If you ask me, Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of the wittiest, funniest sitcoms ever made. Part of what makes Curb so great is the dynamic between Cheryl Hines and Larry David.
The heat and affectionate tension between these two, as well as the sly lines to one another, are as good as any nighttime cop or lawyer drama.
Cheryl spent years working her way up the acting ranks before achieving success on television – but lately, the focus has been on her marriage to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and her meeting with Fidel Castro…
Today, Cheryl is probably best known for her role as Larry David’s long-suffering wife on the HBO television series Curb Your Enthusiasm.
As a Hollywood star, Cheryl has earned a fair amount of money, and she’s also part of a clan embraced as “American royalty” via her marriage to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
But the truth is that Cheryl fought hard for her place in the entertainment industry.
Born September 21, 1965, in Miami Beach, Florida, she was raised a Catholic and grew up in Tallahassee. There wasn’t much money in the household, but Cheryl, her sister, and her two brothers were expected to attend college and be successful.
As a child, Cheryl developed a love for acting – she was a member of the Young Actors Theatre throughout high school. In retrospect, Cheryl said that much of her comedic streak came from her father, James Hines.
“He was definitely my first exposure to comedy, and what it meant to be funny. He was quick-witted with his own set of phrases and made us laugh until the end,” Cheryl said after her father’s passing in 2015.
After graduating from the University of Central Florida, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. But it wasn’t easy for the ambitious, young actress from Tallahassee. Before her break in Hollywood, she made a living as a waitress, television reporter, and telephone operator.
For a brief period, she was also Rob Reiner’s personal assistant.
Trying to make a name for herself in L.A., she spent her days as an unpaid intern going through headshots.
During that time, Cheryl got a first-hand experience of the cynical nature of Hollywood. One female boss even told her to “get a boob job”, otherwise she wouldn’t have any chance of succeeding in the industry.
“At that time, I hadn’t even thought about it — and it did not seem like it was necessary,” she said. “I went home and started thinking about all the actresses that I really admired and whether breast size had anything to do with it. Like: ‘Goldie Hawn doesn’t have big ones,’” Cheryl told Yahoo.
Finally, Cheryl decided not to go under the knife because she wasn’t ”dying to be on Baywatch.”
Cheryl’s career started taking off after she began performing improvisational comedy and sketches at The Groundlings Theater.
Friends star Lisa Kudrow (Pheobe) was also a member of the Groundlings comedy troupe and became Cheryl’s first teacher. The Groundlings was a great school, and Cheryl learned a lot about improvising and writing comedy sketches.
Until Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl had only done really small roles and guest appearances on the television Swamp Thing and Unsolved Mysteries.
It’s no understatement to say that Cheryl was totally unknown in Hollywood when Larry David came along. He was looking for an ”unknown actress” to play his wife in the series.
Landing the role of ‘Cheryl’ in the popular sitcom changed her life – but back then, in 2000, Cheryl had no clue about who Larry was.
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