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Comedy team

Meara met ac­tor-co­me­dian Jerry Stiller in 1953, and they mar­ried in 1955, after a two-year re­la­tion­ship. Until he sug­gested it, she had never thought of doing com­edy. "Jerry started us being a com­edy team," she said. "He al­ways thought I would be a great com­edy partner." They joined the im­pro­vi­sa­tional com­pany The Com­pass Play­ers (which later be­came The Sec­ond City), and after leav­ing, formed the com­edy team of Stiller and Meara. In 1961, they were per­form­ing in night...

Television, stage, film, video

Dur­ing the 1970s, Meara and Stiller wrote and per­formed many radio com­mer­cials to­gether for Blue Nun Wine. She had a re­cur­ring role on the sit­com Rhoda as air­line stew­ardess Sally Gal­lagher, one of the title char­ac­ter's best friends. She also had a small role as Mrs. Curry op­po­site Lau­rence Olivier in The Boys from Brazil (1978). In 1975, she starred in her own se­ries Kate McShane on CBS, for which she was nom­i­nated for an Emmy Award, but the se­ries was can­celled after 10...

Writing and consulting

In 1995, Meara wrote the com­edy Af­ter-Play, which be­came an off-Broad­way production. 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 2004–05 sea­son, she ap­peared in an episode of Law & Order: Spe­cial Vic­tims Unit. She was the con­sult­ing di­rec­tor of J.A.P. – The Jew­ish Amer­i­can Princesses of Com­edy, a 2007 off-Broad­way pro­duc­tion that fea­tured live stand...

Religion, marriage, family

Meara was born, bap­tised and raised a Roman Catholic. She con­verted to Ju­daism six years after mar­ry­ing Stiller. 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." They dis­cussed how they met and their early ca­reer dur­ing a guest ap­pear­ance on the TV game s...

Death

Meara died on May 23, 2015, at her home in Man­hat­tan at the age of 85. No exact cause was pro­vided, but some sources cite "nat­ural causes".

Theatre

1. Love, Loss and What I Wore(April 27, 2011 – May 28, 2011, rotating cast) 2. "Down the Garden Paths" (November 19, 2000 – January 14, 2001, playwright) 3. "After-Play" (1995, playwright & and also played Terry Guteman from May 16, 1995 – April 28, 1996, As playwright, she won the 1995 Outer Critics Circle Award John Gassner Award) 4. "Anna Christie" (1993, as Marthy Owen; Tony Award nominee for Best Featured Actress in a Play) 5. "Eastern Standard" (1988, as May Logan) 6. "Romeo and Juliet"...

Radio

1. I'd Rather Eat Pants, National Public Radio, 2002 2. Dining Alone (Blue Nun wine ad with Jerry Stiller, winner Clio Award, 1975)

Radio/TV

Anne was married to husband Jerry Stiller for 61 years, from 1954 until her death in 2015. Both were members of the improvisational comedy 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 Showand other TV programs. Their career declined,...

Stage/Theatrical work

She was the consulting director of J.A.P. - The Jewish American Princesses of Comedy, a 2007 Off-Broadway production that features live stand-up routines by four female Jewish comics juxtaposed with the stories of legendary performers from the 1950s and 1960s: Totie Fields, Jean Carroll, Pearl Williams, Betty Walker and Belle Barth. Starting in October 2010, Meara and her husband Jerry Stiller began starring in a Yahoo! web series called Stiller & Meara produced by Red Hour Digital, a product...

Death

Meara died of natural causes at the age of 85 on May 23, 2015 at her home in Manhattan, New York.