‘Seinfeld’ Actor Dead At 85

The legendary Long Island wrestling coach, best remembered for an iconic moment in the hit series “Seinfeld,” died at 85 this week.

Al Bevilacqua was laid to rest in his home borough of New York as students, fellow staff, and former high school athletes paid tribute to the man who they say imparted lifelong lessons on them.

“They’re telling me I only have 2 to 3 minutes to give a eulogy,” Christopher Bevilacqua, his son, said in an interview.

“I don’t know how you can describe his life in 2 or 3 minutes.”

Al Bevilacqua got his 15 minutes of fame when comedian Jerry Seinfeld famously dropped the name of his old high school coach during the “show about nothing,” which Michael Bevilacqua said his father never got around to watching.

“He would go, ‘Seinfeld’? What is that? A comedy?’” his other son said.

Those who remember Al say he was deserving of the spotlight but never sought it out. He coached Seinfeld’s hometown wrestling team for 15 years before heading to Hofstra University to pursue collegiate coaching in the 1970s.

He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012, the sport’s highest honor.

“Wrestling was really his vessel for who he was as a person,” Christopher said.

“He thought of himself first as an educator who was teaching kids and youth on the subject of life. … He had humanity about him, and his soul was all about, ‘How do I create better people?’ “

Seinfeld mentioned his old coach in the 1994 episode of his show titled “The Race,’‘ in which Jerry’s character attempts to redo a competition in high school where he admitted to getting an unfair head start.

“Mr. Bevilacqua” was called in to referee the rematch.

His son Michael recalled, “I was a contractor one time, I was in my bed with plans open, and ‘Seinfeld’ on in the back, and I go, ‘Did they just say Bevilacqua?’”

“Then my phone just started ringing.”

Al Bevilacqua said he remembered Jerry Seinfeld as “a nice kid,” his son added.

Another Hollywood star mentored by the wrestling legend was Billy Baldwin, who said Al Bevilacqua was “definitely a second father” to him in high school.

The Baldwin family, including his brother Alec, lived near the Bevilacquas on Long Island, and their father, Al Baldwin, worked with the wrestling coach at Massapequa High.

“We would have conversations that would lead to philosophical exchanges … and that would help to guide me,” Billy Baldwin recalled.

“He was the one for me, and he was the one for thousands of others.”