Michael Constantine
Encyclopedia
Michael Constantine is a Greek American actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

He is probably now best known for his portrayal of Gus Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos
Nia Vardalos
Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos is a Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, director, singer and producer. Her most notable work is the 2002 Academy Award–nominated film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.-Personal life:...

), in the 2002 surprise hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...

.

Prior to that, he was well-known for his extensive TV work, especially as the long-suffering high school principal Seymour Kaufman on Room 222
Room 222
Room 222 is an American comedy-drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series aired on ABC from September 17, 1969, to January 11, 1974, for 112 episodes...

 for which he won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 as Best Supporting Actor in 1970. He played a night court magistrate, Matthew J. Sirota, on the brief 1976 sitcom Sirota's Court.

Life and career

Constantine was born Constantine Ioannides in Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

, the son of Andromache Efstratiou (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Fotiadou) and Theoharis Ioannides (a steel worker), both immigrants from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

He began his career on the New York stage and in the mid-1950s as understudy to Paul Muni
Paul Muni
Paul Muni was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor...

 in Inherit the Wind. While in the cast, he met and married actress Julianna McCarthy
Julianna McCarthy
Julianna McCarthy is an American actress. McCarthy was an original cast member of the soap opera The Young and the Restless, starring as matriarch Liz Foster from 1973 to 1982. She reprised the role in 1984, 1985–86, 1993, 2003–2004, and 2008...

 on October 5, 1953; they had two children, Thea Eileen and Brendan Neil. The marriage ended in divorce in 1969, the same year that Constantine began his role as a school principal on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 television series, Room 222
Room 222
Room 222 is an American comedy-drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series aired on ABC from September 17, 1969, to January 11, 1974, for 112 episodes...

.

He studied acting with such prominent mentors as Howard Da Silva
Howard Da Silva
Howard Da Silva was an American actor.-Early life:He was born Howard Silverblatt in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Benjamin and Bertha Silverblatt. His parents were both Yiddish speaking Jews born in Russia. He had a job as a steelworker before beginning his acting career on the stage...

. He was playing character roles on and off Broadway in his mid-twenties, supplementing his income as a night watchman and shooting-gallery barker. In 1959 he appeared in his first film, The Last Mile (1959). He had a small but memorable supporting role in The Hustler
The Hustler (film)
The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from the 1959 novel of the same name he and Sidney Carroll adapted for the screen...

 (1961). In 1967 he appeared in the first part of "The Judgment," the two-episode conclusion of The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...

, starring David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...

. Constantine play a long-suffering anti-organized-crime agent in Walt Disney's caper film The North Avenue Irregulars
The North Avenue Irregulars
The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait...

 (1979), where he appeared alongside Edward Herrmann
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...

 and Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...

.

He played Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

 in Prancer
Prancer (film)
Prancer is a 1989 family film starring Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman. It was directed by John D. Hancock. It is set in Three Oaks, Michigan, where town exteriors were filmed...

 (1989). In 1993, Constantine appeared in the independent drama Question of Faith, starring Anne Archer
Anne Archer
Anne Archer is an American actress who has performed in feature films, television, and stage and was named Miss Golden Globe in 1971. Among her best known roles is that of Beth Gallagher in the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction, for which she received a nomination for an Academy Award.-Career:Archer's...

 and Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....

. He played Tadzu Lempke in Stephen King's Thinner
Thinner (film)
Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell with the screenplay by Tom Holland. The film is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.-Plot:...

 in 1996. In 2002, he enjoyed an unexpected comeback as the Windex
Windex
Windex is a trademark for a glass and hard-surface cleaner manufactured since 1933. S. C. Johnson acquired Windex in 1993 and has been manufacturing it since that time. The product was recently reformulated with more environmentally desirable solvents....

-toting Gus Portokalos in the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...

, a role he reprised in the short-lived television series My Big Fat Greek Life.

Film

  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding
    My Big Fat Greek Wedding
    My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...

     - (Gus Portokalos, 2002)
  • The Juror
    The Juror
    The Juror is a 1996 American romantic thriller film based on the novel by George Dawes Green, directed by Brian Gibson and starring Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a single mother picked for jury duty for a mafia trial. The film was released on 2 February 1996...

     - (Judge Weitzel, 1996)
  • Thinner
    Thinner (film)
    Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell with the screenplay by Tom Holland. The film is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.-Plot:...

     - (Tadzu Lempke, 1996)
  • Deadfall - (Frank, 1993)
  • My Life
    My Life (film)
    My Life is a 1993 film starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman and directed by Bruce Joel Rubin. With a PG-13 rating, this film's domestic box office gross was $28 million.-Plot summary:...

     - (Bill, 1993)
  • Question of Faith - (1993)
  • By a Thread - (1991)
  • Prancer
    Prancer (film)
    Prancer is a 1989 family film starring Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman. It was directed by John D. Hancock. It is set in Three Oaks, Michigan, where town exteriors were filmed...

     - (Mr Stewart/Santa, 1989)
  • In the Mood
    In the Mood (film)
    In the Mood is a 1987 film directed by Phil Alden Robinson. It is set in the 1940s and stars Patrick Dempsey and Beverly D'Angelo.Based on the true story of Ellsworth Clewer "Sonny" Wisecarver Jr., called the Woo Woo Kid, who became infamous in 1944 for having affairs with older women...

     - (Mr Wisecarver, 1987)
  • Pray For Death - (Newman, 1985)
  • The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
    The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
    The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is a 1933 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel based on the defense of a small community of Armenians living in the Musa Dagh of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 during the height of the Armenian Genocide. The book was originally published as Die Vierzig Tage des Musa...

     - (Talaat Pasha, 1983)
  • The North Avenue Irregulars
    The North Avenue Irregulars
    The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait...

     - (Marv, 1979)
  • Summer of My German Soldier
    Summer of My German Soldier
    Summer of My German Soldier is a book by Bette Greene first published in 1973.The story is told in first person narrative by a twelve-year-old Jewish girl named Patty Bergen living in Jenkinsville, Arkansas during World War II. The story focuses on the friendship between Patty and an escaped German...

     (Harry Bergen, 1978)
  • Peeper - (Anglich, 1976)
  • Voyage of the Damned
    Voyage of the Damned
    Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...

     - (1976)
  • If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
    If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
    If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium is a 1969 romantic comedy film made by Wolper Pictures and released by United Artists. It was directed by Mel Stuart, filmed on location throughout Europe, and features many cameo appearances from various stars....

     - (Jack Harmon, 1969)
  • Justine
    Marquis de Sade: Justine
    Marquis de Sade: Justine is a 1969 Italian drama film, directed by Jesús Franco and starring Klaus Kinski. It is based on the novel Justine by Marquis de Sade.-Plot:...

     - (Memlik Pasha, 1969)
  • The Reivers
    The Reivers (film)
    The Reivers is a 1969 film directed by Mark Rydell based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name...

     - (Mr Binford, 1969)
  • In Enemy Country - (Ladislov, 1968)
  • Skidoo
    Skidoo (film)
    Skidoo is an American comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures on December 19, 1968...

     - (Leech, 1968)
  • Beau Geste
    Beau Geste (1966 film)
    Beau Geste is a 1966 film based on the novel by P. C. Wren filmed by Universal Pictures in Technicolor and Techniscope near Yuma, Arizona and directed by Douglas Heyes. This is the least faithful of the various film adaptations of the original novel...

     - (Rostov, 1966)
  • Hawaii
    Hawaii (film)
    Hawaii is a 1966 American film directed by George Roy Hill and based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener. It tells the story of an 1820s Yale University divinity student who, along with his new bride , becomes a Calvinist missionary in the Hawaiian Islands...

     - (Mason, 1966)
  • Quick, Before It Melts
    Quick, Before It Melts
    Quick, Before It Melts is a 1964 Panavision and Metrocolor comedy film directed by Delbert Mann, written by Dale Wasserman, starring Robert Morse, George Maharis, and Anjanette Comer and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on a novel of the same title by Philip Benjamin....

     - (Mikhail Drozhensky, 1964)
  • Island of Love - (Andy, 1963)
  • The Hustler
    The Hustler (film)
    The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from the 1959 novel of the same name he and Sidney Carroll adapted for the screen...

     - (Big John, 1961)
  • The Last Mile - (Convict Ed Warner, 1959)

Television

  • Cold Case (1 episode, 2007)
  • My Big Fat Greek Life
    My Big Fat Greek Life
    My Big Fat Greek Life is a situation comedy series that ran on CBS in 2003. The series is a continuation on the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and was produced by HBO Television and Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions for Sony Pictures Television....

     (7 episodes, 2003)
  • Cosby
    Cosby
    Cosby is a situation comedy television series broadcast on CBS from September 16, 1996 to April 28, 2000, loosely based on the British sitcom One Foot in the Grave. The program starred Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashād...

     (1 episode, 1997)
  • Law & Order
    Law & Order
    Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

     (2 episodes, 1992–1994)
  • Murder, She Wrote
    Murder, She Wrote
    Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

     (2 episodes, 1985–1988)
  • Simon & Simon
    Simon & Simon
    Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...

     (3 episodes, 1984–1988)
  • Friday the Thirteenth (1 Episode 1988)
  • MacGyver
    MacGyver
    MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...

     (2 episodes, 1985–1987)
  • Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

     (1 episode, 1986)
  • Remington Steele
    Remington Steele
    Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...

     (3 episodes, 1984–1986)
  • Highway to Heaven
    Highway to Heaven
    Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...

     (1 episode, 1985)
  • Airwolf
    Airwolf
    Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....

     (1 episode, 1985)
  • The Love Boat
    The Love Boat
    The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...

     (2 episodes, 1983)
  • Mama's Family
    Mama's Family
    Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...

     (1 episode, 1983)
  • The Fall Guy
    The Fall Guy
    The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...

     (1 episode, 1983)
  • Fantasy Island
    Fantasy Island
    Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

     (1 episode, 1980)
  • Roots: The Next Generations
    Roots: The Next Generations
    Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte...

     (mini-series, 1979)
  • Mary Tyler Moore
    The Mary Tyler Moore Show
    The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...

     (1 episode, 1971)
  • Room 222
    Room 222
    Room 222 is an American comedy-drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series aired on ABC from September 17, 1969, to January 11, 1974, for 112 episodes...

     Series - Seymour Kaufman (1969–1974)
  • The Streets of San Francisco
    The Streets of San Francisco
    The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...

     - Al Davies - in episode "A Wrongful Death" (series, 1973)
  • Mission: Impossible
    Mission: Impossible
    Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

     (1 episode, 1969)
  • Gunsmoke
    Gunsmoke
    Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

     (2 episodes, 1963–1968)
  • Hey Landlord (series, 1966–1967)
  • The Fugitive
    The Fugitive (TV series)
    The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...

     (3 episodes, 1965–1967) (Ernie Svoboda, Ben Wyckoff, Arthur Art Howe)
  • The Virginian
    The Virginian (TV series)
    The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...

     (1 episode 1965)
  • The Road West
    The Road West
    The Road West is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1966 to May 1, 1967 for twenty-nine episodes with rebroadcasts continuing until August 28. The hour-long series, sponsored by Kraft Foods, aired in the 9 p.m...

     in episode "To Light a Candle" (series, 1966)
  • The Dick Van Dyke Show
    The Dick Van Dyke Show
    The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....

     (1 episode, 1966)
  • Hogan's Heroes
    Hogan's Heroes
    Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...

     (1 episode, 1966)
  • The Jean Arthur Show
    The Jean Arthur Show
    The Jean Arthur Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September to December 1966. The series stars Jean Arthur and Ron Harper, and was under the primary sponsorship of General Foods.-Synopsis:...

     (2 episodes as Carnella, 1966)
  • Perry Mason
    Perry Mason
    Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...

     (2 episodes, 1964–1965)
  • The Outer Limits
    The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
    The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...

     (episode 46 "Counterweight", 1964)
  • Slattery's People
    Slattery's People
    Slattery's People is a 1964-1965 American television series about local politics starring Richard Crenna as title character James Slattery, a state legislator, co-starring Ed Asner and Tol Avery, and featuring Carroll O'Connor and Warren Oates in a couple of episodes each. James E. Moser was...

     (1964) one episode as Hungerford in "Remember The Dark Sins of Youth?"
  • The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...

     (1 episode, 1964)
  • The Eleventh Hour
    The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
    The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...

     as Dr. Jamison in episode "And God Created Vanity" (1963)
  • Channing
    Channing (TV series)
    Channing is an American drama series that aired on American Broadcasting Company from September 18, 1963 to April 8, 1964...

     (1 episode, 1963)
  • The Lloyd Bridges Show
    The Lloyd Bridges Show
    The Lloyd Bridges Show is an American anthology drama series produced by Aaron Spelling, which aired on CBS from September 11, 1962 to May 28, 1963, starring and hosted by Lloyd Bridges.-Synopsis:...

     (2 episodes, 1962–1963)
  • The Untouchables
    The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
    The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...

     (5 episodes, 1961–1963)
  • Target: The Corruptors!
    Target: The Corruptors!
    Target: The Corruptors! is a 35-episode crime drama starring Stephen McNally as newspaper reporter Paul Marino, which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The character Jack Flood, Marino's undercover agent, was portrayed by Robert Harland...

     (1 episode), 1961
  • Brenner (1 episode, 1959)
  • My Favorite Martian
    My Favorite Martian
    My Favorite Martian is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963 to May 1, 1966 for 107 episodes...

     (TV series) (2 episodes, 1965-1966)

External links

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