Jerry Stiller

Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American comedian and actor. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015. Stiller saw a late-career resurgence starting in 1993, playing Frank Costanza on the sitcom Seinfeld, a part which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 1998, Stiller began his role as Arthur Spooner on the CBS comedy series The King of Queens, another role that garnered widespread acclaim.

Stiller appeared together with his son Ben Stiller in films such as Zoolander, Heavyweights, Hot Pursuit, The Heartbreak Kid, and Zoolander 2. He also performed voice-over work for films and television, including The Lion King 1½ and Planes: Fire and Rescue. In his later career, Stiller became known for portraying grumpy and eccentric characters who were nevertheless beloved.

Early life

The eldest of four children, Gerald Isaac Stiller was born on June 8, 1927, at Unity Hospital in New York City, to Bella (née Citron; 1902–1954) and William Stiller (1896–1999), a taxi and bus driver. His family is Jewish. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Galicia (southeast Poland and western Ukraine), and his mother was born in Frampol, in modern-day eastern Poland. He lived in the Williamsburg and East New York neighborhoods of Brooklyn before his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he attended Seward Park High School and played Adolf Hitler in a school production.