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The ‘Seinfeld’ Guest Star One Cast Member Called a ‘Total Nutjob’

‘We’re in the land of the sick now,’ Jason Alexander remembered thinking of his former co-star’s behavior

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When production began on the Season 2 Seinfeld episode “The Jacket,” the show’s cast and crew couldn’t possibly have known what they were getting themselves into by welcoming guest star Lawrence Tierney into their world. In the episode, which originally aired on February 6, 1991, Tierney played Elaine’s father, Alton Benes, a gruff, imposing man whom Jerry and George have the misfortune of being stuck eating dinner with one night. Tierney had a long career in Hollywood dating back to the 1940s and a history of wild behavior that dated just as far back. By the 1950s, the actor had been arrested about a dozen times for........

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