Although best known to audiences as the wife of Jerry Stiller and mother of Ben, Anne Meara was an accomplished actor, writer and comedian. She died on Saturday at the age of 85.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Meara got her performing start in summer stock before breaking into television with The Philco Television Playhouse and short-lived soap The Greatest Gift in 1954. She met Jerry Stiller at an audition and they married in 1954, but though their personal and professional lives have long since become intertwined, they didn’t kick off their joint career until 1959, touring with a comic revue. Playing the club circuit got them noticed by talk show host Ed Sullivan, who had them on his show many times. Their brand of affectionate comedy mined their marriage for truthful laughs and poignant stories.
As a couple, they were also members of the improv company The Compass players, a precursor to The Second City, and found many other opportunities to work together and with the rest of their family including Ben and sister Amy Stiller, also an actor.
Meara’s long and successful career took in TV, movies and the stage, including such films as** The Out-Of-Towners**, The Boys From Brazil, Awakenings, Highway To Hell, The Daytrippers, Southie, A Fish In The Bathtub and Zoolander. On the small screen, she earned four Emmy nominations for varied work that included both writing and performing. She appeared in shows as distinct as Oz, Archie Bunker’s Place, Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order and The King Of Queens. On stage, she was Tony nominated for Anna Christie, and appeared in Eastern Standard, Down The Garden Paths and After-Play, which she also wrote. In 2007, she and Stiller shared a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
She’s survived by Jerry, Ben, Amy, daughter-in-law Christine Taylor and two grandchildren.