Monday, May 11, 2020

Jerry Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020)


Actor Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller's Dad, died early Monday morning on May 11, 2020 at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. 


Ben Stiller:
"I’m sad to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, passed away from natural causes. He was a great dad and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years. He will be greatly missed. Love you Dad."






Jerry Stiller's Biography


Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American comedian, actor, and author. He had spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, later playing George Costanza's father Frank, on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld and Arthur Spooner on the CBS comedy series The King of Queens. Stiller and Meara were the parents of actor Ben Stiller, with whom Stiller co-starred in the films Zoolander, Heavyweights, Hot Pursuit, The Heartbreak Kid and Zoolander 2. Stiller frequently played frantic and angry, yet contemplative and sympathetic characters.

Early life

The eldest of four children, Stiller was born at Unity Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, to Bella (née Citron) and William Stiller, a bus driver. His family is Jewish. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Poland, and his mother was born in Poland, in the town of Frampol. He lived in the Williamsburg and East New York neighborhoods before his family moved to the Lower East Side, where he attended Seward Park High School.

Upon his return from service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Stiller attended Syracuse University, earning a bachelor's degree in Speech and Drama in 1950. In the 1953 Phoenix Theater production of Coriolanus (produced by John Houseman) Stiller, along with Gene Saks and Jack Klugman formed (as told by Houseman in the 1980 memoir Front and Center) "the best trio of Shakespearian clowns that I have ever seen on any stage".

Jerry Stiller grew up during the Great Depression in New York City, and took to acting at a young age. He was an Syracuse University student who arrived on campus through the G.I. Bill. The bill provided benefits such as a college education to World War II veterans. Stiller joined the army the year before the war ended. After the war, Stiller began to pursue his acting career with a passion.

“During the Great Depression, when people laughed, their worries disappeared,” Stiller once said. “Audiences loved these funny men. I decided to become one.”

Sawyer Falk established a drama program at Syracuse University in 1927 and became the director of dramatic activities. He was an international figure in the drama field and the professor that Stiller would have as an essential mentor when he arrived on campus in 1947.


Jerry Stiller (center) is seated during a Boar’s Head Dramatic Society banquet in the late 1940s. He starred in many Boar’s Head productions including “Long Live Love” and “The Bourgeois Gentleman.” Photo: The Daily Orange


As a student, Stiller was highly involved in extracurriculars. He was a member of the Sigma Tau Rho professional speech fraternity and the Tau Delta Phi social fraternity. Throughout his three years at Syracuse University, he made a name for himself through comedy gigs around the city and on campus.

But the organization that truly shaped Stiller into an actor was the Boar’s Head Dramatic Society. Founded in 1904, Boar’s Head was known for its lavish production quality, always complete with an original score by a professor and costumes from New York costume firms.

Eric Grode, director of SU’s Goldring Arts Journalism program, said he had the honor of interviewing Stiller during his time as a freelance writer for The New York Times. Grode recalled that neither of them were in a hurry to get off the phone.

“I’ve been in the presence of people who are funny, and you watch them flip that switch, and you know like ‘showtime’ kind of mode,” Grode said. “But you get the impression with Jerry Stiller that he was just a funny guy who didn’t seem that hard to be funny. Like his kids said, it was pretty effortless.”

In 1953, Stiller met actor-comedian Anne Meara, and they married in 1954. Until Stiller suggested it, Meara had never thought of doing comedy. "Jerry started us being a comedy team," she said. "He always thought I would be a great comedy partner." They joined the Chicago improvisational company The Compass Players (which later became The Second City), and after leaving, began performing together. In 1961, they were performing in nightclubs in New York, and by the following year were considered a "national phenomenon", said the New York Times.

Stiller and Meara

The comedy team Stiller and Meara, composed of Stiller and wife, Anne Meara, was successful in the 1960s and 1970s, with numerous appearances on television variety programs, mainly on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their career declined as variety series gradually disappeared, but they subsequently forged a career in radio commercials, notably the campaign for Blue Nun wine. They starred in their own syndicated five-minute sketch comedy show, Take Five with Stiller and Meara (1977–1978). 

From 1979 to 1982, Stiller and Meara hosted HBO Sneak Previews, a half-hour show produced monthly on which they described the movies and programs to be featured in the coming month. They also did some comedy sketches between show discussions. The duo's own 1986 TV sitcom, The Stiller and Meara Show, in which Stiller played the deputy mayor of New York City and Meara portrayed his wife, a TV commercial actress, was not successful.

Resurgence

Seinfeld
Jerry Stiller played the short-tempered Frank Costanza, the father of George Costanza in the sitcom Seinfeld from 1993 to 1998. He was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1997, and won the American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a TV Series for his portrayal of Frank Costanza.

The King of Queens
After Seinfeld ended, Stiller had planned on retiring. Kevin James asked him to join the cast of The King of Queens. James, who played the leading role of Doug Heffernan, had told Stiller that he needed him in order to have a successful show. Stiller agreed, and played the role of Arthur Spooner, the father of Carrie Heffernan, from 1998 until 2007. Stiller said this role tested his acting ability more than any others have and that, before being a part of The King of Queens, he only saw himself as a "decent actor."

Other appearances
Stiller played himself in filmed skits, opening and closing Canadian rock band Rush's 30th Anniversary Tour concerts in 2004. These appearances are seen on the band's DVD R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour, released in 2005. Stiller later appeared in cameos in later in-concert films for the band's 2007–2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour. Stiller appeared on Dick Clark's $10,000 Pyramid show in the 1970s, and footage of the appearance was edited into an episode of The King of Queens to assist the storyline about his character being a contestant on the show, but that after losing, he was bitter about the experience as he never received his parting gift, a lifetime supply of "Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat". He also made several appearances on the game show Tattletales with his wife Anne.

In the late 1990s, Stiller appeared in a series of Nike television commercials as the ghost of deceased Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi. Stiller has appeared in various motion pictures, most notably Zoolander (2001) and Secret of the Andes (1999). On February 9, 2007, Stiller and Meara were honored with a joint star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On October 28, 2010, the couple appeared on an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stiller voiced the announcer on the children's educational show Crashbox. Starting in October 2010, Stiller and Meara began starring in a Yahoo web series, Stiller & Meara from Red Hour Digital, in which they discussed current topics. Each episode was about two minutes long. As of 2012, Stiller has been a spokesman for Xfinity.

Author
Stiller wrote the foreword to the book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us (ISBN 0-446-69674-9) by Allen Salkin, released on October 26, 2005. Stiller's memoir, Married to Laughter: A Love Story Featuring Anne Meara, was published by Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-86903-9.

Personal life
Stiller was married to Anne Meara from 1954 until her death on May 23, 2015. The two met in an agent's office. Anne was upset about an interaction with the casting agent, so Jerry took her out for coffee—all he could afford—and they were together ever since. Their son is actor-comedian Ben Stiller (born 1965) and their daughter is actress Amy Stiller (born 1961). He has two grandchildren through Ben.

Death
On May 11, 2020, Ben Stiller announced via Twitter that Jerry had died at age 92 of "natural causes".
Wikipedia / The Daily Orange



THEATER TALK presents an encore of our two-part interview with Ms. Meara with her husband and longtime partner, Jerry Stiller, who both together and separately have had long careers in all aspects of show business. The couple talks about the early days when they first came to national attention as a comedy team on TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, as well as their later years when they moved into successful and separate “legit” careers — Meara as an well-known actress and playwright and Stiller as an actor who appeared in many shows on Broadway and was a regular on the TV’s Seinfeld and The King of Queens.




Jerry Stiller and the late Anne Meara continue their 2011 conversation on THEATER TALK, discussing their six decades in show business, working both separately and together as the famed comedy team, Stiller & Meara (and as the parent of Ben Stiller).




Ben & Jerry Stiller On "Late Night With Conan O'Brien"
Original airdate: 06/14/96: Jerry Stiller gets very upset when his son, Ben, says he can’t make it to his "Late Night" interview.




Made in New York Awards- Ben Stiller and Amy Stiller present Lifetime Achievement Award to Parents 
MINI Awards in New York on Monday June 4, 2012.




Stiller & Meara on "What's My Line?"
Ben Stiller's folks are the Mystery Guests on this 1968 episode of WML. And listen closely as they even mention the future Movie Star at one point.




Jerry Stiller: The Untold Truth
Best known for playing the cantankerous Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, this veteran actor has been a constant presence on film and television screens since the late 1950s. But fans may still be surprised by how little they know about this TV icon and comedian. This is the untold truth of Jerry Stiller.




Jerry Seinfeld, Leah Remini & More Mourn Jerry Stiller
The comedy world is in mourning over the loss of Jerry Stiller. The comedy legend died at the age of 92 of natural causes, his son, Ben Stiller, announced on May 11. As the sad news spread, tributes poured in from many of Jerry’s famous co-stars, including "Seinfeld's" Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander and "King of Queen's" Kevin James and Leah Remini. "I will be forever grateful for the memories, the fatherly talks off screen and for the many years of laughter, the kindness he had shown to me and my family," Leah wrote in part. "You will be so very missed Jerry."




Best of Arthur Spooner | King of Queens 
 



Seinfeld | Frank Costanza






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