Anne Meara (born September 20, 1929) is an American comedian and actress. She was born in New York City, into a family of Irish Catholic extraction and raised accordingly. She and Jerry Stiller are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.
Her mother committed suicide when Meara was 11, and she has been in therapy since the mid-1980s. She was raised Catholic, but converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller. She has long stressed that her conversion was not at Stiller's request, but because "Catholicism was dead to me," and she simply came to prefer the more "lively" character of Jewish culture. She took the conversion seriously, studying the faith in such depth that her born-Jewish husband quipped, "being married to Anne has made me more Jewish."
Meara co-starred along side Carroll O'Connor and Martin Balsam in early 1980s hit sit-com Archie Bunker's Place, which was a continuation of the influential 1970s sitcom All in the Family. She played the role of Veronica Rooney, who was the Bar's cook, for the show's first three seasons (1979-1982). She also appeared as the grandmother in the TV series ALF in the late 1980s. More recently, she has had recurring roles on the television shows Sex and the City (as Mary Brady) and The King of Queens (as Veronica).
