Estelle Harris, who starred in ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Toy Story’, died of natural causes at the age of 93. On Saturday evening, Harris’s agent, Michael, confirmed Harris’s death in Palm Desert, California. Her family shared the news of the actress’ death in a statement with Deadline. The actress passed away just days before her 94th birthday.
Glen Harris, the late actress Estelle Harris’ son, shared a touching tribute for her in a statement carried by Deadline, stating, “It is with the greatest remorse and sadness to announce that Estelle Harris has passed on this evening at 6:25 pm. Her kindness, passion, sensitivity, humour, empathy and love were practically unrivalled, and she will be terribly missed by all those who knew her.”
Estelle Harris made her mark on television as George Costanza’s irritable mother on Seinfeld and as Mrs Potato Head in the Toy Story movie.
Harris made a lasting impression in her recurring role as middle-class mother Estelle Costanza on the hit 1990s sitcom. She was the epitome of mother wrath, with her high-pitched voice and comically domineering demeanour.
Her first appearance on Seinfeld was in one of the show’s most memorable episodes. The Emmy Award-winning 1992 film ‘The Contest’, in which the four principal characters challenge one other to keep from doing “that.”
After decades on stage and television, she landed the role that would define her career. Harris was born on 22nd April, 1928 in New York City and later grew up in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb where her father had a candy store. She began honing her comedic skills in high school performances, where she discovered she had the ability to “could make the audience get hysterical”, as she told People magazine in 1995.
Harris continued to perform on stage and film after the nine-season run of Seinfeld finished in 1998. She played Muriel in the hit Disney Channel sitcom ‘The Suite Life of Zack & Cody’ and Mrs Potato Head in the 1999 animated film ‘Toy Story 2’, among other roles.
She had given up acting when she married in the early 1950s, but as her three children grew older, she resumed it in amateur groups, dinner theatre, and. She eventually started starring in guest appearances on TV shows like ‘Night Court’, a legal comedy, and movies like Sergio Leone’s 1984 gangland epic ‘Once Upon a Time in America’.
She died, leaving behind her three children, three grandsons, and a great grandson. Seinfeld fans were inconsolably saddened by the actress’s death, whose distinctive voice and performance will live on in perpetuity as her legacy.
Published By : Revathy G Sanal
Edited By : Subbuthai Padma