Samuel L. Jackson worked the overnight security shift at Manhattan Plaza, the New York building where Larry David lived, in the late 1970s while he was still pursuing acting roles. The building also counted Angela Lansbury and Tennessee Williams among its residents.
Jackson worked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., fitting the job around his work in theater. Recalling those shifts in 2017, he described an earlier phase of the building’s history: “It was a construction site. The people hadn’t moved in yet.”
TV writer and producer Jim Vallely remembered feeling “very safe” with Jackson on security duty. His recollection appears in Blake J. Harris’s book Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David.
Vallely’s own television career includes work on The Golden Girls, Arrested Development and Two and a Half Men.
Jackson described working in Hell’s Kitchen as “a very vivid New York education.” His critical breakthrough came years later, playing Gator Purify in the 1991 film Jungle Fever.