NEW YORK—Estelle Harris, who hollered her way into TV history as George Costanza’s short-fused mother on “Seinfeld” and voiced Mrs. Potato Head in the “Toy Story” franchise, has died. She was 93.
As middle-class matron Estelle Costanza, Harris put a memorable stamp on her recurring role in the smash 1990s sitcom.
Harris’ agent Michael Eisenstadt confirmed the actress’s death in Palm Desert, California, on Saturday evening.
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.
The career-defining role came after decades on stage and screen. 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.
She is survived by her three children, three grandsons, and a great grandson.
