Family and friends fondly remember the man best known for “Room 222,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”
Reading Eagle
By Don Botch
September
8, 2021 at 6:18 pm
Reading native Michael Constantine, an actor best known for his Emmy-winning
role as high school principal Seymour Kaufman in the TV series “Room 222” from
1969 to 1974 and his portrayal of Kostas “Gus” Portokalos, the Windex
bottle-toting father of the bride in the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,”
died Aug. 31 at age 94, his family disclosed Wednesday.
Constantine’s brother-in-law Michael Gordon said Constantine died peacefully of
natural causes in his Reading home, surrounded by family, including his
sisters, Patricia Gordon and Chris Dobbs. Constantine had been ill for several
years, but the nature of his illness was not disclosed.
Constantine, whose given name was Gus Efstration, was born May 22, 1927, the
son of Greek immigrants Andromache (Fotiadou) and Theoharis Ioannides
Efstration.
He graduated from Reading High School in 1946 and never forgot the community
where he was raised.
“Last week he could still sing all four stanzas of the Reading High School alma
mater from memory,” Michael Gordon said. “He’s always considered himself a
Reading native. People would come up and say, ‘You’re from California,’ (and
he’d say) ‘Oh no, I’m from Reading.'”
“He loved his hometown,” Patricia added. “He came back here right after he won
his Emmy for ‘Room 222.’ But then he was called back to California. He always
loved coming home. He was very much a family person. He loved his children, his
siblings, his parents.”
Constantine began his acting career on the stages of New York in the 1950s
before going on to land roles on many well-known TV shows leading up to his big
break with “Room 222,” an ABC comedy-drama set in a fictional, racially diverse
Los Angeles high school.
Well known shows on which Constantine appeared prior to “Room 222” included “My
Favorite Martian,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Bonanza,” “Hogan’s Heroes,” “The Dick
Van Dyke Show” and “The Fugitive.”
“He was a great character actor, so when someone needed a character actor, they
turned to him,” said George Hatza, retired Reading Eagle entertainment editor.
As a journalist Hatza knew Constantine professionally, and he knew the actor
personally from attending SS. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church in
Reading together. “He was on television back in the ’50s: ‘Perry Mason,’ shows
like that. He did everything.”
Hatza said it was Constantine’s upbringing that made him so adaptable.
“The thing is, he fit into all those roles because he really was the
quintessential common man,” Hatza said. “They were immigrants. They came here,
and his parents spoke Greek in the house. His mother spoke broken English. She
was very intelligent, and very nice. The whole family, just kind, generous,
sweet people. And it was the American dream. You bring your family to America
and your son grows up to be a movie star, a TV star, an actor who everyone
knows.”
It was Constantine’s role on “Room 222” that made him readily recognizable to
many Americans. Hatza said that even though the show incorporated humor,
Constantine mostly played his role straight.
“He was terrific in that role,” Hatza said. “It was considered a comedy series,
but he didn’t play it for laughs. He was a principal and he played it the way a
real principal would be. It was not a joke part. That’s the kind of guy he was.
He had respect for the working man, and that came out in his work.”
After “Room 222,” Constantine stayed busy, landing TV roles on shows such as
“Quincy, M.E.,” “The Love Boat,” “Remington Steele,” “MacGyver” and “Murder,
She Wrote,” to name just a few, plus more than a dozen films, before his
acclaimed role in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” an indie romantic comedy about a
middle class Greek-American woman who falls in love with the upper middle class
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
“That was like he had a second career with ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’. It was
like, ‘Oh yeah, Michael Constantine. I remember him,'” Hatza said, laughing.
Only in this case, unlike with “Room 222,” Constantine cut loose his comedic
chops, big-time.
“He was hilarious, truly hilarious,” Hatza said. “That whole Windex thing (the
window cleaner was his character’s magic elixir for everything) was just a
wonderful sight gag. He just really captured the whole Greek-American thing
about holding on to your heritage. Their house in that movie was a satire of
what people might think of Greek Americans. Everything was white and blue,
which is the colors of the Greek flag. Everything was absurdly Greek. He had
that whininess that only Greeks can do.
“I think he was good enough for an Oscar nomination. I was a little surprised
he didn’t get one for supporting actor.”
Constantine reprised his role on the TV series “My Big Fat Greek Life” and in
the 2016 film, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” the last big role of his long,
distinguished career.
Through it all, whenever he was in Reading, he was a fixture in local coffee
shops, where he would go to read, write screenplays and engage with fans who
might recognize him.
“He would talk with anyone, chat with anyone at all,” Michael Gordon said.
Constantine’s sister Patricia said he loved hanging out at the former Borders
store, Barnes & Noble and the former Take 2 Bagels in Wyomissing.
“What was so interesting was he would be over at Borders or wherever he was
working and writing, and people wouldn’t bother him,” Hatza said. “They’d go up
and shake his hand and walk away. It wasn’t like people were all over him.
People allowed him his space, and he repaid them with courtesy when they were
courteous to him. He was a good guy. A very good guy.
“When you were with him at an event, there was no sense that he was ever more
than anyone else. He never put on airs like that. He was just another person
invited to this picnic, or whatever. He’d just sit there and talk to everyone
about the old days. That’s just the way he was.”
Charles J. Adams III, the retired WEEU radio personality and Reading Eagle
correspondent, recalled seeing Constantine a month or so ago at a local
restaurant.
“It’s funny,” Adams said, “because friends of ours from Chester County were
going out to dinner with us, and as we were walking out, this car pulls up and
this guy says, ‘Charlie Adams?,’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ He recognized me, whoever
it was. And I looked and said, ‘My gosh, it’s Michael Constantine.’
“We started talking — a nice conversation about some work we did in the past —
and my friend said, ‘He recognizes you, but you didn’t recognize him? That’s
kind of funny.’
“But he was that kind of guy. He was so humble.”
Adams said he interviewed Constantine for his radio show when “My Big Fat Greek
Wedding” came out and they really hit it off. They then worked together on the
2010 locally produced film “Location! Location!” and Constantine asked him to
accompany him to the premiere, so they walked the red carpet together.
“He was just such a nice person, so self-effacing,” Adams said. “This is tragic
news, but what a life well-lived.”
Patricia Gordon described her brother as a loving, giving person.
“(He was) the most generous person you’d ever want to meet,” she said. “The
world is a better place because of him — really, truly.”
CONSTANTINE, Michael
Born: 5/22/1927, Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Died: 8/31/2021, Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Michael Constantine’s westerns – actor:
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1963, 1968 (Baca, Noah Meek)
The Virginian (TV) – 1965, 1968, 1969 (Stavros Karas, Private Essex Kanin, John Halmstead)
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1965, 1966 (John Chisum, Thomas J. Pollack, George Burnett)
Iron Horse (TV) – 1967 (Sam McGinty)
The Dakotas (TV) – 1963 (John Marshak)
The Road West (TV) – 1966 (Jacob Adams)
Dundee and the Culhane (TV) - 1967
Wanted: The Sundance Woman (TV) – 1976 (Dave Riley/Dave Baker)
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