© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch PBS » | About WLRN TV » | TV Schedules » | Producing for WLRN »About WLRN Public TelevisionWLRN-TV Channel 17 is a PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) member station licensed to the School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida. During an average month, Channel 17 reaches over 600,000 TV households in the Miami - Ft. Lauderdale area with a viewing audience in four South Florida counties, from Palm Beach to Key West. WLRN is South Florida’s leading PBS Ready to Learn station airing thirteen hours of award-winning children’s programming daily. WLRN-TV also presents the best of the PBS nationally recognized series to compliment locally produced content. Our prime time schedule features an eclectic array of arts, performance, science, and WLRN original documentary specials to address the diverse interests of the South Florida community.Printable Monthly Schedules »WLRN Original DocumentariesProducing award winning original programs remains a high priority for WLRN. Take a closer look at some of the incredible stories that we have had the pleasure of producing for our South Florida viewers.Learn More »

Comedian Jerry Stiller, Who Played Hotheaded Dad On 'Seinfeld,' Dies At 92

Jerry Stiller performed in a comedy duo with his wife, Anne Meara, and also appeared in films and on Broadway and television. Onscreen, he was George Costanza's father; in real life, he was dad to actor Ben Stiller. He's pictured above in New York City in October 2008.
Brad Barket
/
Getty Images
Jerry Stiller performed in a comedy duo with his wife, Anne Meara, and also appeared in films and on Broadway and television. Onscreen, he was George Costanza's father; in real life, he was dad to actor Ben Stiller. He's pictured above in New York City in October 2008.

When Jerry Stiller told his father he wanted to become an actor, his father offered an alternate plan. He said, "Why don't you be a stagehand — that's like being on the stage — at least you'll be working every night," Stiller told Fresh Air in 1993.

Stiller did not heed his father's advice and went on to have a long career in show business. He performed comedy on stage and screen, and, in later years, made a name for himself playing George Costanza's hotheaded father on Seinfeld.Stiller died of natural causes, his son Ben Stiller tweeted Monday.

Stiller was born in Brooklyn in 1927. After serving in World War II, he teamed up with his wife, Anne Meara, to form the Stiller and Meara comedy duo — a practical move motivated by love. "We wanted to keep the marriage together," he joked — she was tall and Catholic, he was short and Jewish — and until they partnered up, "we never got jobs together," Stiller told the Archive of American Television.

Stiller and Meara enjoyed success as a duo for many years but eventually decided to pursue careers on their own. Looking back in 1993, Stiller told Fresh Air he and Meara were young parents juggling a show business schedule — and trying "to figure out a way to do everything."

"Here were a husband and wife working together and suddenly you're being asked to play Las Vegas," he recalled. "What do you do, pick up the two children and the nanny and go to Vegas and get ready to do the nightclub act?"

Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara pose on the set of <em>The King of Queens</em> in November 2003.
Stefano Paltera / AP
/
AP
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara pose on the set of The King of Queens in November 2003.

After stints on Broadway and on several TV shows in the 1970s, Stiller's most notable role came in the early '90s, when he joined the cast of Seinfeld.

Stiller said producer Larry David was looking for an actor who would "play it down" — and he did at first — but felt the approach wasn't working. So, in a final dress rehearsal in front of a live audience, Stiller played Costanza's temperament up — way up.

In a now-famous episode, the frequently furious Costanza is encouraged to recite the mantra "serenity now" every time he gets riled up. Stiller went on to earn an Emmy nomination for his work on Seinfeld. Years later, he played another angry dad on the show King of Queens.

Stiller was also a father in real life, but not one fueled by anger. His son, actor Ben Stiller, told NPR that his dad was always supportive — and hilarious.

"He just can't help but be funny because he's so committed to being who he is," Stiller said.

The father and son appeared together in Ben's Zoolandermovies.

When Meara died in 2015, she and Stiller had been married for more than 60 years.

Ben Stiller said his mother's humor tended to be dark, but his father's was always intended to bring joy, and perhaps a bit of "serenity now," to others.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Alex Cohen is the reporter for NPR's fastest-growing daily news program, Day to Day where she has covered everything from homicides in New Orleans to the controversies swirling around the frosty dessert known as Pinkberry.
More On This Topic