Comedy great Anne Meara, the quick-witted half of the comedy team "Stiller & Meara," died at 85 on Saturday, her family said.

1994: Meara, Stiller perform improv scene 02:35

Meara and her husband, Jerry Stiller, were married for 61 years and worked together almost as long, the family said in a statement. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children, comic actor Ben Stiller,daughter Amy Stiller and grandchildren.

"Anne's memory lives on in the hearts of daughter Amy, son Ben, her grandchildren, her extended family and friends, and the millions she entertained as an actress, writer and comedienne," the family statement said.

From Brooklyn to comedy

Meara was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of Irish-Catholic descent. She studied under acting teacher Uta Hagen and aspired to become a "serious" actor in the tradition of Maureen Stapleton and Kim Stanley.

Then she met Stiller, a Jewish boy from Brooklyn, and turned to comedy even though she "disdained" comedians, she said in a 2005 interview.

"I was glad he got us to be a comedy team because then we weren't just waiting for the agent to call," she said. "We traveled with our own stuff."

The couple made their name as "Stiller & Meara" in the 1960s with frequent performances on variety shows, including the "The Ed Sullivan Show." Desperate to come up with a bit at the last minute, they plumbed the depths of their background to create "uber Jewish guy" Hershey Horowitz and "uber Irish girl" Mary Elizabeth Doyle -- caricatures of themselves, they said in 2005.

The couple met at a New York casting call in 1953. Meara left crying, saying the agent chased her around the office, a scene described in Stiller's autobiography, "Married to Laughter: A Love Story Featuring Anne Meara."

"She looked sort of puritanical and smelled nice," Stiller said of the "angel-faced" aspiring actress. When he invited her out for coffee, he was caught off guard when she asked him to steal silverware in exchange for paying her share.

"I told myself, 'What am I getting myself into, hanging out with New York actresses? They're all crazy," he wrote.

They married in 1954 and she converted to Judaism, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After years of struggling to stardom, they eventually teamed up for a comedy act playing exaggerated versions of themselves in New York's Greenwich Village coffeehouses: self-deprecating, kvetching New Yorkers.

They polished their act at Chicago's Compass Theater, a 1950s cabaret revue show whose members went on to form The Second City Theater in 1959. Before long, they were performing as "Stiller & Meara" on popular TV shows of the 1960s including The Merv Griffin Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

Their success led to a contract for Blue Nun wine radio commercials, a long-running campaign credited with boosting sales of the semi-sweet German wine.

By the 1970s, they were ready to pursue independent careers or risk ending their marriage.

"I didn't know where the act ended and our marriage began," Meara told People magazine in 1977.

"I love Anne, but if I had depended on her in my professional life... I would have lost her as a wife," Stiller told the magazine.

Stiller pursued a career in comedy that led to memorable roles as George Costanza's father on "Seinfield" and "The King of Queens.

Meara became a regular on the game show circuit and before landing the role of Sally Gallagher on the TV series "Rhoda." She went on to play hundreds of TV roles in the 1980s and 1990s in practially every hit show of the moment, from "The Love Boat" to "ALF" to "Sex and the City" and "King of Queens."

News of her death prompted tributes from fans and celebrities spanning generations.

"My heart and prayers go out to Jerry and Ben for the loss of their beloved Anne Meara," Duke said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/24/entertainment/feat-anne-meara-dies/

Juan Pablo Montoya wins his second Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS — With a bold move on a teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya became a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

With three laps to go, Montoya made a pass on the outside of teammate Will Power going into Turn One and made it stick. Montoya then held on to win his second career Indy 500, having also won in 2000 as a rookie.

Montoya then left IndyCar racing to experiment in NASCAR. With Sunday’s win, his decision to return looks like a wise one.

HELIO: Never a contender for record fourth Indy 500 win

Montoya, Power and Scott Dixon traded the top three spots several times in a wild final 15 laps of the race. Power finished second, Charlie Kimball third and Dixon faded to fourth at the end. Graham Rahal finished fifth.

'Beautiful Mind' mathematician John Nash killed in crash

US mathematician John Nash, who inspired the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, has died in a car crash with his wife, police have said.

Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, they said.

The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.

His breakthroughs in maths - and his struggles with schizophrenia - were the focus of the 2001 film.

Russell Crowe, who played him, tweeted: "Stunned... My heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts."

The film's director, Ron Howard, also tweeted his tribute to the "brilliant" John Nash and his "remarkable" wife.

Alicia Nash helped care for her husband, and the two later became prominent mental health advocates.

The two were thrown from their vehicle, police said. Media reports said the couple may not have been wearing seatbelts when they crashed.

Their taxi driver, and a passenger in another car, were also injured.

'Genius'

Born in Bluefield, West Virginia, Nash first studied in Pittsburgh before moving to Princeton.

His recommendation letter contained just one line: "This man is a genius."

Nash married Alicia Larde in 1957, after publishing some of his breakthrough works in game theory, which is the mathematical study of decision-making.

But he developed severe schizophrenia soon after, and Alicia had him committed for psychiatric care several times. The couple divorced in 1962.

"I was disturbed in this way for a very long period of time, like 25 years," Nash said in an interview on the Nobel website.

The two stayed close, and his condition had begun to improve by the 1980s. They remarried in 2001.

The President of Princeton, Christopher Eisgruber, said he was "stunned and saddened" to hear of their deaths.

"John's remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory," he said.

Even this week, Nash received the Abel Prize, another top honour in the field of mathematics.

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Nash Equilibrium, by John Moriarty, Manchester University

Great new mathematical ideas have a balance to strike - they must be precise enough to allow detailed conclusions to be drawn, and yet sufficiently loose that they can be useful in a wide range of problems.

The Nash Equilibrium, for which he won a Nobel Prize, is just such an idea. It offered something truly new - the ability to analyse situations of conflict and co-operation and produce predictions about how people will behave.

Nash's famous equilibrium has grown to be perhaps the most important idea in economic analysis and has found application in fields as diverse as computing, evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.

More recently it has been used in studies of corruption and also name-checked amidst the Greek financial crisis.

Article Source/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32865248