Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory
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It takes certain comedic timing to play a character that appeared in just a couple of episodes of a show like “Seinfeld” and still become one of the most memorable and beloved characters. One person that did just that is Brian George, who is also well known for being a staple of television and voice acting. George has had a very interesting life to this point, and will most assuredly be in productions for many years.
George was born on July 1, 1952 in Jerusalem, Israel, but didn’t remain there for very long. His family headed to England for a few years before settling in Canada during most of his childhood. George grew up in Toronto, where he also headed to college and took an interest in acting. George excelled in improv comedy, and made his way to Chicago to continue on stage before making it to screen productions for the first time.
George began his acting career in 1982 when he landed a recurring role on “The Edison Twins” in which he appeared during a bulk of the decade. Three years later, George began both his film and voice acting career at the same time when appearing in “The Care Bears Movie”. For the rest of the 1980s, his only two roles came from film with “Roxanne” and “Speed Zone”.
The early 1990s had George appearing as a guest star on some of the biggest shows in television. George played roles on “Married...with Children”, “Quantum Leap” and “Coach”. During this time he also had a memorable cameo on “Seinfeld” as Babu Bhatt. The first of these appearances came in the 1991 episode “The Cafe” where his character opened up a new restaurant with Seinfeld quite critical of the food and having him change the menu to no success. After that, George revived the character both for the 1993 episode “The Visa” and the series finale in 1998.
Other shows throughout during the 1990s that featured George in guest spots included “Weird Science”, “Ellen” and “Caroline in the City and movie roles with “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Inspector Gadget”.
Guest spots continued to be the standard for George in his acting career during the 2000s thanks to TV shows like “One Tree Hill”, “Two and a Half Men” and “That’s So Raven”. He became a recurring character throughout the entirety of the series as Dr. V.M. Koothrappali, the father of one of the main characters, Rajesh. George had more than a dozen appearances during the show’s run from 2007 to 2019.
The first decade of the new millennium added film roles like “Keeping the Faith”, “Bubble Boy” and “Employee of the Month” for George. Since then, many of his film roles have come from his voice acting work, especially in the “Batman” universe with many direct to video films. His only live action Hollywood role in the decade came from 2014’s “Beethoven’s Treasure Tail”.
Instead, George has been very busy with television and has had multiple roles that have been longer running than simply being guest spots. George appeared in quite a few episodes of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and he starred in the short-lived shows “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” and “I Feel Bad”. Since 2016, George has been part of the cast of the Syfy (and now Amazon) series “The Expanse”.
Talking about “I Feel Bad”, he said he was drawn to the character because it wasn’t written solely because the family was South Asian as the focus. “They’re an American family of different backgrounds,” he said. Many had expected the series to be a hit, so it was a bit unfortunate to see George not get his chance to lead a show for many years.
Despite all of these characters and all of these roles, it seems to be “Seinfeld” that remains the one that George is asked about the most. “‘Seinfeld’ was such a big show and it made such an imprint, so I guess I’m ‘The Indian guy’ now,” he said, though actually never living in the country. “That’s just what it is. I’ve been very lucky. I mean ‘Big Bang’ and (other hits) are not low level things. But I have to accept the fact that my face is apparently not going to be seen as the guy next door unless he’s an Indian guy next door.”
It’s a role he was a bit apprehensive to take, but it did put him on the map. “I didn’t have the luxury of saying ‘No I won’t take that role,’” George said. “My kids were more important to me than my career frankly. As much as I wanted to work, and as much as I love working and love the business, my job was to raise kids, not to worry about my ego. I always though, ‘I’m not trying to be a leading man. I’m not trying to be Cary Grant.’ I want a comedy career and there’s no reason why I couldn’t be, say, the next Peter Sellers or whatever. But that never happened. It just never happened.”
Though not the leading man in Hollywood, George hasn’t struggled for work, and it’s made him a millionaire in a profession where it’s not easy to succeed. All in all, George has nearly 300 production credits to his name as an actor. Many people are lucky just to get one or two, and George has had several that have resonated with people around the world.
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