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Jerry Stiller, who played two of the most outrageous parents on American television in comedies Seinfeld and The king of queens, He died at 92, his son Ben Stiller said on Twitter on Monday.
“It saddens me to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, passed away from natural causes,” wrote Ben, a Hollywood comedian who appeared with his father in Zoolander and other movies.
“He was a great father and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years. You will be greatly missed. I love you dad ”, he added.
Jerry Stiller was part of a comedy team from the 1960s with his wife Anne Meara. But she was in her 60s when she got what would become her acting role: Frank Costanza, father of George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) Seinfeld, a tense and bombastic man always on the verge of apoplexy.
In 1993, Stiller thought his entertainment career was coming to an end when he received a phone call from Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld about joining the cast led by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
The show, one of the most respected in American television history, was in its fourth season at the time, but Stiller said he had never seen a minute and had to ask, “Who is Seinfeld?”
He was acting in a play at the time and had to turn down the television job. Stiller had another shot on the role a few months later and took it.
Stiller was only 26 out of 172 Seinfeld episodes, but each appearance was memorable, whether he shouted “serenity now!” in a tense situation, trying on a bra for men or explaining the strange rituals of Festivus, the holiday of December 23 that he established as an alternative to Christmas.
Stiller said he was originally told to play Frank in a meek and discreet manner in contrast to the character’s raucous and shrill wife. However, a few days later, Stiller responded to one of the wife’s protests with an impromptu tirade of his own, and the producers and cast of the show liked it.
“And from that day on, it was the best years of my life as an actor because I worked with people who were the most generous actors in the world,” Stiller said in an interview with the American Television Archive.
Ben Stiller and Jerry Stiller in a scene from ‘Zoolander’. Photo: Filepic
Seinfeld he finished his nine-year career in 1998 and that same year Stiller moved to another role as a comedy father in The king of queens. Like Arthur Spooner, he played another weirdo, though not as eruptive as Frank Costanza, who lived in the basement of the home of his daughter (played by Leah Remini) and her husband (Kevin James) during the show’s nine seasons.
Stiller was born and raised in New York, inspired by comedian Eddie Cantor and the vaudeville shows he saw with his father, a bus driver.
After serving in the US Army. In the US, Stiller studied theater at Syracuse University and then looked for acting jobs. He was working with a female comedian when he met Meara in 1953 at an agent’s office. They were married a few months later.
Stiller and Meara worked together at the comedy company Compass Players before forming their own team. In the 1960s, they had become a popular comedy duo on American television and appeared 36 times on The Ed Sullivan Show. His act included parodies such as an interview with the biblical Jonah after his encounter with the whale and parodies of television commercials.
Much of her humor was based on marriage and focused on height (Stiller was 5 feet 4 inches, Meara was considerably taller) and ethnicity (she was Jewish, she was of Irish heritage).
“Our marriage has lasted because we have the same feelings of insecurity for being actors. We needed stability, “Stiller told the New York Daily News in 2012.
File photo: Brother and sister Amy (2nd L) and Ben Stiller (2nd R) pose for photos at a ceremony in which their parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara are honored with a star on the Walk of Fame of Hollywood in Los Angeles, California on February 9, 2007. Photo: Reuters
In the early 1970s, Stiller and Meara began working separately. She made the cinema Those outside the cities and Lovers and other strangers and I had a year long career starring in the TV show Kate McShane. He did some Broadway jobs and appeared in movies including Airport 1975 and The taking of Pelham One Two Three.
Meara died in 2015 at the age of 85.
Stiller also had roles in the 1998 and 2007 film versions. Hair spray and appeared in movies starring son Ben as Zoolander and The heartbreak boy.
Stiller and Meara’s daughter Amy is also an actress. – Reuters
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