Though he was acting on stage and television for years, John O’Hurley didn’t become a household name until 1995, when his signature character, J. Peterman, the pompous, effusive and foolhardy catalogue clothier (based in name only on the real thing), made his debut on the popular sitcom “Seinfeld” (NBC, 1989-1998). Speaking in flowery prose, much like the real J. Peterman catalogue, O’Hurley’s character—once described as cross between “[a] mock detective from 1940’s radio and a bad Charles Kurault”—entered the cultural zeitgeist and became part of television history. Though always possessing
