Pat Finn was a beloved character actor and one of his most memorable roles was on Seinfeld.
Finn appeared in the season 9 episode titled “The Reverse Peephole,” which aired in 1998. Finn played the group’s friend Joe Mayo. In the episode, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and George (Jason Alexander) are looking for a housewarming present for Joe and the trio decide on a massage chair.
George decides he wants to save a few bucks, so he buys the piece of furniture from Delaware. However, the chair does not arrive in time for Joe’s party, so the group shows up empty-handed.
While at the get-together, Elaine becomes in charge of the coats after being embarrassed by on-and-off boyfriend David Puddy’s (Patrick Warburton) fur coat. Elaine secretly throws out the fur coat but later learns it was actually Joe’s coat that she tossed. Joe demands that Elaine get him a new jacket.
Following the party, the massage chair is delivered to George’s house by mistake. George is suffering from back pain so he delays giving his friend his gift so he can use it instead.
As Elaine is figuring out how to get Joe’s coat back to him, Kramer (Michael Richards) tells her that Newman (Wayne Knight) found the piece of clothing. Elaine goes to Newman to try to convince him to give her the coat but he had already given the item to the wife of their landlord, Silvio (Jon Polito), whom Newman was having an affair with.
Silvio later learns about the affair and threatens to evict Newman and Kramer over it. Kramer attempts to save himself by telling Silvio the coat belongs to Jerry. After Jerry goes along with the ruse, Elaine finds him wearing Joe’s coat and asks him why he is wearing the item. Silvio then believes Joe is responsible for the affair and vows to get revenge on him. The episode ends with Silvio ambushing Joe with a sock of pennies.
Before landing the role, Finn and his wife, Donna, were big fans of the comedy. During a 2021 interview with “This Podcast is Making Me Thirsty,” Finn shared that Seinfeld was playing on the TV when Donna gave birth to their daughter long before he would appear on the series. (The couple share three kids.)
“[Our daughter] was born and Seinfeld was on in the room. So we always knew it was like eight o’clock or whatever. We knew cause Seinfeld was on,” he recalled.
When Finn appeared on the show years later, he gushed about how welcomed he felt by the cast.
“When I was done with the scene, I’d go over to this table in the middle where they had magazines and newspapers and I just stayed there one so I could listen and kind of learn from their rehearsal,” he explained. “And the other [reason] was in case they needed me and I wasn’t too far away so they wouldn’t think I was a snotty actor. The cast would gradually come [over] like Jason sat down.”
Finn added that when someone would sit with him they would get to know him.
“It was so nice because they didn’t have to but to be welcomed into any group is nice, especially that group,” he recalled. “You especially want them to be nice because you put them on such a high pedestal.”
Finn died on Tuesday, December 24, following a battle with cancer. He was 60.
“It is with profound sadness and grief that the Finn family announces the passing of beloved comedic actor, Pat Finn,” Finn’s rep said in a statement to the New York Post. “In 2022, Pat battled bladder cancer, went into remission, but the cancer returned and metastasized. He was a warrior in every sense of the word.”
TMZ reported that Finn passed away at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by his family. The actor is survived by wife Donna and their three children.
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