She was married to her comedy partner , 87, for 61 years. Their son, , followed them into show business. The heart of Stiller & Meara鈥檚 early humor drew on the culture clash of their relationship; he was Jewish and she was an Irish-American gentile. They played characters called Hershey Horowitz and Mary Elizabeth Doyle.
Meara鈥檚 career took her to comedy clubs, nightclubs, TV variety shows (including 鈥淭he Ed Sullivan Show鈥� and 鈥淭he Merv Griffin Show鈥�), the Second City comedy troupe, commercials, movies and recording studios for comedy LPs.
Meara appeared on Broadway five times. Despite her comedy background most of her Broadway appearances were in serious roles, and most were without Stiller. She appeared first as Katia in A Month in the Country in 1956, that same year, and in Miss Lonelyhearts for a little over a week in 1957; then not until 1989 with , and finally as Marthy in a revival of in 1993, opposite and . She earned a Tony nomination for the latter role.
Meara also made several Off-Broadway appearances. She earned an Obie Award for her 1955 performances in M盲dchen in Uniform, created the role of Bunny in the original 1971 production of House of Blue Leaves,, and authored and starred in the 1995 comedy After-Play in which Stiller appeared during its run.
In recent years, however, Stiller and Meara were best known for their recurring roles together on the TV sitcom 鈥淜ing of Queens." Stiller also played George Costanza鈥檚 father on 鈥淪einfeld.鈥�
