As Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, Jerry Stiller was nominated for a 1997 Emmy
Award and won the 1998 American Comedy Award for 'Funniest Male Guest
Appearance in a Television Series'. He currently stars as "Arthur" on the
CBS series, King of Queens.
As Stiller and Meara, Jerry and his wife, Anne were part of The Compass
Players (which later became Second City). They then went off on their own,
creating their own comedy act at David Gordon's Phase II in Greenwich
Village, then on to record breaking engagements at Max Gordon's Blue Angel
and The Village Vanguard. They toured the country playing Mr. Kelly's, The
Hungry i, The Crescendo, The Flamingo, The Sands, working with Count Basie,
The original Supremes, Billy Eckstine, Dianne Carroll. They performed at
The Establishment in London. And appeared thirty-six times on the Ed
Sullivan Show.
Broadway has seen Jerry in Hurlyburly, directed by Mike Nichols, The Ritz,
Passlone, The Golden Apple, Unexpected Guests, Three Men on a Horse
(with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman), What's Wrong with This Picture? and
Chekhov's The Three Sisters.
Jerry toured the five boroughs in Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival.
He created the role of Launce in John Guare's and Galt McDermott's musical
version of Two Gentlemen of Verona and appeared as Dogberry in Much Ado
About Nothing with Kevin Kline and Blythe Danner. At Lincon Center, Jerry
appeared in David Mamet's Prairie Du Chien for Greg Mosher. He played
Bourbouroche for Walt Witcover's Masterwork Labratory Theatre. Jerry
played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls in the first musical at the Guthrie
Theatre. He played opposite his daughter Amy in I Ought to be in Pictures
and Beau Jest on the Straw Hat Circuit and starred with Anne in her
award winning play, After-Play, at Theatre Four.
Shoeshine, which starred Jerry and his son Ben Stiller, was nominated for
an Academy Award in the 1998 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 appeared in
the HBO film Subway Stories and he and Anne starred in the Joan Micklin
Silver film, The Fish in the Bathtub. His most recent feature film
is The Independent opposite Jeaneane Garafolo.
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 directed by Fielder Cook and produced by Robert Geller. He also
appeared in The Hollow Boy again for Mr. Geller. He and Anne starred together
in The Detective (part of The Sunset Gang on American Playhouse).
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 ads and in AT&T
commercials with his "Seinfeld" wife, Estelle Harris. Jerry and Anne host
an informational video on the business of acting, entitled So You Want To
Be An Actor? Jerry has performed for Isiah ShefferUs Selected Shorts
series, heard on Public Radio reading John Sayle's At The Anarchist's
Convention, and S.J. Perelman's Eine Kleine Mothmusik.
Jerry credits Professor Sawyer Falk at Syracuse University 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 a Bachelor
of Science in Speech and Drama from Syracuse University.
Recently, Jerry was honored with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In
October 1999 The New York Friar's Club honored Jerry Stiller. The televised
event received the highest ratings for any program in the history of the
Comedy Central Network.
Jerry's autobiography, Married to Laughter is published by Simon and
Schuster and the audio version of the book, read by Jerry, was released by
Random House. It has been nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best
Spoken Word Album in the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards.
| |
Copyright © 2001, Stiller & Meara Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Web Site Design by
Dave Downin
|