Lance's Journal: The Soup Nazi Visits Lincoln, May 30

By: Lance Schwartz - Email

Updated: Wed 8:14 PM, May 30, 2012

It's hard to believe how a quickly life can change for a Hollywood actor.

At one moment, Larry Thomas was working as a bail bondsman in Los Angeles and then, in the blink of the eye, he's known around the world as "The Soup Nazi."

It was November 2nd, 1995, the 6th episode of the 7th season of the hit sitcom Seinfeld. It was just a bit role, but Thomas has definitely made the most of it.

Everybody wanted a picture with The Soup Nazi, especially the hard-core Seinfeld fans like Mike Runyan of Lincoln. For him, this was a dream come true, "One of the greatest characters ever on TV. Everybody knows The Soup Nazi, everybody knows Seinfeld, so it's a great honor to meet The Soup Nazi."

Back in 1995, Thomas had no idea his brief appearance on Seinfeld would lead to world wide recognition. All he knew is the character would have a middle-eastern accent, "Just started imitating Omar Sharif."

Larry had to imagine what The Soup Nazi might act like, "I figured very militant and obviously would get on the wrong side of the Seinfeld gang, you know that was sort of obvious."

Before he had even seen the script, Thomas was dreaming up things his character might say, "'You! Small fry, baldy go to the end of the line or you get no soup,' and my friend said, 'I like that no soup thing,' of course I went the next morning and they had three scenes on paper and 'No soup for you' was in the first scene."

This mild-mannered 50-year-old actor says he had no idea his bit part on Seinfeld would earn him an Emmy nomination and make him famous, "I've been to Norway where everyone's going like, 'Say the line, say the line.'"

Larry says he has acted in about 40 different projects since his short stint on Seinfeld 17 years ago.
His most recent project is a movie that he is very proud of ...It's a western called *redemption*.

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