Jerry Stiller

Jerry Stiller wasn't born yelling, but he spent half his life doing it in front of a camera. In 1927 he came into the world in Brooklyn, and no one suspected that the son of a bus driver would become the face of the most profitable bad mood on American television.

His childhood during the Great Depression shaped a dry wit and a constant need to find the humor in tragedy. After serving in the army during World War II, he decided that his place was on the New York stage.

The Roar of an Eternal Supporting Actor

In 1953, he met Anne Meara at a casting office. She was a tall Catholic woman of Irish descent. He was a short, nervous Jewish man. That physical contrast was the engine of their success in the city's nightclubs.

They formed the comedy duo Stiller and Meara. During the 1960s, they appeared more than thirty times on The Ed Sullivan Show. But live comedy began to lose ground to taped productions, and the couple had to make a living separately.

And the gamble paid off.

Jerry Stiller spent the years 70 and 80 working in supporting roles in film and theater. He appeared in the original version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three in 1974 and in Hairspray in 1988. But his big break would not come until he was past sixty.

Reinvention from the Living Room

In 1993, he received a call to join Seinfeld. The role of Frank Costanza was designed to be a calm man dominated by his wife. Stiller read the script and decided it wasn't going to work.

During filming, he started yelling his lines with absurd fury. That creative decision saved his career and gave him a new professional life that would last for decades. In 1997 he received his only Emmy nomination for this work.

But the actor did not stop there.

Right after finishing Seinfeld in 1998, he accepted the role of Arthur Spooner in The King of Queens. Kevin James personally asked him to join the cast. He worked on the series for nine seasons, appearing in a total of 206 episodes through 2007.

The Family Business and the Final Silence

His relationship with his son Ben Stiller also carried over to the screen. In 2001, he played agent Maury Ballstein in Zoolander. It was not a family favor, but a necessary piece for the film's satirical tone.

He reprised the same role in 2016 for the film's sequel. It was his last credited big-screen appearance before he retired from public life for good.

Stiller published his memoir, titled Married to Laughter, in 2000. In the book, he detailed how his marriage to Anne Meara survived the pressures of the industry for more than sixty years.

Jerry Stiller died on May 11, 2020, at his home in Manhattan. He was 92 years old, and the medical report certified that his death was due to natural causes.