Ben Stiller examined his mother and father Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara’s enduring legacy — and the draw back of their fame — within the 2025 documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced.
Jerry and his spouse weren’t solely companions in life, however additionally they fashioned a well-liked comedy duo that carried out in main venues throughout the U.S. all through Ben and his sister Amy Stiller’s childhood within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s.
In Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced, Ben admitted that his mother and father’ connection was unstable and that he remembered listening to “raised voices” typically in his childhood.
“They had been very shut however they had been additionally very completely different, too,” he defined.
Preserve scrolling for extra on Jerry and Meara’s life and careers.
Who Was Jerry Stiller?
Jerry served within the U.S. Military in World Struggle II and returned house to review at Syracuse College. He took half in numerous New York theatre productions within the early ‘50s, earlier than assembly Meara in 1953.
The 2 had been married the next 12 months and shortly started performing collectively as a comedic duo. Jerry and Meara had been among the many earliest members of the famed Second Metropolis improv troupe in Chicago, which subsequently launched the careers of Invoice Murray, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Amber Ruffin, amongst numerous others.
Jerry and Meara grew to become recurring visitors on The Ed Sullivan Present within the Nineteen Sixties and hosted their very own short-form sequence that aired after Saturday Evening Reside in syndication.
Except for his comedy staff, Jerry memorably performed George Constanza’s curmudgeonly father Frank Costanza on the traditional TV sitcom Seinfeld, for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination. Different notable roles included starring reverse Kevin James as Arthur Spooner in The King of Queens and doing voiceover work for Disney.
Stiller and Meara in June 2012. Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Jerry regularly appeared in his son Ben’s tasks, with notable roles in each Zoolander movies and Heavyweights, amongst others.
Ben introduced his father’s dying at age 92 from pure causes in Might 2020 and paid tribute to his comedic legacy.
“I’m unhappy to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, handed away from pure causes,” he tweeted. “He was an important dad and grandfather, and essentially the most devoted husband to Anne for about 62 years. He will likely be drastically missed. Love you Dad.”
Who Was Anne Meara?
The comic had a really tough childhood, as her mom Mary Dempsey died by suicide when Meara was solely 10 years outdated.
As a youngster, Meara studied beneath famed performing instructor Uta Hagen at New York Metropolis’s prestigious New College. Nevertheless, she credited her future husband Jerry with convincing her to attempt comedy.
“Jerry began us being a comedy staff,” she revealed. “He all the time thought I’d be an important comedy associate.”
Except for her comedy staff together with her husband, Meara was nominated for 4 Emmy Awards all through her life. She gained a Writers Guild of America Award for cowriting the 1983 TV film The Different Lady.
Like her husband, Meara labored extensively in TV sitcoms, together with Rhoda, Archie Bunker’s Place and Alf all through the Seventies and ‘80s. She memorably performed Steve Brady’s mom Mary on Intercourse and the Metropolis and joined her husband Jerry on The King of Queens.
Ben Stiller is analyzing his function as a father in his new documentary about his mother and father, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced. Ben, 59, spends nearly all of the documentary revisiting his mother and father Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara’s ups and downs all through their 61-year marriage earlier than Anne’s dying at age 85 in 2015. The actor […]
Meara confronted quite a few well being points all through her life, together with her son Ben later revealing that she struggled with alcoholism.
“My mom had points throughout her life with alcoholism,” Ben acknowledged in 2023. “She obtained sober and actually explored that stuff … She had a lot trauma [in her life] and the factor that I’m so grateful for is that, I feel so many individuals who dwell with alcoholism of their households, it’s by no means handled. It’s by no means, ever explored and even talked about.”
He went on, “What I’m grateful for is she actually delved into that in her remedy. For somebody who’s a functioning alcoholic, it’s mainly that you simply’re attempting to navigate that as a result of it’s not dramatic.”
Meara died at age 85 in Might 2015 after struggling a number of strokes.
What Did Ben Stiller Say About His Dad and mom?
Ben explored his sophisticated relationship together with his mother and father within the 2025 Apple TV documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced, which premiered on the New York Movie Pageant in October 2025.
Within the movie, Ben opened up concerning the resentment he felt in the direction of his father Jerry for not tackling his mother’s alcoholism head-on.
“When [my mom] was consuming, my dad by no means actually knew methods to deal with it,” Stiller defined. “I feel he liked her a lot and he was so dedicated to her. Additionally the act and what they did collectively was so vital, that he had to determine methods to take care of that on his personal. However I feel I resented him for not acknowledging it to us.”
Ben mentioned that he and sister Amy all the time knew that their father “liked us greater than something,” although it was all the time painful to see their mom wrestle.
Anne Meara, Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor. Patrick McMullan
“I feel he was simply attempting to determine methods to navigate that and I obtained so indignant at him for not being there for us however I don’t even suppose I understood that for awhile,” he recalled.
Nevertheless, Ben and his spouse, Christine Taylor, additionally mirrored on the best way Meara was in a position to empathize and help them as soon as she obtained sober.
“She would see me as a brand new mom, throughout these moments the place it was loopy and frenetic, and inform me how nice a job I used to be doing,” Taylor mentioned. “It was a strategy to make me really feel so good about what I used to be doing, however [also] her acknowledging what she couldn’t do.”
Chatting with Time concerning the documentary, Ben burdened how vital it was to point out that his mother and father’ fame was a double-edged sword.
“When individuals see the film, you may see how natural it was for my sister and I to be part of this world,” Stiller famous. “It was our actuality and it’s what we grew up in and we liked it after we had been youngsters. The flip aspect was, it took our mother and father away from us, which any artistic endeavor does. You may have a artistic guardian, a part of them goes to be devoted to their creativity, in the event that they’re an actual artist. They will’t deny that.”
When you or somebody you realize is battling substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA) Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
