Frank Costanza

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Frank Costanza

First appearance	The Handicap Spot
Last appearance	The Finale, Part II
Information
Gender	Male
Age	60s
Occupation	retired
Relationships	Estelle Costanza
Children	George Costanza and an unnamed son
Portrayed by	Jerry Stiller
Created by	Jerry Seinfeld

Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) is a fictional character on the US television sitcom Seinfeld (1989-1998). He was born in Tuscany, Italy, and moved at the age of four with his entire family (except his cousin Carlo) to the United States. He is the father of George Costanza and is married to Estelle Costanza. He is characteristically loud, neurotic, and eccentric. He is also described as having a halting way of talking. Despite his rough appearance and behaviour, he's afraid of mice and also invented the holiday Festivus as a replacement for Christmas.

In Frank Costanza's first appearance in the episode "The Handicap Spot" of season 4, the character was played by John Randolph. At the urging of series creator Larry David, once Stiller had been cast for Frank Costanza, the scenes with Randolph were reshot with Stiller for syndication.

Though currently retired, we learn in "The Understudy" that Frank once worked as a salesman, selling religious artifacts. Frank is an exceptionally good cook (he spent time as an army cook in Korea), as long as he can overcome his fears of accidentally poisoning people with his cooking (which showed the rebuttal in "The Fatigues", in which he destroyed his food after seeing Elaine's co-worker, Eddie, choking).

His hobbies include listening to Latin music on vinyl records and collecting issues of TV Guide. He invented an alternative-holiday known as Festivus and was co-creator of the "Bro" (also known as the "manssiere") with Cosmo Kramer in "The Doorman." Perhaps before the character had been entirely established, Frank Costanza was in his first episode, "The Handicap Spot", a leading member of United Volunteers.

Frank's several flaws include a paralyzing fear of mice, rats and other forms of household infestation. Even the mention of mice in his household horrifies Frank, as seen in "The Raincoats, Part 2" He also has a 'phobia' which disables him from spending his silver dollars, which he has collected since 18 years of age. Frank seems to have a predilection for squirrels. In the The Conversion where George is considering converting to Latvian Orthodox religion he's asking if this is the group that goes around mutilating squirrels and asks specifically that George stays away from squirrels. He reacts violently if someone asks him to take off his shoes (because he believes that his feet have bad odor).

Estelle, while never referred that way on the show, was said by both Larry David and Jason Alexander to be Jewish, and in numerous interviews they said that George was "half-Jewish," implying that Frank was not. In the episode "The Fatigues", it is implied that Frank is a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all Catholic fraternal organization. However, a member must be actively Catholic, and Frank does not seem to fit that requirement.

Frank is fluent in Korean and once met the Reverend Sun Myung Moon whom he referred to as having a face "like a big apple pie." ("The Understudy")

In "The Understudy", Frank delivers a line derived from one of drummer Buddy Rich's rants.

He once ripped George Steinbrenner for trading Jay Buhner, even though Steinbrenner had just informed him, mistakenly, that George had died.

Seinfeld

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Characters

Main Characters:

Jerry Seinfeld • George Costanza • Elaine Benes • Cosmo Kramer

Associated with Jerry:

Helen Seinfeld • Morty Seinfeld • Uncle Leo • Kenny Bania • Sally Weaver • Dr. Tim Whatley

Associated with George:

Estelle Costanza • Frank Costanza • Susan Ross • Mr. Wilhelm • Mr. Kruger • Lloyd Braun • George Steinbrenner