Schwimmer, David

▪ 1996

      David Schwimmer was a member of an American television elite: the single, attractive, 20-something crowd that hung out in a New York coffee bar and talked primarily about themselves during 1995. He was a member of the cast of the top-rated sitcom "Friends"—one that harvested its jokes from the lives of six generation-Xers, young and unfocused characters who spent most of their time "hanging around" together. Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller on the show, had a considerable part in its success. Described by cast members Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox as "the father figure" of the show, Schwimmer played a paleontologist (one of the few characters with a steady job) whose pregnant wife left him for a woman during the first season (1994-95).

      Schwimmer was considered the runaway hit of the ensemble, and he had garnered both a commercial and a motion-picture offer by 1995. He played a goofy caller in an AT&T commercial, and he spent the summer of 1995 in New York shooting the movie The Pallbearer, which also starred Barbara Hershey and Carol Kane and was scheduled to open in the spring of 1996. Schwimmer said that he was deeply serious about his comic craft. "Friends" producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman contended that they hired Schwimmer "for his vulnerability. He's both emotional and smart." He brought these traits to his portrayal of Geller, who was arguably the most sensitive character on the show.

      Born in the New York City borough of Queens on Nov. 2, 1966, Schwimmer was raised by his parents—both prominent attorneys—in Los Angeles. He said that he could have used help fitting in at Beverly Hills High School, where he was a self-proclaimed "fat, ugly geek." By the time he entered the theatre department of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1984, he was a 1.9-m, 79-kg (6-ft 2-in, 175-lb) heartthrob, and he found inspiration and success on the Chicago stage. In his junior year he mounted an off-campus production of Alice in Wonderland that eventually led to the launching of the Lookingglass Theater Company, which Schwimmer cofounded with seven other Northwestern alumni following graduation in 1988. After commuting between Chicago and Los Angeles for a time, Schwimmer decided to concentrate on achieving success in Hollywood. He landed several small parts on television shows such as "The Wonder Years," "Monty," and "NYPD Blue" before being successfully cast in "Friends." He found friendship in the cast of "Friends" as well, all of whom considered Schwimmer to be the one they would go to in a crisis because "he's real easy to talk to. He cares." It seemed that despite the stereotype that most generation-Xers led a disconnected existence, Schwimmer was one who had found his niche. (SARA N. BRANT)

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