Michael Constantine

Michael Constantine, born Gus Efstratiou on May 22, 1927, in Reading, Pennsylvania, was a Greek-American actor whose career spanned stage, television, and film across seven decades. The son of Andromache (née Fotiadou) and Theocharis Ioannides Efstratiou, a steelworker, both of whom had immigrated from Greece, he died on August 31, 2021, at his home in Reading at the age of 94.

Constantine began his professional life on the New York stage in the mid-1950s, studying acting under mentors including Howard Da Silva and taking on character roles on and off Broadway while supplementing his income working as a night watchman and a shooting-gallery barker. His Broadway career ran from 1955 to 1963 and included the drama Compulsion, The Egg, The Miracle Worker, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Inherit the Wind, on which he served as understudy to Paul Muni. It was during the run of Inherit the Wind that he met actor Julianna McCarthy, whom he married on October 5, 1953. The two had two children, Thea Eileen and Brendan Neil, before divorcing in 1972.

His film work began in 1959 with The Last Mile, followed by a supporting role in The Hustler in 1961. He appeared in television throughout the 1960s, including two episodes of Perry Mason in 1964 and 1965, two episodes of the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days in 1965, and the two-part finale of The Fugitive in 1967. Constantine went on to portray an anti-organized-crime agent in the Walt Disney film The North Avenue Irregulars in 1979, alongside Edward Herrmann and Cloris Leachman, and played Santa Claus in Prancer in 1989. He took the role of Tadzu Lempke in the Stephen King adaptation Thinner in 1996.

Television brought Constantine his earliest major recognition. Beginning in 1969, he played Seymour Kaufman, a high school principal, on the ABC comedy-drama Room 222, a performance that earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1970. The Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards both recognized him again the following year for the same role. After Room 222 concluded, he was cast as night court magistrate Matthew J. Sirota on the 1976 sitcom Sirota's Court, earning a second Golden Globe nomination.

Constantine's most widely seen role came in 2002 with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in which he played Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the father of Nia Vardalos's character Toula. The performance earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical or Comedy. He reprised the role on the short-lived television series My Big Fat Greek Life and again in the 2016 sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, released on March 25 of that year. The third film in the series, released in 2023, was dedicated to his memory alongside Constantine Vardalos and Bruce Gray, with his character written as having died before the events of the story.

Constantine married Kathleen Christopher in 1974; that marriage ended in divorce in 1980. He died of natural causes at his Reading home and was 94 years old at the time of his death.