How Much You Wanna Bet Jon Gries Could Throw A Football Over Them Mountains?

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Lazlo Hollyfeld…Uncle Rico…Rusty The Homeless Guy on “Seinfeld”…one episode of “24″…that just scrapes the surface of the greatness of Jon Gries, who turned 51 years old today. He is a highly recognizable actor that I’m sure many of you recognize, but never knew his name. Here are some of my personal favorite Jon Gries performances.

• The majority of people familiar with Jon Gries know him simply as Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite”. This will be the role in which Jon will be remembered. This role needs no description or explanation. It is a performance so amazing…I will invent a word to describe it: Superawesomefantabulous.
• Jon also appeared in two episodes of “Seinfeld” as Rusty. You may recall him picking up George’s toupee off the sidewalk and wearing it. There is a better chance that you remember Rusty stealing Kramer’s rickshaw. There hasn’t been a better performance from a man pulling a rickshaw in recorded human history.
• Jon also went toe to toe with some heavyweights in “Get Shorty”. His character, Ronnie, was lucky enough to have been called a “f***ball” by Dennis Farina. There really isn’t more of an honor an actor could have bestowed upon them.
• Jon’s performance in one episode of the second season of “24″ was…well…I don’t remember it. I’m sure it was decent enough though.
• When your character is fortunate enough to be killed in an episode of “Lost”, you have reached a level of pop culture awareness only attainable by others such as…such as…some other actors that have had brief appearances on “Lost”. Jon played Ben’s dad and died a horrible death due to poison gas.
• Lazlo Hollyfeld. “Real Genius”. That is all.

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Tags: Happy Birthday!, Jon Gries, Napoleon Dynamite, Real Genius, Seinfeld