Is anne meara still alive

American comedian and actress (–)

Anne Meara
Meara in
Born	()September 20, New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 23, () (aged&#;85) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupations
Years&#;active	–
Spouse
Children	2, including Ben

Anne Meara (September 20, – May 23, ) was an American comedian and actress.

Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller. She was also featured on stage, on television, and in numerous films and later became a playwright. During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and she won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the television movie The Other Woman.

Early years

Meara was born on September 20, , in Brooklyn, New York City,^[1] to Mary (née Dempsey)^[1] and Edward Joseph Meara, a corporate lawyer for American Standard.^[2] Both of her parents were of Irish descent.^[3] An only child, she was raised in Rockville Centre, New York, on Long Island.

When Anne was 11 years old, her mother committed suicide.^[1]

When she was 18, Meara spent a year studying acting at the Dramatic Workshop at The New School and at HB Studio^[4] under Uta Hagen in Manhattan. The following year, in , she began her career as an actress in summer stock.^[1]

Career

Comedy team

Meara met actor-comedian Jerry Stiller in , and they married soon after.

Until he suggested it, she had never thought of doing comedy.

Anne meara biography All All. Sign In. Anne Meara Actress Producer Writer. Play trailer Southie The incredibly gifted comedienne-actress Anne Meara is known for her comedic efforts alongside husband-comedian, Jerry Stiller ; together, they were 'Stiller and Meara'; they were original members of the improvisational company, the Compass Players, which later evolved as the Second City Theater.

"Jerry started us being a comedy team," she said. "He always thought I would be a great comedy partner."^[1] They joined the Chicago improvisational company The Compass Players (which later became The Second City) and, after leaving, formed the comedy team of Stiller and Meara. She debuted off-Broadway in in Ulysses in Nighttown, based on the work by James Joyce.

In , she and Stiller were performing in nightclubs in New York and by the following year were considered a "national phenomenon", said the New York Times.^[1]

Their often improvised comedy routines brought many relationship foibles to live audiences. Their skits focused on domestic themes, as did Nichols and May, another comedy team from the Chicago Compass Players project during that period.

"They were Nichols and May without the acid and with warmth," notes author Lawrence Epstein.^[5] They also added a new twist to their comedy act, he adds, by sometimes playing up the fact that Stiller was Jewish and Meara was Catholic.^[6] After Nichols and May broke up as a team in , Stiller and Meara were the number-one couple comedy team by the late s.

And as Mike Nichols and Elaine May were not married, Stiller and Meara became the most famous married couple comedy team since Burns and Allen.^[7]

After some years honing the act, Stiller and Meara became regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show, with 36 appearances,^[7] and other TV programs, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

They released their first LP in , Presenting America's New Comedy Sensation: Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Live at The Hungry I, which became a hit. By , however, they broke up their act because it was affecting their marriage: "I didn't know where the act ended and our marriage began," complained Meara in ^[7] Stiller agreed, fearing, "I would have lost her as a wife."^[7]

Television, stage, film, and video

During the s, Meara and Stiller wrote and performed many radio commercials for Blue Nun Wine.

In , she starred in her own series, Kate McShane, on CBS. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in ; however, the show was canceled after ten episodes.^[8][9] She had a recurring role on the sitcom Rhoda as airline stewardess Sally Gallagher, one of the title character's best friends.

She had roles as Mrs. Curry in The Boys from Brazil () and as Mrs. Sherwood in Fame ().

In the s, she provided narration for segments of the educational television series Sesame Street consisting of scenes from silent films.

Meara co-starred with Carroll O'Connor (with whom she had appeared onstage off-Broadway many years earlier in Ulysses in Nighttown) and Martin Balsam in the early s hit sitcom Archie Bunker's Place, which was a continuation of the influential s sitcom All in the Family.

She played Veronica Rooney, the bar's cook, for the show's first three seasons (–). During that time, she acted in the movie Fame (), in which she played English teacher Elizabeth Sherwood.^[10] She appeared as Dorothy Halligan Deaver, the grandmother, in the TV series ALF in the late s.

The Stiller and Meara Show, her own TV sitcom, in which Stiller played the deputy mayor of New York City and Meara portrayed his wife, a television commercial actress, was unsuccessful. From to , Meara guest starred in The King of Queens (where her husband played Arthur Spooner), first as Mary Finnegan, then as Veronica Olchin (mother of Spence, who was played by Patton Oswalt).

Veronica and Arthur were married in the series finale.

Starting in October , Meara and Jerry Stiller began starring in a Yahoo! web series called Stiller & Meara produced by Red Hour Digital, a production company owned by their son Ben Stiller.^[11][12]

In , she accepted a role in the off-Broadway play Love, Loss, and What I Wore with Conchata Ferrell, AnnaLynne McCord, Minka Kelly, and B.

Smith.^[13]

Writing and consulting

In , Meara wrote the comedy After-Play, which became an off-Broadway production.^[1][14] In her later years, she portrayed recurring roles on the television shows Sex and the City (as Mary Brady) and The King of Queens (as Veronica Olchin).

During the –05 season, she appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

In , Meara wrote her personal life reflections in a New York-focused online blog titled Mr. Beller's Neighborhood -- New York City Stories.

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In it, Meara recalled her mother's death and her childhood experiences at Catholic boarding school.^[15]

Personal life

Religion

Meara was born, baptized, and raised a Roman Catholic. She converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller.^[16][17] She insisted that she did not convert at Stiller's request, explaining, "Catholicism was dead to me." She took her conversion seriously and studied the Jewish faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish."^[18] They discussed how they met and their early career during a guest appearance on the TV game show What's My Line? in ^[19]

Children

Meara and her husband had two children, Amy and Ben.^[20]

Death

Meara died on May 23, , aged 85, in Manhattan.

She had been living in the Hebrew Home for the Aged following several strokes and reportedly died of natural causes.^[21]

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Year	Title	Credit(s)	Notes	Ref.
	A Month in the Country	Katina the maid	Phoenix Theatre, Off-Broadway	[33]
	The Good Woman of Setzuan	Niece		[34]
	Miss Loneyhearts	Sick-of-it-All	Music Box Theatre, Broadway	[35]
	As You Like It	Audrey	Joseph Papp Public Theater, Off-Broadway	[36]
	Ulysseys in Nighttown	Various roles	Rooftop Theatre, Off-Broadway	[37]
	The House of Blue Leaves	Bunny Flingus	Truck and Warehouse Theatre, Off-Broadway	[38]
	Spookhouse	Performer	Playhouse 91, Off-Broadway	[39]
	A My Name Is Alice	Writer	Top of the Gate, Off-Broadway	[40]
	Romeo and Juliet	Nurse	Joseph Papp Public Theater, Off-Broadway	[41]
	Eastern Standard	May Logan	John Golden Theatre, Broadway	[42]
	Anna Christie	Marthy Owen	Center Stage Right, Broadway	[43]
	After-Play	Terry Guteman Playwright	Theatre Four, Broadway	[44]
	Down the Garden Paths	Playwright	Minetta Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway	[45]
	Love, Loss and What I Wore	Performer	Westside Theatre, Off-Broadway	[46]

Radio

Awards and nominations

• On February 9, , Meara and Jerry Stiller received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Blvd.

References

External links