Jason faces a dilemma that’s common in Hollywood. On the one hand, everybody knows who he is. On the other, they know him for a character he stopped playing in 1998—more than 10 years ago—but that’s how everyone will probably think of him for the rest of his career. It doesn’t help that the show will probably be in reruns forever, too.

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In fact, Jason Alexander and Kevin Pollak, huge poker buffs in their own right, have participated in some of them. The most recent was the Stars CALL for Action in which PokerStars contributed the. Celebrity Poker Showdown, Season 8 Episode 1 Featuring Jason Alexander, Jamie Bamber, Bryan Cranston, Susie Essman, Kevin Sorbo with the Poker Brat himself Phil Hellmuth providing expert analysis Each tournament in the series was played for charity, with the winner of each of 5 games advancing to a 'championship' match.

That role, of course, was George Costanza on Seinfeld. The character was based on Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld’s real-life friend and co-writer, who also produced the show. George was a nebbish, which is Yiddish for “loser.” Nothing he ever did worked out right, poor guy! So aside from being associated with a character, it’s not a very flattering one—poor Jason!

But don’t worry, big fella, the Celebrity Corner is here to help. We’re going to tell everyone about all the other great work you did after you became George.

Movie-wise, Jason’s biggest after-Seinfeld hit so far has to be Shallow Hal, with Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow, about a guy who is hypnotized so he can only see people’s inner beauty, no matter what they really look like. He was also in the live/animated Rocky and Bullwinkle movie.

Jason was in a few Christmas projects, but to balance that, he played two Jewish doctors in two movies two years in a row.

Jason was in his own sitcom, Bob Patterson, and did an appearance on The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring his Seinfeld castmate Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He was a star of Listen Up, a regular on Dilbert, and in episodes of Everybody Hates Chris, Criminal Minds, Monk, Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, and Disney’s Hercules (click the titles to see his Jewish co-stars!). He also did a voice in Madeline: Lost in Paris.

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In 2009 alone, Jason has four movies. Rock Slyde is a crime comedy with Rena Sofer. Identity is about a detective who must solve a mystery about his own family. Hachiko is about a lonely man who takes in an abandoned dog.

And Quantum Quest is a science fiction adventure about a photon (a particle of light) that must save a space probe— it has a very Jew-ful cast: Amanda Peet, William Shatner, and Brent Spiner (see the Bonus here) are in it, too. Both those last guys were in Star Trek shows (Jason is a huge fan) but get this—the movie also has Star Wars star Mark Hamill! And Neil Armstrong, the first person who walked on the Moon (for real)!

Alongside Seinfeld, Jason made the mega-hit Pretty Woman! He was also in an under-rated movie about the newspaper biz called The Paper and in the SNL movie Coneheads with Adam Sandler.

Jason did a lot of voiceover work then, too: Eric in Duckman, Hugo in Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame (written by French author Victor Hugo, which is why two of the gargoyles are named Victor and Hugo!), Abis Mal in the Aladdin show and The Return of Jafar, and the announcer in Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs show. Next, he's doing a voice in the Fairly Oddparents movie.

Jason, who is from New Jersey, has two other names. He was born Jason Greenspan, and his friends call him Jay. Alexander was his dad’s first name. Before acting, Jason wanted to be a magician!

He was on Broadway before Seinfeld, too—in shows by Jewish writers like Neil Simon and Stephen Sondheim—and even won a Tony. He can really sing, too! In 2003, he went back to the stage for Mel Brooks’ The Producers. He’s directed musicals, too. And he’s even starred in country music videos!

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Like we said, Jason is a huge Trekker (what hard-core Star Trek fans are really called. Lesser fans are called “Trekkies”). His friends gave him a dinner with William Shatner for a birthday present, he aced a Trek-trivia quiz on the radio, and he even got to star in an episode of Voyager! Recently, he hosted William’s roast on Comedy Central.

Jason is also very proud of being Jewish and leads an organization working on peace for Israel. When he played on Celebrity Jeopardy, he donated all of his winnings to the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism. But when he won $500,000 in a celebrity poker tournament, he donated it to the United Way of New Orleans, to help the city recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Talented, charming, generous, successful… turns out Jason Alexander is not George Costanza at all!

Bonus:

How do you know when you get to be famous? When something is named after you. Maybe a new theater or museum, a huge bridge or tower, even an asteroid of star. Well, in New York, where deli is king, you know you’ve made it when the Stage Deli names a sandwich after you! And for years, you could go there and order a “Morey Amsterdam.” (Eddie Murphy even talked about it, as Gumby, on Saturday Night Live!)

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Like Jason, Morey was one of the greatest supporting actors in all of TV history. He played Buddy on The Dick van Dyke Show from 1961-66. Waaay before 30 Rock, the show was based on the writers of a sketch show, and Morey and Dick were two of the writers.

Before that show, Morey was on the Westerns Have Gun Will Travel and Gunsmoke, Make Room for Daddy, Dragnet, and The Phil Silvers Show (see this Bonus). Morey had a long TV career after the show, too. He was on sitcoms like Caroline in the City, Cybill, Alice (see this Bonus), and The Partridge Family, the soap The Young and the Restless, the cop show Adam-12, and the TV show based on the original Fame movie.

Morey was born in Chicago and his dad, a classical violinist, wanted the same career for his kids. So his brother learned piano and Morey learned cello. By 14, Morey was performing with his brother onstage, the straight man to his brother’s jokes.

One of his gigs was in Al Capone’s nightclub! He was there during a shootout one night… and headed for California soon after! He began writing jokes for Fanny Brice (see this Bonus), political comic Will Rogers and Jimmy Durante.

He wrote so many jokes, he developed an act called The Human Joke Machine! Morey would go onstage wearing a machine with a crank. He’d tell the audience to suggest topics, and he would turn the crank, and the machine would unroll a bit of paper. He’d tear off the paper—actually blank—and pretend to “read” one of the 10,000 jokes he’d memorized!

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By the 1940s, he had three radio shows on every day! He then moved into TV, first with a variety show... and then Morey made TV history by hosting the first talk show ever in 1950, called Broadway Open House.

But Morey would have made his dad proud because he always worked his cello into his act. He wrote some hit songs, too. And he even wrote words to the Dick van Dyke Show theme song! They didn’t use them, but Dick would perform them in his live show.

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So the next time you’re hungry for laughs, go on YouTube and get an order of Morey Amsterdam!