Michael Constantine, Father in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ Dies at 94 (original) (raw)
Arts|Michael Constantine, Father in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ Dies at 94
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He won an Emmy for his role on the TV series “Room 222” and played many other characters over the years before becoming known as the hit film’s patriarch.
Michael Constantine as Gus Portokalos, the combustible, tradition-bound father of the bride, in the hit 2002 movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”Credit...IFC, via Photofest
Published Sept. 8, 2021Updated Sept. 14, 2021
Michael Constantine, an Emmy-winning character actor known as the genially dyspeptic school principal on the popular TV series “Room 222” and, 30 years later, as the genially dyspeptic patriarch in the hit film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” died on Aug. 31 at his home in Reading, Pa. He was 94.
His agent,Julia Buchwald, confirmed the death.
Mr. Constantine, who began his career on the Broadway stage, was endowed with fierce eyebrows, a personal warmth that belied his perennial hangdog look, and the command of a Babel of foreign accents. Of Greek extraction, he was routinely cast by Hollywood to portray a welter of ethnicities.
He played several Jewish characters, winning an Emmy in 1970 for the role of Seymour Kaufman, who presided with grumpy humanity over a fictional Los Angeles school on “Room 222.” Broadcast on ABC from 1969 to 1974, the show centered on an idealistic Black history teacher, played by Lloyd Haynes, who contended with a variety of issues, social and otherwise, at the racially diverse Walt Whitman High School.
He also played Italians, on shows including “The Untouchables” and “Kojak”; Russians, as in the 1980s series “Airwolf”; a Roma elder, in the 1996 horror film “Thinner,” adapted from a Stephen King novel; and, on occasion, even a Greek or two.
Mr. Constantine was possessed of a gravitas that often led to him being cast as lawyers or heavies. He played the title role, the night-court judge Matthew Sirota, on “Sirota’s Court,” a short-lived sitcom shown on NBC in the 1976-77 season.
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Mr. Constantine with Lloyd Haynes in the TV series “Room 222,” seen on ABC from 1969 to 1974. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of a principal who presided over a high school with grumpy humanity.Credit...ABC
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