CNN celebrates 50 years of marriage for Stiller and Meara with an AP story (excerpt):
Ann and Jerry have come far — she, the Irish-Catholic girl from Long Island; he, the Jewish kid from Manhattan’s Lower East Side who was two years older but four inches shorter.
In their respective families, “nobody was thrilled when we got married, absolutely nobody,” says Meara, who then, with a virtuoso’s timing, allows, “Nobody sat shiva [the Jewish mourning period].”
“We didn’t look like people who should’ve been together,” Stiller says. “People would never believe we were married. Even when we checked into a hotel, we got suspicious looks.”
Worse, they were scarcely getting any looks from casting agents as they chased after roles.
Then Stiller crashed Shakespearean theater — barely.
“I was playing bumpkins, jesters,” Stiller recalls. “In ‘Coriolanus,’ I was a Volscian Guard with Jack Klugman and (future director) Gene Zaks. I got $55 a week.
“Shakespeare started to disappear in my thinking. Then this idea came along: improvisational theater. No script! You make it up! I said to Anne, ‘We got to do this sort of thing!’ “