Patrick Warburton

Biography

Squared-jawed beefcake Patrick Warburton leapt into pop culture consciousness as David Puddy, Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend on the hit sitcom Seinfeld in 1995, and has since then steadily found his deadpan talents in ever-greater demand. With his squinty eyes and hard-boiled detective's voice, Warburton has become a humorous personality who can generate giggles with almost no effort, whether onscreen or in voice-overs.Warburton was born on November 14, 1964, in Paterson, NJ, and raised in Southern California, a son of little-known television actress Barbara Lord. The future Bugle Boy model studied marine biology at Orange Coast College, where he met his wife, Cathi, before dropping out to pursue modeling and acting at age 19. In his first screen appearance, the 17th century slave film Dragonard (1987), Warburton was subject to what is thought to be the longest onscreen flogging on film, a 100-lash scene that consumes nearly four minutes of screen time. He also appeared in the sequel, Master of Dragonard Hill (1989), before turning his attention to television.Warburton had guest spots on such shows as Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and Quantum Leap before scoring a recurring role on the short-lived Dave Barry sitcom Dave's World in 1993. But it was not until he appeared in the 1995 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Fusilli Jerry" that Warburton really started to attract attention. As Puddy, Jerry's lunkhead mechanic who spits out dialogue in macho spurts, notably the catchphrase affirmation "Yeah that's right," Warburton quickly became a popular semi-regular, involved in a running joke about his frequent breakups and reconciliations with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). He stayed with the show until it finished in 1998, and provided the voice for Superman in a…