Michael Constantine, the Father in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' Dies at 94
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michael-constantine-dead-my-big-fat-greek-wedding-1235010250/Michael Constantine, the Emmy-winning actor from the 1970s sitcom Room 222 who later portrayed the Windex-spritzing father of Nia Vardalos’ character in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, has died. He was 94.
Constantine died Aug. 31 in his home in his native Reading, Pennsylvania, his family announced. He had been ill for some time, they said.
The son of Greek immigrants, Constantine is warmly remembered for his turn as Gus Portokalos, the husband of Lainie Kazan’s Maria Portokalos, in the unlikely box-office smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its 2016 sequel. The first installment, made for $5 million and released in 2002, grossed nearly $370 million worldwide.
“I had to audition for the part,” he recalled in a 2016 interview. “Before that, I asked to read the script, because I was very leery. I didn’t know Nia then [she also penned the screenplay], and I was anxious about someone writing some Greek thing. Was it going to be baloney or was it going to be something by somebody who really knows Greeks? So I read the script and I said, ‘Yes, this person obviously knows Greeks.'”
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He was also the gypsy patriarch in the Stephen King movie, "Thinner".
in Room 222
Seymour Kaufman. 
God, I loved that show back in the day!
But he was in pretty much everything! Dramas, mysteries, comedies, he was the "go to" guy! I don't know how many episodes of "Murder, She Wrote" he was in and he guest starred on countless network shows of the same vintage...
RIP, Michael. You did good work.
with it's mix of characters. 
I was born in '66. I faintly remembering watching it early 70's, but in the mid-80's a local station ran the series in syndication and thought "what a great era to come of age back then". I wished one these oldies stations would run the episodes (said the same last week about "Lou Grant"
.
I saw "Wedding" twenty years ago and enjoyed, but some reason the thought of the overbearing relatives from that film gives me anxiety attacks although I was never in a relationship like that, for whatever reason.
