(updated below)

There's no way of knowing what actors are really like, no matter how long we've been watching them or how many roles we've seen them play. But still, it's always a shock to find out someone is a virulent racist. Especially when it's Cosmo Kramer.

Watch Michael Richards go insane:



As Salon commented, it makes scenes like this one a lot less funny in retrospect.


UPDATE:

Over at Steve Gilliard's blog, one of his commenters weighs in with some industry experience and really breaks down Richards' outburst.