The King of Queens cast recently reunited to celebrate the CBS sitcom’s 25th anniversary as well as the life of their late co-star, Jerry Stiller.
Joined by his son Ben Stiller and his daughter Amy Stiller, the cast took a moment during the table read and Q&A session to remember the integral role Jerry played on the show as Leah Remini’s cantankerous father.
“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,” Ben said of his father, per Entertainment Weekly.
Kevin James also shared a bizarre, yet touching, memory of his time working with Stiller, whom he remembered was “an angel” during their years of working together.
James recalled feeling unwell while filming one day on set. He claimed Stiller then instructed him to “lay down” and “lift up your shirt,” after which he pressed his warm hands against James’ stomach.
“I thought it was going to be one of those things where he moves your stomach around and then leaves. He was there for an uncomfortably long, very long time, where he’s just looking right in my eyes and I didn’t know what to do,” James recalled. “I don’t know if it was placebo or I just wanted him off of me, but I instantly felt better and was able to do the show.”
“He wanted to be there because he cared — as soon as he heard, he didn’t care about the doctors or anybody else. He wanted to be there for [me],” James said. “I miss him so much. He’s just the greatest… He’s always the cranky old man yelling and screaming, but it was never the way he was. He was an angel. He was a great man.”
Stiller died in 2020 at the age of 92 from natural causes. He forged a successful career in comedy with memorable roles in Seinfeld and Zoolander, among others. But on The King of Queens, Stiller starred alongside James and Remini through the very end in 2007.
Series co-creator Michael Weithorn said it was “very bittersweet” to see the cast reuniting without Jerry.
“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.”
Series regulars Patton Oswalt, Gary Valentine, and Ray Romano also praised the actor for how he behaved both on and offscreen, saying he was “such a pleasant person” who did things like send a Christmas card and a tie every year, even after the show ended.
“Jerry would open his eyes and be like, ‘What’s so funny?'” Remini recalled about her on-screen father. “And we’d be like, ‘You, Jerry, you!'”