alongside some of the Philippines' greatest athletes (Allan Caidic, Rafael Nepomuceno) to promote the event throughout the country.

For 2007, he was ranked #2 in ''Pool & Billiard Magazine'''s "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players" poll.

Other awards and honors include:

Philippine Legion of Honor

Philippine Order of Lakandula "Champion for Life Award"

Outstanding Filipino Awardee of the Jaycees

Philippine Sportswriters Association Sportsman of the Year 1999, 2001 and 2006

One Pocket Hall of Fame (inducted in 2004)

Films and television[link]

In 2003, Reyes was featured in the Filipino movie ''Pakners'' with the late actor Fernando Poe, Jr.. Reyes also appeared in the 2007 short film ''Nineball''.

In one episode of the TV series ''Magpakailanman'', the story follows a young Efren Reyes (portrayed by actor Anjo Yllana) in his early pool-playing days as he progresses from a money player to a tournament contender.

Nicknames and aliases[link]

Reyes is often called by his nickname ''Bata''" (Filipino for "Kid"), given to him by friends at his regular pool hall to distinguish him from an older Efren.

Reyes, along with the other "Filipino invasion" players revolutionized the way pool is played by their introduction to the sport of pinpoint precision kicking (going into a rail with the cue ball and then hitting an object ball). Reyes' ability to "kick safe" and to kick balls into intended pockets is legendary. This ability, coupled with his superb skill at other aspects of the game, led U.S. professionals to give him the appellation "The Magician." Before Reyes and his compatriots came over to the U.S., no one there had seen anything like their kicking skill set.

"[The] first time I came over to the states, I used an alias of Cesar Morales. Pool players in the US already knew Efren Reyes as a great shooter from the Philippines, but they [hadn't]...seen...[me]...in person." — Efren Reyes

Titles and achievements[link]

{| |valign="top"| 2011 US Open One Pocket Championship

2010 Hard Times Billiards, 3rd Annual Chuck Markulis Memorial Tournament

2010 Predator Ten-ball International Championship 2010 Derby City Classic Master of the Table 2010 Derby City Classic Fatboy Challenge 10-ball 2010 Derby City Classic Nine-ball 2009 World Mixed Doubles Classic (with Rubilen Amit) 2009 Galveston Classic One Pocket

2009 World Cup of Pool (with Django Bustamante)

2007 Derby City Classic Master of the Table

2007 Derby City Classic One-Pocket

2007 ''Pool & Billiard Magazine'' Top 20 Favorite Players (number 2)

2006 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Jakarta Leg)

2006 IPT World Open Eight-ball Championship

2006 World Cup of Pool (with Django Bustamante)

2006 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Vietnam Leg)

2006 Derby City Classic One-Pocket

2005 IPT King of the Hill Eight-ball Shootout

2005 Derby City Nine-ball Championship

2005 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Jakarta Leg)

2005 Japan Open

2005 Derby City Classic Master of the Table

2005 Derby City Classic Nine-ball

2005 Derby City Classic One-Pocket

2004 WPA World Eight-ball Championship

2004 On Cue 3: Intercontinental Conquest

2004 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Singapore Leg)

2004 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Vietnam Leg)

2004 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Taiwan Leg)

2004 Derby City Classic Master of the Table

2004 Derby City Classic One-Pocket

2003 Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame

2003 World Classic Billiards Tournament

2003 Las Vegas Nine-ball Open

2003 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour (Manila Leg)

2003 Mid-Atlantic Nine-ball Championship

2003 All Japan Championship

2002 Asian Games Eight-ball singles (bronze)

2002 World Pool League

2002 Asian Eight-ball Tournament

2002 Cafe Puro Challenge of the Masters

2002 Shooters Labor Day Weekend Open Nine-ball

2002 International Challenge of Champions

2001 World Pool League

2001 Tokyo Nine-ball Event

|width="5%"| |valign="top"|

2001 US Masters Nine-ball

2001 International Billiard Tournament

2001 Accu-Stats Eight-ball Invitational

2001 The Color of Money II Challenge Match (vs Earl Strickland)

2000 U.S. Open One-Pocket Championship

2000 PBT World Eight-ball Championship

2000 Camel Pro Eight-ball Championship

2000 Pennsylvania State Nine-ball Championship

2000 USA Billards Challenger Event 2

1999 ESPN Ultimate Nine-ball Challenge

1999 ESPN Ultimate Shootout

1999 Sands Regency Open 29 Nine-ball Championship

1999 WPA World Nine-ball Championship (Cardiff, Wales)

1999 Derby City Classic Master of the Table

1999 Derby City Classic One-Pocket

1998 World Eight-Ball Championship

1998 Camel South Jersey Ten-Ball Open

1997 PCA Shooters Challenge

1997 PCA Treasure Island Resort Event

1996 The Color of Money (vs Earl Strickland)

1996 PBT World Eight-ball Championship

1996 PBT Legends of Nine-ball Championship

1996 Camel World Nine-ball Championship

1996 PBT Western Open

1996 PBT Florida Flare Up III

1995 Sands Regency Open 21 Nine-ball Championship

1995 PBT World Eight-ball Championship

1995 Pro Tour Nine-ball Championship

1995 Maine 14.1 Event

1995 Bicycle Club VII

1994 U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championships

1994 PBT Bicycle Club Invitational

1992 International Nine-ball Classic

1992 World Nine-ball Open (Tokyo)

1990 World Cup (Taipei)

1988 PBA McDermott Masters Nine-ball

1986 Sands Regency Nine-ball Championship

1985 Sands Regency Nine-ball Championship

1985 Red's Nine-ball Open

1985 Tar Heel Open

1985 Willard's Open

1985 Chicago Billiard Cafe Open

|}

References[link]

External links[link]

Efren Reyes Matches

Efren Reyes bio at AZBilliards

|- |-

Category:1954 births Category:Recipients of the Order of Lakandula Category:Filipino actors Category:Filipino pool players Category:Living people Category:People from Pampanga Category:Kapampangan people Category:World champions in pool

de:Efren Reyes pam:Efren "Bata" Reyes nl:Efren Reyes (poolspeler) ja:エフレン・レイズ pl:Efren Reyes sv:Efren Reyes tl:Efren Reyes vi:Efren Reyes

Name	Drowning Pool
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Dallas, Texas,
Genre	Alternative metal, heavy metal, post-grunge, nu metal
Years active	1996–2011 (hiatus)
Label	Eleven Seven Music, Wind Up Records (1999-2006)
Associated acts	VooDoo Corps, Soil, AM Conspiracy
Website
Current members	C.J. PierceStevie BentonMike Luce
Past members	Dave Williams (deceased)Jason JonesRyan McCombs }}

Drowning Pool is a four-piece alternative metal band from Dallas, Texas. The band has had guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike Luce for its entire career, however it has had several vocalists, including Dave "Stage" Williams, Jason Jones and recently Ryan McCombs of Soil.

History[link]

Dave Williams Era (1996–2002)[link]

Drowning Pool rose to fame while playing along with Ozzy Osbourne during an Ozzfest tour. Their 2001 debut album ''Sinner'' was certified platinum within six weeks. On August 14, 2002, the band's lead singer Dave Williams was found dead inside his tour bus. He died from an undiagnosed heart condition.

A spokesperson for the Northern District of the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said he suffered from a form of heart disease. Many of their songs are featured in the Dragon Ball Z soundtracks. When asked if the band had any unreleased songs, according to a 2002 Blabbermouth article, drummer Mike Luce replied that "only 3–4 songs were done, including one called "Heroes," which is a tribute to dead rock musicians such as Layne Staley. I don't know if we will ever release them."

Jason Jones Era (2003–2005)[link]

After Williams' death, the band tried to carry on and begin searching for a new singer. Many were considered, such as Ben Schigel of Switched, Vince Mullins of Haji's Kitchen, Robb Flynn of Machine Head and many others. But in 2003, the band decided on Jason 'Gong' Jones to replace Williams and released the album ''Desensitized'' in 2004. During this era, Drowning Pool also experienced a considerable shift in visual style: rather than the dark, grimacing, anti-social demeanor seen with Williams as the frontman, they shifted toward rock star vanity and sex appeal. Despite the success of the album's lead single, "Step Up," the album was not nearly as successful as ''Sinner''. Jones' departure from Drowning Pool was publicly announced on June 14, 2004, due to irreconcilable differences.

Ryan McCombs Era (2006–2011)[link]

Almost immediately, rumors started swirling concerning the new singer's identity, like Pat Lachman of Damageplan but the biggest buzz of the rumors was about former Soil singer Ryan McCombs. Drowning Pool announced that the new singer would be formally announced at Ozzfest in Dallas, Texas, where Drowning Pool did a one-off performance on the main stage.

On July 20, 2005, the website SMNNews received word from close sources that McCombs was indeed the new singer. According to their manager, McCombs was "really good" and someone the band had wanted when they first set out to replace original vocalist Dave Williams nearly two years prior.

In spring of 2006, Drowning Pool announced that they had parted ways with Wind-up Records. In October 2006, the new song "No More" was announced to be released on the ''Saw III'' soundtrack, their first track (besides the second version of "Rise Up") with McCombs on vocals.

On February 26, 2007, the band announced it signed a new deal with Eleven Seven Music. It was also confirmed that Drowning Pool would have a new management company, Tenth Street Entertainment.

The band's third album, ''Full Circle'', was released on August 7, 2007 and met with moderate success. While some easy to please fans might have pointed out that they favored McCombs' vocals over previous vocalist Jason Jones, most people thought McCombs' voice didn't suit the band. Two songs on the album were produced by Funny Farm Records, owned by Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx and former Beautiful Creatures guitarist DJ Ashba. The remaining tracks have been recorded with producer Ben Schigel at the Ohio-based Spider Studios.

In January 2008, the band members announced that they would be touring North America as special guests of Saliva. On July 26, 2008, in Dubuque, Iowa, Drowning Pool played at the Dubuque County Fair alongside the bands Sick Puppies and Seether.

In September 2008, McCombs said in a statement that Drowning Pool will be recording its next album after it finishes touring with Saliva. According to an article from the El Paso Times, Drowning Pool has written material for its new album, and the band will be in the recording studio following the holidays.

On December 9, 2008, bassist Stevie Benton was quoted by the ''Associated Press'' as considering it an honor that the U.S. military was using Drowning Pool's music to bother captured prisoners. On December 13, 2008, Stevie Benton issued an apology on Drowning Pool's MySpace page about his comment on musical torture, stating his comment had been "taken out of context".

On March 3, 2009, the band released its live album, ''Loudest Common Denominator'', which featured two bonus tracks of acoustic versions of "Shame" and "37 Stitches".

According to a blog posted by the band members on the website SMNNEWS, they have hinted at having six songs already completed, and they just need to finish the other half of the album. McCombs dropped teasers of possible titles to two of the songs, "L.O.M.L" and "Regret". Guitarist C.J. Pierce also said he is bringing back some effects used on debut album ''Sinner'', but not on the previous two albums.

Drowning Pool finished recording their latest album with Kato Khandwala producing at House of Loud in New Jersey, which will be the first album in the band's history featuring the same vocalist twice since Dave Williams, who recorded two pre-Sinner albums as well as Sinner itself.

The first single off the band's upcoming self-titled album, titled "Feel Like I Do", is available as a free download on their official website, and the album was released on April 27, 2010.

Search For Fourth Singer and VooDoo Corps (Present)[link]

On November 29th it was announced that Ryan McCombs had left the band to rejoin SOiL on their European tour to promote the 10th anniversary of their Scars album and maybe even to record a new record. Drowning Pool is currently writing new material for a fifth studio album and holding auditions to find their fourth vocalist.

On November 7th, 2011, it was announced that C.J. Pierce and Mike Luce have diverted their attention towards a new project with ex–Nonpoint members Zach Broderick and Ken McMillan titled Voodoo Corps .

Members[link]

C.J. Pierce – guitar, backing vocals (1996–2011) (hiatus)

Stevie Benton – bass, backing vocals (1996–2011) (hiatus)

Mike Luce – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1996–2011) (hiatus)

Former members[link]

Dave Williams – lead vocals (1996–2002)

Jason Jones – lead vocals (2003–2005)

Ryan McCombs – lead vocals (2005–2011)

Discography[link]

''Sinner'' (2001)

''Desensitized'' (2004)

''Full Circle'' (2007)

''Drowning Pool'' (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

Interview with Drowning Pool on ARTISTdirect.com

Category:American alternative metal musical groups Category:American nu metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1996 Category:Musical quartets Category:Musical groups from Dallas, Texas

da:Drowning Pool de:Drowning Pool es:Drowning Pool fr:Drowning Pool hr:Drowning Pool it:Drowning Pool ms:Drowning Pool nl:Drowning Pool ja:ドラウニング・プール no:Drowning Pool uz:Drowning Pool pl:Drowning Pool pt:Drowning Pool ro:Drowning Pool ru:Drowning Pool simple:Drowning Pool fi:Drowning Pool sv:Drowning Pool tr:Drowning Pool uk:Drowning Pool

{{infobox character | name	George Louis Costanza
first	"The Seinfeld Chronicles"
last	"The Finale, Part II"
alias	Art VandelayBody Suit ManBuck NakedO'BrienBiff LomanMr. WeatherbeeLiar ManT-BoneKoko the MonkeyGammyCantstandyaCartwright
gender	Male
religion	Latvian Orthodox
Handed	Left Handed
occupation	Real-estate agentManuscript readerScreenwriterHand modelSales rep for rest stop supply companyimpersonating a marine biologist and architect Assistant to the traveling secretary for New York YankeesSales rep for playground-equipment company (Play Now)Representative for Kruger Industrial SmoothingComputer SalesmanCar MoverImporter/Exporter (Vandelay Industries)
family	Frank Costanza (father)Estelle Costanza (mother)Unnamed brother
relatives	Shelly (cousin) Aunt Baby (deceased) Uncle Moe (deceased) Henny (first cousin once-removed) Rhisa (cousin) Unnamed brother
spouse	Susan Biddle Ross (fiancee, deceased) Amanda (wife)
portrayer	Jason Alexander
creator	Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David }}

George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" (by Elaine Benes and Costanza himself), "Lord of the Idiots" (by Costanza himself), and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time". He is friends with Jerry Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer, and Elaine Benes. George appears in every episode except for "The Pen" (third season). The character was originally based on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, but surnamed after Jerry Seinfeld's real-life New York friend, Mike Costanza.

Early life and family[link]

George is the son of Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) and Estelle Costanza (Estelle Harris). Though he never made an appearance on the show, George has mentioned twice that he has a brother, but also often says he is an only child. Lloyd Braun was the other son his parents wanted. George's best friend Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) described Frank and Estelle as "psychopaths", and said in "The Chinese Woman" that, if they had divorced when George was young, he "could have been normal". George also describes himself as the result of his parents having stayed together.

In the season four episode "The Junior Mint", he states he grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he went to public school. In a previous episode he mentions he went to high school on Long Island. He met Jerry Seinfeld in a gym locker room, and they remained friends from that point on. George and Jerry both attended John F. Kennedy High School, class of 1971. During their high school years, George and Jerry frequently hung out at a pizza place called Mario's Pizzas, where George, having the highest score 'GLC', would play Frogger. George was picked on by his gym teacher Mr. Heyman (Biff Yeager), who intentionally mispronounced his name as "Can't stand ya" and gave him wedgies.

George has three known cousins: Shelly, who appeared in "The Contest", George Howarth, and Rhisa, who made an appearance in "The Junk Mail". George talks to his parents about his family in "The Money", during which it is revealed that he had an "Uncle Moe", who "died a young man" and an "Aunt Baby", who died at the age of 7 of internal problems. It is also revealed that his mother has a "Cousin Henny". In "The Doll", it is revealed that Frank Costanza was born in Italy and still has a cousin, Carlo, who lives there. As of the first-season episode "The Robbery", George had a living grandmother and grandfather whom he had recently visited, though it is never clarified if these were his mother's or his father's parents.

Personality[link]

George is neurotic, self-loathing, and dominated by his parents. Throughout ''Seinfeld''s first season, George was portrayed as a moderately intelligent character – at one point, he mentions an intellectual interest in the American Civil War and, in some early episodes, appears almost as a mentor to Jerry – but gets less sophisticated, to the point of being too lazy even to read a 90-page book (''Breakfast at Tiffany's''), preferring to watch the movie adaptation at a stranger's house instead. However, one ''Chicago Tribune'' reviewer noted that, despite all of his shortcomings, George is "pretty content with himself".

George exhibits a number of negative character traits, among them stinginess, selfishness, dishonesty, insecurity, and neurosis. Many of these traits stem from a dysfunctional childhood with his squabbling parents Frank and Estelle, and often form the basis of his involvement in various plots, schemes, and awkward social encounters. Episode plots frequently feature George manufacturing elaborate deceptions at work or in his relationships in order to gain or maintain some small or imagined advantage or (pretend) image of success. He had success in "The Opposite", in which he begins (with Jerry's encouragement) to do the complete opposite of what his instincts tell him to do, which results in him getting a girlfriend and a job with the New York Yankees.

George's occasional impulsive bouts often get him into trouble, such as when he flees a burning kitchen, knocking over several children and an elderly woman in the process, so he could escape first during his girlfriend's son's birthday party in "The Fire". However, there are moments where George exhibits remarkable courage, but usually accidentally, and usually because of inane lies which have brought trouble to George. For instance, in "The Marine Biologist", he goes into the ocean alone to save a beached whale because his girlfriend thinks he is a marine biologist, and even tells her the truth about his occupation after he saves the day. Sadly, this causes her to reject him immediately.

George aligns with both Elaine and Kramer in some episodes, but is also frequently pitted against them. With Elaine, while he does get into arguments with her, they also work together, most notably in the episode "The Cadillac". George and Kramer usually feel awkward around each other, but started working together (and against each other) in episodes "The Busboy", "The Stall", and "The Slicer". "The Susie" is the only episode in which their relationship is as prominent as the relationships between the other characters. Some episodes, such as "The Raincoats", "The Money", "The Doorman", and "The Fusilli Jerry", would suggest that Kramer has a more comfortable rapport with George's parents than with George.

He has an affinity for nice restrooms and lush work facilities. In "The Revenge", he quits his real estate job solely because he is forbidden to use his boss's private bathroom. In "The Busboy", he claims to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the locations of the best bathrooms in the city. When working for the Yankees, he suggested having the bathroom stall doors stretched all the way to the floor (allowing people's legs not to be seen while in the stalls), and, in many episodes, he shows a fascination with toilet paper and its history. He also displays a fear of diseases, such as lupus and cancer. In "The Wife", George gets into trouble for urinating in the shower at a gym but defends his action with, "It's all pipes! What's the difference?"

Although occasionally referred to as dumb by his friends, many signs point to the fact that George is actually quite an intelligent man despite his neurotic behavior. George's foolishness is displayed in the episode, "The Cafe", in which George had to take an IQ test and had Elaine take it for him. Apparently, George's neurotic stupidity would progress until it became one of his primary characteristics. By the season six episode "The Couch", he could not even concentrate enough to read a 90-page book (''Breakfast at Tiffany's''). In "The Abstinence", it is discovered that George actually has what would appear to be genius-level intelligence, but that he can never access it because his mind is always so completely focused on sex. When circumstances allow him to temporarily remove sex from his mind, he is able to reach his true potential but Elaine, who also swears off sex (in an attempt to increase her boyfriend's IQ) in the same episode, gets dumber.

George and Jerry have been best friends since meeting in high school gym class. The extreme closeness of their friendship is occasionally mistaken for homosexuality. "The Outing" deals with a reporter from a New York University college paper mistaking Jerry and George for a homosexual couple, and, in "The Cartoon", George dates someone whom Kramer insists is merely a "female Jerry". When George is forced to note to himself that the idea of a female Jerry with whom he can have a close personal relationship and also a sexual relationship would be everything he has ever wanted, George, in horror, breaks off his relationship with the woman.

In the ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' episode "Seinfeld", we learn that in the aftermath of their release from prison, George had both gotten married and made millions in the ten years since being locked up in "The Finale". His fortune resulted from selling an iPhone application called the "iToilet", which utilizes GPS technology to direct the user to "acceptable" public restrooms closest to them, wherever they are. In this episode, his wife had left him, and he had lost his money in the recession, having invested it all in Bernie Madoff's now-notorious Ponzi scheme. His wife, however, bailed out her half of the investment after the divorce, before the scheme collapsed. At the end of the episode, George and his wife reunite, though his wife insists he sign a prenuptial agreement, meaning he will have to keep their renewed marriage going to keep him from losing the remainder of the money he made on the ''iToilet'', much to his annoyance.

Development[link]

''Seinfeld'' co-creator Larry David based George largely on himself. Seinfeld and David created the character as a counterpoint to Seinfeld's character. In the first draft of the show's pilot script, called ''Stand-Up'' at the time, George's name was Bennett and he, like Jerry, was a comedian. "Louis", George's middle name is a homage to Lou Costello, whose 1950s television series ''The Abbott and Costello Show'', inspired ''Seinfeld''s writing style. During the show's run David was frequently asked why he did not play the character himself, he replied that he was only interested in writing the show, that, not only did he not want to act on the show, but it had never occurred to him and, even if it had, he highly doubted that NBC would've approved of his being cast.

Casting director Marc Herschfield stated that, during casting for the character, "we saw every actor we could possibly see in Los Angeles", but they could not find the right actor for the part. Among the auditionees were Nathan Lane, Steve Buscemi, David Alan Grier, Brad Hall and Larry Miller. On April 3, 1989, Herschfield sent a partial script to Jason Alexander, who was in New York City at the time. Herschfield had met Alexander when he was working on the CBS sitcom ''E/R''. Alexander enjoyed the script and felt it read like a Woody Allen film; therefore, he did a Woody Allen impression on his audition tape, and bought a pair of glasses to better resemble the character. Though Alexander thought his audition was "a complete waste of time", both David and Seinfeld were impressed; Seinfeld stated "the second we saw him, like two lines out of his mouth, we went 'That's the guy'". On April 10, 1989 at 9:00 A.M. Alexander did his first official audition and met David and Seinfeld. Costanza lost the suit, as the New York Supreme Court (the trial court in the State of New York court system) unanimously decided that Seinfeld and David "did not violate Michael Costanza's privacy rights when they created the character".

Family and background[link]

Susan[link]

George becomes engaged to Susan Biddle Ross, a wealthy executive at NBC who approved Jerry and George's show-within-a-show sitcom pilot. George and Susan date for a year, during which time the commitment-phobic George is constantly trying to find ways to end their relationship without actually having to initiate the breakup with her. In "The Engagement", he proposes to her in a short-lived bout of midlife crisis, after he and Jerry make a pact to move forward with their lives. When Jerry breaks up with his girlfriend almost immediately thereafter for eating "her peas one at a time" and declares the deal over, George panics and again tries repeatedly to weasel out of his engagement. He gets his wish about two weeks before the wedding in "The Invitations", when he inadvertently causes her death by selecting cheap envelopes for their wedding invitations, not knowing they contained toxic glue. When notified of her death at the hospital, George displays a combination of shock, apathy, and relief (described by the doctor in part two of The Finale as "restrained jubilation"). A few moments after being notified of Susan's passing, he says to Jerry, Kramer, and Elaine, "Well, let's go get some coffee." Susan's parents, recent divorcees, never knowing the specifics behind her poisoning but suspecting that George was somehow involved, never forgive him for this, and they appoint him to the board of directors of the Susan Ross Foundation to keep him trapped under their influence and to ensure that he would never get any of Susan's inheritance.

Relationships[link]

George is very bad at picking up women and his relationships usually end badly. George also dated other women throughout the series:

His two dates, Maura (who refuses to break up) and Loretta (who will not make love in "The Strongbox"), make it hard for George to break up.

In "The Cadillac", George dates a celebrity, Marisa Tomei, in the park for a short time and gets punched after revealing that he is engaged.

In "The Cafe", George dates Monica, who tests George in an IQ test. Apparently, after letting Elaine help him cheat, the end result is the test being spilled with food, and he is left to explain about the mess on the IQ test.

In "The Nose Job", George dates Audrey, who has a big nose, until he, Jerry, and Elaine are shocked when Kramer suggests that she get a nose job.

In "The Red Dot", by accident, George dates Evie, a cleaning woman who works at Pendant Publishing by sharing Hennigans.

In "The Conversion", George willingly converts to the Latvian Orthodox faith for his girlfriend, Sasha, after Elaine mentions that it would be romantic, only to learn after completing the conversion that Sasha is going to Latvia.

In "The Boyfriend", George dates Carrie, the daughter of his unemployment-office rep, Mrs. Sokol, in order to get an extension on his unemployment.

In "The Good Samaritan", George commits adultery with a married woman, Robin, after he says "God bless you" to her.

In "The Outing", George dates Allison, who is having a breakdown. He tries to get out of the relationship by saying he's gay, but it fails.

In "The Cartoon", George dates Janet, who Kramer openly says looks like Jerry.

In "The Blood", George dates Tara, and he attempts to add food as a part of their sex life.

In "The Pez Dispenser" George dates a pianist, Noelle who wishes to break up with George after Elaine laughs during a recital. George has a telephone communication with Noelle and feels like she wishes to break up, so he breaks up with her first. Later at an intervention for an old friend of Elaine and Jerry's, Elaine laughs the laugh that Noelle will never forget and it is revealed she is the one that shattered Noelle's confidence during the recital.

In "The Fix Up" George refuses a blind date with Cynthia until assured she meets his intellect (low) and attractiveness (high) standards (George: Is there a pinkish hue? Jerry: A pinkish hue? George: Yes, a rosy glow. Jerry: There's a hue. She's got great eyebrows, women kill to have her eyebrows. George: Who cares about eyebrows? Is she sweet? I like sweet. But not too sweet, you could throw up from that.")

In the ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' Seinfeld Reunion, George has married (and divorced) a woman named Amanda in the time in between the finale and the reunion.

Professional life[link]

George's professional life is unstable. He is unable to remain in any job for any great length of time before making an embarrassing blunder and getting fired. Very often, the blunder is lying and trying to cover it up, only to have it all fall apart.

Over the course of the series, he works for a real estate transaction services firm (Rick Bahr Properties), a rest stop supply company (Sanalac), Elaine's company (Pendant Publishing), the New York Yankees (his longest running job), a playground-equipment company (Play Now), an industrial smoothing company (Kruger Industrial Smoothing), and other places. He is fired from his job at Pendant Publishing for having sex with the cleaning woman on his desk in "The Red Dot" (he professes he has always been attracted to cleaning women).

His original job when the series starts is as a real estate agent; he ends up quitting and getting re-hired, but fired immediately afterward for drugging his boss. He always wanted to be an architect; he first desires to be one in "The Stake Out", and he claims in "The Race" that he had designed "the new addition to the Guggenheim". In "The Van Buren Boys", he denies his young protégé a scholarship from the Susan Ross Foundation when the young man decides he no longer wants to be an architect and wants to become a city planner instead. In "The Marine Biologist", Jerry tells a woman whom George wanted to impress that George is a marine biologist. The plan backfires when George is called upon to save a beached whale with a Titleist golf ball in its blowhole. He saves the whale, but the woman tells him off when he confesses that he is not, in fact, a marine biologist: "She told me to go to hell, and I took the bus home."

During the fourth season of the series, George gains experience as a sitcom writer as he helps Jerry to write the pilot for the fictitious show ''Jerry''. While pitching the concept of a "show about nothing" to NBC executives, George dates executive Susan until The Virgin, when she is fired. Following the first and last episode ("The Pilot"), executive Russell's obsession with Elaine has cost George and Jerry a shot at getting a TV series.

According to the ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' Seinfeld Reunion, George has become a multi-millionaire by inventing an iPhone application called "iToilet," which would point the user in the direction of the nearest accessible toilet, wherever they were in the world. He trusted his entire fortune to Bernie Madoff, and after his divorce, lost his half of the money. However, his ex-wife Amanda withdrew her half of the money before the scandal, having been creeped out by a quilted jacket with a popped collar that she spotted Madoff wearing one day, and after she offers to reconcile, he gets it back, but their new prenup agreement means that George will have to be a good husband in order to keep it.

Fashion and hairstyle[link]

George is known for his balding hair, which is not as noticeable in the pilot episode "The Seinfeld Chronicles", but gets thinner as the series progresses. In "The Beard", he begins to wear a toupee, until Elaine throws it out the window out of disgust. He also attempts to restore his hair in "The Tape", when he begins using a Chinese cream that is said to cure baldness. His hair is rarely seen styled. His clothes are usually very plain. He frequently wears jeans. In "The Pilot", George wears sweatpants; Jerry says that this makes George look like he has given up on life. In "The Subway", when his clothes are taken, he goes to the coffee shop with a blanket, causing a bystander to mistake him for a Hindu. In "The Muffin Tops", he steals clothes from a tourist who asks him to watch his suitcase. "The Gum" has him dressed as Henry the Eighth, which, along with a far too small tuxedo in "The Opera", are the only times he is seen entirely apart from his drab attire. George has, however, mentioned that his clothing is color coded based on his mood. In "The Trip", Jerry asks him what mood he is in, and George replies, "Morning mist". Several times throughout the show, George mentions a desire to "drape" himself in velvet (if only it were socially acceptable), which he does in "The Doodle". In the episode "The Bizarro Jerry", George can be seen styling his hair based on an Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) poster.

Pseudonyms[link]

Art Vandelay first appears in the episode "The Stake Out", in which George and Jerry need an excuse to give to a woman as to why they are waiting in the lobby of the office building where she worked. Their excuse is that they were meeting Art Vandelay, an importer-exporter who works in the same building, for lunch. In one instance ("The Boyfriend"), George tells the unemployment office he is close to getting a job at "Vandelay Industries," a latex manufacturer. The name is also used as a fake boyfriend of Elaine. Here, Art is an importer/exporter and used as a cover story for when George is going on a date with Marisa Tomei, claiming that George and Elaine are meeting to discuss a problem with her boyfriend so that Susan does not think that George is having an affair ("The Cadillac"). George also uses the pseudonym when interviewing for a job with Elaine's boss in "The Red Dot". When asked which authors he reads, the answer is "Art Vandelay" from New York. In "The Serenity Now", George calls up fake customers, one of whom is "Mr. Vandelay", pretending to get computer orders. In "The Bizarro Jerry", George goes to an office and asks for Mr. Vandelay as part of a setup to approach an attractive secretary. Finally, in "The Puerto Rican Day", George pretends to be Vandelay (along with Jerry as Kel Varnsen and Kramer as Pennypacker) to try to sneak into an open house to watch a Mets game that they had left because the team was getting blown out. In the episode "The Finale", the name of the presiding judge is actually Arthur Vandelay, much to George's amazement. George says he thinks it is "good luck" that that is the judge's name.

During the seventh season ("The Pool Guy"), George reveals he has two distinct personas, Relationship George and Independent George. Relationship George, he explains, is the conscientious personality he feels forced to adopt in the presence of his fianceé, Susan. Independent George, on the other hand, is the "real" George. Independent George is composed of a subset of personalities, such as Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, and Bawdy George. Independent George is the George that Jerry knows and grew up with. George worries that if Susan starts socializing with the group, his two worlds will irrevocably collide, resulting in Relationship George "killing" Independent George. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, he declares, "A George divided against itself cannot stand!"

At one point ("The Maid"), George wants to be known as T-Bone, but his co-workers at Kruger Industrial Smoothing nickname him Koko because of the way he had flailed his arms when demanding the nickname "T-Bone" back from a coworker. George deliberately hires a woman named Coco to work there, only to be nicknamed Gammy instead.

Biff Loman a character from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" appears for a reference to George in the episode "The Subway". George is on the way to a job interview and Jerry tells him not to whistle in the elevator like Biff did in the book. After a series of events throughout the episode George arrives at the coffee shop wearing only a bed sheet in a toga like fashion, to which Jerry says, "What happened, Biff? Did you whistle on the elevator?" George is also referred to as Biff in "The Boyfriend" by the daughter of his unemployment agent and both "The Pez Dispenser" and "The Visa" by Jerry.

Reception[link]

George, along with the three other main characters of the show, were ranked sixth on cable television channel Bravo's list of the "100 Greatest TV Characters". In a list of the "50 Greatest Sidekicks" compiled by ''Entertainment Weekly'', George was placed third behind Robin from the ''Batman'' franchise and Ed McMahon, who co-hosted ''The Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992. On a ''The Times-Union'' list of the 50 greatest sitcom characters of all time, George was ranked third, behind Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) from ''I Love Lucy'' and Barney Fife (Don Knotts) from ''The Andy Griffith Show''. ''TV Guide'' published a list of the 50 best characters in television history in 1999 on which George was ranked 43rd. ''The People'' called George the greatest television character on a list of the 100 best television characters. British actor Ricky Gervais and British newspaper ''The Guardian'' have both called George "the greatest sitcom character of all time".

For his performance as George, Alexander has been nominated for various awards. In 1992 he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series; however, he lost the award to Michael Jeter for ''Evening Shade''. He received nominations in the same category the following six years, but failed to win each year. In addition, Alexander was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1998, in the Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television category, but never won the award. In 1995 Alexander received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, he also shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus and Richards. From 1996 through 1998 Alexander was nominated in the same two categories, co-winning the ensemble award in 1997 and 1998. In 1999 he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for the last time, but lost to Michael J. Fox for his portrayal of Micheal Flaherty on ''Spin City''. In 1992 and 1993 Alexander won the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Male Performer in a TV Series. He was also nominated for the award in 1996 (with Richards) and 1999, but did not win again.

References[link]

;Explanatory notes

;Citations

External links[link]

Category:Seinfeld Category:Seinfeld characters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1989 Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Fictional American people of Italian descent

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