'Seinfeld' star Estelle Harris remembered by TV son Jason Alexander: 'One of my favorite people has passed'
The actress, who played George Costanza’s mother on 'Seinfeld,' passed away at age 93
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jason Alexander is mourning the loss of his "TV mama" Estelle Harris.
The actress, who played George Costanza’s (Alexander) short-fused mother on "Seinfeld," passed away at age 93. The star’s agent Michael Eisenstadt confirmed her death in Palm Desert, California, on Saturday evening.
"One of my favorite people has passed - my tv mama, Estelle Harris," tweeted the actor. "The joy of playing with her and relishing her glorious laughter was a treat. I adore you, Estelle. Love to your family. Serenity now and always."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 62-year-old also thanked his followers for their condolences.
ACTRESS ESTELLE HARRIS DEAD AT 93
Jason Alexander played Estelle Harris' son on "Seinfeld." (L. Cohen/WireImage)
"Thanks to you all for your kind and sweet messages and remembrances of #EstelleHarris," he shared. "She would be so touched. As am I. And as she would say, ‘WHY CANT YOU BE MORE LIKE LLOYD BRAUN!!??’"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As middle-class matron Estelle Costanza, Harris put a memorable stamp on her recurring role in the smash 1990s sitcom. Trading insults and absurdities with her on-screen husband, played by Jerry Stiller, Harris helped create a parental pair that would leave even a psychiatrist helpless to do anything but hope they’d move to Florida — as their son fruitlessly encouraged them to do.
Viewers of all backgrounds would tell her she was just like their own mothers, Harris often said.
"She is the mother that everybody loves, even though she’s a pain in the neck," she told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1998.
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Estelle Harris as Estelle Costanza, Jason Alexander as George Costanza and Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza in "Seinfeld." (Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Born April 22, 1928, in New York City, Harris grew up in the city and later in the Pittsburgh suburb of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, where her father owned a candy store. She started tapping her comedic talents in high school productions where she realized she "could make the audience get hysterical," as she told People magazine in 1995.
After the nine-season run of "Seinfeld" ended in 1998, Harris continued to appear on stage and screen. She voiced Mrs. Potato Head in the 1999 animated blockbuster "Toy Story 2" and played the recurring character Muriel in the popular Disney Channel sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," among other roles.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She had stopped pursuing show business when she married in the early 1950s but resumed acting in amateur groups, dinner theater and commercials as her three children grew. Eventually, she began appearing in guest roles on TV shows including the legal comedy "Night Court," and in films including director Sergio Leone’s 1984 gangland epic "Once Upon a Time in America."
Her "Seinfeld" debut came in one of the show’s most celebrated episodes: the Emmy Award-winning 1992 "The Contest," in which the four central characters challenge each other to refrain from doing what is artfully described only as "that." Harris would go on to appear in dozens more episodes of the "show about nothing."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As middle-class matron Estelle Costanza, Harris put a memorable stamp on her recurring role in the smash 1990s sitcom. (Joseph Del Valle/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
"Estelle is a born performer," Stiller told The Record of Bergen County, N.J., in 1998. "I just go with what I got, and she goes back at me the same way."
She is survived by her three children, three grandsons, and a great-grandson.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.