Just recently, it was announced that beloved television icon Estelle Harris
had passed away of natural causes at the age of 93. Of course, Estelle was best known for
portraying the character of George Costanza’s mother on the hit 1990s sitcom Seinfeld, a
role which she reprised over two dozen times after first debuting in the show’s classic fourth season
episode “The Contest”. Estelle’s shrill voice never failed to bring audiences into hysterics,
whether on small-screen sitcoms like Seinfeld or in big-screen films like
Toy Story 2 and its two sequels, in which she voiced the character of Mrs. Potato Head. Join
Facts Verse as we pay our respects to Estelle Harris, who passed days before her birthday.
A Kid in a Candy Store Estelle Harris was born in Manhattan on April 22,
1928. At the time of her birth, Estelle’s last name was Nussbaum, which was a name that came
from her parents. Estelle’s parents were Polish Jewish immigrants that ran a candy store in the
district. When Estelle grew older, her father received an offer from her aunt and uncle to
come work with them in Pennsylvania at their candy store. At the age of 7, Estelle moved
with her parents to the town of Tarentum, and her father went to work at the new candy store.
After moving to the Pennsylvanian town at the age of only 7, Estelle ended up coming of age
in Tarentum. The young woman ended up graduating from Tarentum High School on track and ready to
take on the world. However, she would end up marrying and starting a family before becoming
the big television star that the world would come to know her as.
Estelle Meets Her First and Only Husband It was in 1952 that Estelle
Harris first met the man that would go on to become her first and only husband. That
man was named Sy Harris, and he was working as a salesman for a window treatment company
at the time. Before the year was over, Estelle and Sy were married. From that point forward,
Estelle Nussbaum would become known as Estelle Harris. However,
it would still be several years before she would make her way into the entertainment industry.
Several years into Estelle and Sy’s marriage, the two had their first child. That first child was
son Eric, who was born in 1957. Several years after that, Estelle gave birth to second son
Glen in 1961. Finally, in 1964, Estelle gave birth to her and Sy’s first and only daughter.
After that, the couple decided to call it quits on having any more kids. However,
they remained happily married until Sy’s death in 2021.
Estelle Pursues Her Acting Dreams It wasn’t until all three of her and Sy’s children
were attending a school that Estelle finally felt free enough to begin pursuing her dream
of becoming a professional actress. Although she got a late start, she would come to make
a name for herself over the ensuing decades. The aspiring actress’s first roles came thanks
to amateur productions. She then worked her way up to performing in dinner theatre productions
before branching out into television commercials, which is where she found the majority of her early
success. At one point, Estelle was performing in around two dozen commercials a year,
with one of the actress’s most popular commercials being for Handi-Wrap II.
After several years of slowly building up her acting resume, Estelle Harris finally
got her chance to test out her skills on the big screen in 1977. That year, the actress received a
role in a film by the name of Looking Up, which chronicled several generations of a
working class Jewish family living in New York City. It wouldn’t be until nearly two decades
later that Estelle would finally receive the recognition that she truly deserved. Of course,
that recognition came thanks to Estelle receiving the role of George Costanza’s mother on Seinfeld.
Estelle Harris Becomes Estelle Costanza When Estelle Harris first portrayed the character
of George Costanza’s mother, appropriately named Estelle Costanza, the role brought her
to more attention than ever before. The role took great advantage of Estelle’s iconic shrill voice,
with Estelle proving a decidedly antagonist mother figure to the neurotic character of George.
Estelle was such a hit upon her first Seinfeld appearance that she ended up being brought back
to appear in nearly 30 episodes of the show before it came to its conclusion in 1998.
As a result of the attention that Estelle Harris garnered from portraying the character of Estelle
Costanza on Seinfeld, the actress was able to receive some other notable roles over the
course of the 1990s and beyond. Estelle was still working in the years leading up to her death,
with her last role being in 2019. If you’re enjoying this video so far,
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Seinfeld Leads to More Work Besides the role of Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld,
some of the other notable roles that Estelle Harris received over the course of the 1990s
included an appearance on the series Star Trek: Voyager in 1996 and an appearance in
the film Out to Sea in 1997. Neither role was huge, but they both further increased
the hard-working actress’s profile. In 1999, she would receive the role that would end up going
down in history as her second-most iconic, with that being the role of Mrs. Potato Head in the
Toy Story franchise. Estelle’s first time voicing the character came in Toy Story 2,
and she reprised the role in Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4. In fact, it was Estelle’s role
in 2019’s Toy Story 4 that ended up being her very last bit of work in the entertainment industry.
Further Success and a
Minor Scare in the New Millennium After receiving her iconic role as
Mrs. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise at the turn of the century, Estelle Harris’ good
fortune continued into the 2000s when it came to her career. However, Estelle and her husband
suffered a car accident in 2001 that nearly killed them! The two lost control of their vehicle
and the car was said to have flipped over twice, but neither they were said to have been seriously
injured. Estelle and Sy would have another two decades of marriage left together following the
car accident and leading up to Sy’s death in 2021. Now, Estelle Harris has followed suit.
The Toy Story Franchise Leads to Further Voice Acting
Seinfeld had come to an end in 1998, and Estelle’s role in the Toy Story franchise
came at the perfect time to ensure that the actress wasn’t going to have too big of a gap
in her resume. Estelle also did voice-acting work with Disney in other capacities,
including lending her voice to such features as Brother Bear, Home on the Range, and Tarzan
II. Estelle found even more voice-acting work on television, with audiences being able to
hear the actress’s iconic shrill voice on such cartoon programs as Kim Possible and Futurama.
While Estelle Harris’ work as Mrs. Potato Head in 2019’s Toy Story 4 would end up being the
actress’s very last bit of film work ever, the voice actor who had lent the voice of her
on-screen husband in the Toy Story franchise since the very first film had sadly passed away himself
in 2017. That actor was, of course, the legendary Don Rickles. Thankfully, the people working on Toy
Story 4 had enough archive footage of Don Rickles that they were able to include him in the film.
The Death of Sy Harris In January of 2021, Sy Harris passed away
of natural causes. A little over a year later, in early April of 2022, Estelle Harris also passed
away of natural causes. At the time of the beloved television actress’s death, she was 93 years old.
She died at her home in Palm Desert, California, and her death was announced by one of her sons.
The Death of Estelle and the Fate of Her Children The son that ended up announcing the death of
mother Estelle Harris was Glen Harris, who had long since grown up and started a career
as a music promoter. In addition to working as a music promoter, Glen also happened to serve as
the quasi-manager of his mother. Besides Glen, Estelle and Sy’s other two kids have also led
pretty happy and healthy lives. Eric Harris works as a social worker, while Taryn Harris worked for
a time as a Nassau Country police officer before retiring. Estelle and Sy’s children also granted
the two several grandchildren, and even one great grandchild, before the pair’s recent deaths.
Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander Pays His Respects Estelle Harris will certainly be sorely missed
by all of those that survived her. Another figure that wanted to make
sure to pay his respects to the beloved television actress was Jason Alexander.
Of course, Jason Alexander is best known to the public for portraying the character of George
Costanza on the series Seinfeld. While George and his mother never got along
on the show and were always causing problems for one another, the stars
who portrayed the character seem to have had a very positive working relationship in real life.
Jason’s tributary Tweet paid reference to his and Estelle’s work together on Seinfeld
over two decades previously. Estelle Harris had been brought onto Seinfeld four seasons
in, with her making her debut as George’s mom in the classic episode “The Contest”. Later on
in the season, the character of George’s father, Frank Costanza, would be brought onto the series
in the episode “The Handicap Spot”. In this episode, an actor by the name of John Randolph
portrayed the character of Frank Costanza. During the show’s fifth season, John would
be replaced by Jerry Stiller, who would remain in the role of Frank for the rest of Seinfeld’s run.
In the wake of her passing, the television audience will sorely miss actress Estelle Harris.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Seinfeld actress Estelle Harris waited
until her three children were in school before pursuing her dream of becoming an actress and
that her and the character she played on the sitcom shared the same first name? As always,
like this video to show your support, subscribe, and hit the notification bell if you’d
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