- published: 18 May 2012
- views: 106393
Anne Meara (born September 20, 1929) is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.
Meara was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Irish immigrant parents, Mary (née Dempsey) and Edward Joseph Meara, a lawyer. Meara was raised Catholic in an Irish American family, and converted to Reform Judaism six years after marrying Stiller. She has long stressed that she did not convert at Stiller's request, but because "Catholicism was dead to me." She took the conversion seriously and studied the faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish."
Meara has written about her mother's death and her childhood experiences at Catholic boarding school.
Meara has been married to Stiller since 1954. Both were members of the improvisational company The Compass Players (which later became The Second City), and the pair, as the comedy team Stiller and Meara, brought many of their real-life relationship foibles to bear on their often-improvised comedy routines. After some years honing the act, Stiller and Meara became regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV programs. Their career declined, however, as variety series gradually disappeared.
Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller (born June 8, 1927) is an American comedian and actor.
He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara. Stiller and Meara are the parents of actor Ben Stiller (with whom he co-starred in the movies Zoolander, Heavyweights, Hot Pursuit and The Heartbreak Kid) and actress Amy Stiller.
He is best known for his recurring role as Frank Costanza on the television series Seinfeld and his supporting role as Arthur Spooner on the television series The King of Queens.
The eldest of four children, Stiller was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Bella (née Citrin) and William Stiller, a bus driver. He attended Seward Park High School. A drama major at Syracuse University, he gained a Bachelor's degree in Speech and Drama in 1950.
In the 1953 Phoenix Theater production of Coriolanus (produced by John Houseman) Jerry Stiller (along with Gene Saks and Jack Klugman) formed "the best trio of Shakespearian clowns that [he] had ever seen on any stage."
Chorus
One day at a time, Sweet Jesus,
That's all I'm asking from you,
Just give me the strength to do every day,
What I have to do,
Yesterday's gone, Sweet Jesus,
And tomorrow may never be mine,
Lord, help me today, show me the way,
One day at a time,
I'm only human, I'm just a man,
Help me believe, in what I could be,
And all that I am,
Show me the stairway, I have to climb,
Lord for my sake, teach me to take,
One day at a time,
Repeat Chorus
Do you remember,
When you walked among men,
Well Jesus, you know if you're looking below,
It's worse now than then,
Pushing and shoving, crowding my mind,
So for my sake, teach me to take,
One day at a time,
Repeat Chorus
Lord help me today, show me the way,
One day at a time…… (Repeat 3 Times)