Born on July 8, 1944 in San Francisco, California, Jeffrey Tambor was educated at San Francisco State University, where he studied acting and Wayne State University, where he earned his masters degree. He began acting in Repertory Theater and later moved on to television, appearing on shows such as Taxi, Kojak, Mash, Three's Company and The Ropers. He also did television advertisements.
Tambor later starred in The Larry Sanders Show as the egocentric sidekick, Hank Kingsley, a role which earned him four Emmy nominations. In 2003, he worked on Arrested Development as twin brothers, roles which earned him two more Emmy nominations. In 2002, he became part of the game show Hollywood Squares and worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as the voice of Neptune. In 2005, he headed to Broadway to work on Glengarry Glen Ross.
In 2006, Tambor appeared in the short-lived NBC series, Twenty Good Years and a year later, worked on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd. In 2007, he was cast for the role of Saul in the CBS series, Welcome to the Captain.
In talking about the show Twenty Good Years, Tambor said in an interview with Cinema Blend, "It is about growing old and fearing that your life isn’t as full as it could be, but it’s also about the nature of friendship, something that is completely part of the human condition at every age. This kind of imperfectability of friendship and relationships. You have to accept things in another person to have a long friendship. It’s an unfathomable subject for either drama or comedy and that’s the best kind of comedy. To give you an example, last week’s episode was about one friend being jealous of the other. That is just a fantastic subject. These writers, we have this staff of writers who are ready, willing and able to go into these areas and treat them in a comic way but also with a degree of wisdom and always with a measure of reality."
Uncle Saul of CBS' Welcome to the Captain is played by Jeffrey Tambor. Uncle Saul is a former Three's Company writer who resides at the fabled Hollywood apartment building, El Capitan or The Captain. He an old gossiper, he claims to be an expert on anything and everything going on inside the building.
(Photo courtesy of CBS)