The King of Queens cast remembered their late costar Jerry Stiller as they reunited for the show’s 25th anniversary.
Kevin James, Leah Remini, Gary Valentine, Victor Williams, Patton Oswalt and Ray Romano shared fond memories of Stiller as they came together on Tuesday, October 10, to reminisce about the sit-com, which premiered in September 1998.
James, 58, who starred as Doug Heffernan, said about Stiller, “I miss him so much. … He was an angel. He was a great man.”
Stiller portrayed Arthur Spooner, the widowed father of Remini’s character Carrie. Ahead of his death at age 92 in May 2020, Stiller’s acting career spanned 60 years.
Remini, 53, who played Doug’s wife, remembered Stiller staying on the set to greet fans hours after he finished his scenes.
“Jerry knew that most people who came to the show wanted to meet him,” she recalled. “They’d get our picture and sign the script and they’d be like, ‘Is Jerry here? Is Jerry here?’ Because he talked to everybody.”
Remini also appreciated how Stiller would keep the entire cast laughing between takes when he would shut his eyes and clap his hands.
“Jerry would open his eyes and be like, ‘What’s so funny?'” she said. “And we’d be like, ‘You, Jerry, you!'”
The King of Queens ran on CBS from September 1998 to May 2007, producing a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes.
Stiller’s son, Ben Stiller, also appeared during Tuesday’s reunion. “Acting was what kept him young, what kept him going, and the camaraderie that he had with his fellow actors on [The King of Queens], I know, meant so much to him,” he said of his late father.
The dynamic duo appeared in several films together, including Zoolander, Heavyweights, Hot Pursuit, The Heartbreak Kid and Zoolander 2.
Romano, 65, who sometimes appeared on The King of Queens as his Everybody Loves Raymond character, Raymond Barone, reflected on his first day with Jerry on the set.
“The most exciting part was getting to meet Jerry Stiller, my favorite character,” Romano said. “Kevin James — very funny! Very funny! But without a doubt, Jerry Stiller was my favorite character on the show.”
The emotional reunion was filled with tears as series cocreator and executive producer Michael Weithorn called Jerry the heart of The King of Queens.
“He was the soul of the show in a very real way,” he said. “He grounded us. He was a veteran who I think on camera and off camera really had a history and a professionalism that I think we all fed off of and made the show just grow deeper.”
Weithorn, 66, added: “He was a beautiful, beautiful man, and he was responsible for the fact that we’re all here doing this right now. It never would’ve happened without him.”
