Jerry Stiller

2000 Recipient

Currently, Jerry Stiller stars as “Arthur” on the CBS series “King of Queens”. From 1993-1998 he appeared as Frank Costanza in the NBC hit series Seinfeld. In that role, he was nominated for a 1997 Emmy Award and won the 1998 American Comedy Award for ‘Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a Television Series’.

Jerry is also well known as half of the husband and wife comedy team, Stiller and Meara. Jerry and Anne were part of David Shepherd’s improvisational group The Compass Players (which later became Second City). He and Anne created their own comedy act at David Gorton’s Phase II in Greenwich Village. They went on to play a record breaking fourteen weeks at Max Gordon’s Blue Angel. Stiller and Meara have played every major nightclub in the United States as well as The Establishment in London. They also appeared approximately thirty-six times on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Jerry made his legit debut in The Silver Whistle with Burgess Meredith and appeared with Lawrence Tibbett and Veronica Lake in the National Company of Peter Pan. T. Edward Hambleton and Norris Houghton cast him as a resident in the first two seasons at the Phoenix Theater, where he appeared in The Golden Apple and later Coriolanous for John Housman. He worked again for Mr. Housman at the Stratford Festival.

Broadway has seen Jerry in Hurlyburly, directed by Mike Nichols, The Ritz, Passione, The Golden Apple, Unexpected Guests, Three Men on a Horse (with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman), What’s Wrong with this Picture? and The Three Sisters.

Jerry toured the boroughs in the first season of Joe Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. He created the role of Launce in John Guare’s musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona. He last appeared with the Festival as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. At Lincoln Center, he appeared in David Mamet’s Prairie Du Chien for Greg Mosher. He played Bourbouroche for Walt Witcover’s Masterwork Laboratory Theater. At the Guthrie, Jerry played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. He played opposite his daughter Amy Stiller at the John Drew Theater in I Ought to be in Pictures. He again worked with Amy in Beau Jest at the Westport and Cape Playhouses. Jerry starred with his wife Anne Meara in Anne’s award winning play, After-Play, at Theater Four. Jerry and Anne also toured After-Play, at Westport and the Cape to record breaking houses.

Shoeshine, which starred Jerry and his son Ben Stiller, was nominated for an Academy Awards in the 1988 Short Subject Category. Other film appearances include The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three, Those Lips-Those Eyes, Airport ’75, Nadine, The Ritz, Hairspray and The Pickle. Jerry recently appeared in the HBO film Subway Stories and he and Anne starred in the Joan Micklin Silver film, The Fish in the Bathtub. He recently completed shooting the feature, The Independent.

On Television, Jerry won praise as the charlatan psychoanalyst, Dr. Tamkin, opposite Robin Williams , in a PBS Great Performance of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day. He appeared in The Hollow Boy and The Detective. Viewers may also recall his role as the Devil’s Advocate in Tales form the Darkside and on the series Joe and Sons and Tattinger’s. Jerry has guest starred on Murder She Wrote, Law & Order, LA Law, In The Heat of the Night, Homicide and Touched by an Angel.

He and Anne have written, performed and produced award winning radio commercials for Blue Nun Wine, United Van Lines and Amalgamated Bank among others. He also appeared as Vince Lombardi in Nike ad’s and in AT&T commercials with his “Sienfeld” wife Estelle Harris. Jerry and Anne host an informational video on the business of acting, entitled So You Want to be an Actor?

Jerry credits Professor Sawyer Falk at Syracuse and Esther Porter Lane at the Henry Street Playhouse as his mentors. He has taught at the Herbert Berghof Studio and studied with Uta Hagen. He holds at Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University.

The Lower Eastside Festival honored Jerry with the first annual George Burns Memorial Award and the Baltimore Film Festival honored him as a character actor with their “Biffy Award”. In October 1999 Jerry was the guest of honor for the annual roast by the New York Friars’ Club. The event, “The New York Friars’ Roast of Jerry Stiller” was broadcast on Comedy Central and received the highest rating for any program in the history of the network.

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