‘No soup for you!’ Soup Nazi actor to appear in Tacoma this month. You can meet him

Larry Thomas has no problem facing a camera or a fan and bellowing, “No soup for you!” It’s the signature line from a now classic character, Soup Nazi, he played on an episode of the long-running sitcom, “Seinfeld.”

“I appreciate the Soup Nazi so much because there was no knowledge of what would have happened with the rest of my life if I hadn’t done it,” he said in a telephone interview with The News Tribune.

Thomas will appear with fans on Saturday, May 18 at — where else? — Tacoma’s Infinite Soups for autographs and photos. It’s a fundraiser for All For Meow, a new cat sanctuary under construction in Yelm.

Thomas, 67, grew up in Southern California. He still lives in Van Nuys. He isn’t retired, he’ll quickly tell you, even if he is collecting Social Security.

“A couple of years ago I was dead,” he said, letting the incongruity sink in. “There were ‘RIP Larry Thomas’ (on social media) and I had to answer each one and go, ‘No, I’m very much alive.’”

Thomas fell in to acting. He was majoring in journalism in college when, “I kind of followed a girl into an acting class and caught what they call ‘the bug’.”

‘Seinfeld’

Thomas was already a seasoned actor and fan of Jerry Seinfeld’s “show about nothing” when he auditioned for the Soup Nazi role in 1995.

All he knew about the militant character was that he sold soup and had a Middle Eastern accent. On a whim, he decided to wear a military uniform to the audition.

“But the funniest part about it was once I put it on, I looked so much like Saddam Hussein that my (now) ex-wife put a beret on my head,” Thomas said. He completed the character by imitating Egyptian actor Omar Sharif’s accent.

Thomas knew he had nailed the part the day it was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Then, came even more validation when he was nominated for an Emmy award for the part.

Typecast

While he’s never considered Soup Nazi a burden, Thomas acknowledges that’s it probably got him typecast in subsequent roles. In 2003, he was cast as a convenience store owner in a “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” episode.

“(The director) said, try some kind of a Middle Eastern (accent),” Thomas recounted. “And the producer next to him just literally elbowed him and he said, did you look at his resume? And he looks at the resume and says, ‘Oh, wow, you’re the Soup Nazi. OK, don’t do a Middle Eastern.’”

Although Thomas has 72 credits on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB), what’s he most proud of isn’t on there.

On the boards with Barbara Eden

For about three years in the early 2000s, Thomas acted in what he calls the highlight of his career in the traveling stage version of “The Odd Couple, Female Version” with actors Barbara Eden (“I Dream of Jeannie”), Allyce Beasley (“Moonlighting”) and Georgia Engel (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”).

He calls the 45-city tour a culmination of a dream from his earliest acting days.

“From the very first day I took an acting class, I’d be a gypsy actor tramping around the country, entertaining audiences in different cities, especially with comedy,” he said.

The “Odd Couple” cast finished rehearsing just days before Sept. 11, 2001.

“We sat around calling each other ... wondering, are we actually going to do this? Are we going to take it on the road right after 9/11? Trying to make people laugh with a silly comedy?” he recalled.

They did, and it turned out audiences needed to laugh in a time when the country was still dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

“We actually experienced the TSA regulations being born,” he said. “Can you imagine Barbara Eden standing there with her arms out being wanded down? And people are crowding around going, ‘Barbara, can we take a picture with you?’”

Soup Nazi’s second helping

While Eden might have been garnering attention, Thomas was only occasionally recognized in public for his roles as the Soup Nazi, the casino dealer in the original “Austin Powers” film, and other roles.

“There wasn’t any big Soup Nazi hoopla (in 2001),” he said. “It was only a couple of years off the air and they were still selling it in syndication, but nobody suspected it was going to be the multi-generational phenomenon that it has since become.”

Thanks to reruns, new generations of fans and, of course, social media, Thomas and his Soup Nazi character are more popular than ever, he said.

When he makes public appearances, like the one he’s making Saturday in Tacoma, he rarely wears the chef’s uniform he wore on “Seinfeld.”

“It might scare people away if you want me to wear a costume,” he said. “But if it’s just me, people love to ask about the show, how I got the part.”

‘Unfrosted’

Soup Nazi was, of course, a character created by Jerry Seinfeld. For years, Thomas had no idea what Seinfeld thought of him making a side living by appearing as Soup Nazi and recording paid videos for Cameo.

“During the pandemic, I was recording like 25, maybe 30, a day,” he said of Cameo. “So all I was doing was just sitting at my desk doing one Cameo after the other. But the money was just like rolling in.”

Thomas got up the nerve to email Seinfeld and thank him for giving Thomas the most lucrative year of his career.

“I got back the nicest reply from him,” Thomas said. “He basically said I’m so glad that performance on my show is still serving you. So I realized for the first time in like 20 years or so that he was OK with that, and happy for me.”

Seinfeld released his latest movie, “Unfrosted,” on Netflix May 3. The movie is about breakfast cereal and Pop Tarts — a subject perhaps only Seinfeld could successfully make a comedy about.

As part of the movie’s promotion, Thomas was asked to reprise his Soup Nazi character in a short film. He appears with Ali Wentworth (“Schmoopie”) and Phil Morris (“Jackie Chiles”) in a glass box. The gag is that Seinfeld’s characters have been taken from him by an aggrieved cereal CEO.

“You got to appreciate being one of three of all the people they could have used,” he said.

Soup

Thomas is neither embarrassed nor compelled to order soup when he’s out dining.

“If there’s a good-looking soup, I’ll always give it a try,” he said.

His favorite? New England clam chowder. He included a recipe for it in his 2014 autobiography, “Confessions of a Soup Nazi.” His secret: Extra clams, no bacon.

“Everybody loves the taste (of bacon.) I think it’s just put on way too many things,” he said.

On Saturday, he probably won’t be ladling any soup for fans. Unlike his character, he’s not good at it.

“When we did the (‘Seinfeld’) episode I was more nervous about making sure I ladled the soup into the cup, without a lot of spillage, than almost anything else,” he recalled.

If you go

What: Meet actor Larry Thomas. Includes autographed photo and selfie.

When: Noon-5 p.m. Sat., May 18

Where: Infinite Soups, 445 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma.

Cost: $60

Information and tickets: allformeow.com/