Harris Hoping For Steady TV Role ‘Seinfeld’ Actress Plans To Find Work In Summer Theater

Estelle Harris is a tonic - a tart, invigorating dose of energy, bold with opinion but positive in tone.

Best known for playing George Costanza’s shriek of a mother on the hit sitcom “Seinfeld,” Harris is a constant pop-up on TV commercials for a range of products from phone systems to gasoline.

This day she’s lunching in a Hollywood restaurant that caters to industry insiders and top-drawer ladies-who-lunch. Harris orders, succinctly translating a waiter’s painstaking description of the dish of the day, “I’ve never tasted fried green tomatoes.”

Harris likes to eat, chat and find adventure in each new experience. Her green eyes, marmalade hair and attention-getting voice identify her most closely as Mrs. Costanza. But her makeup is much brighter, her style of dress more youthful and her demeanor more complex.

She is positive about her work experiences and open about her private life.

“I don’t think I’d have married if I was a young woman now,” she says. “I did it to get away from home.

“I wanted that, so I talked myself into being in love.”

Still, she remains married 40 years later to the same man, Sy, in a relationship that has produced two sons, Eric and Glen, a daughter, Taryn, and three grandchildren, Josh, Alex and Jake.

Sy was due to join her a day or two later in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she was scheduled for a week’s work as a European mother in “Downhill Willie,” a skiing comedy starring Kevin Coogan.

In the meantime she exults in her most recent “Seinfeld” appearance. It’s the episode in which Mrs. Constanza thinks Kramer has put “the move” on her, part of an intricate web of small absurdities that create giant complications and huge laughs.

She considers the episode worthy of an Emmy and unabashedly points out a review that says, “Harris comes close to stealing the show.”

“Did you hear me screaming?” she exclaims, revealing her response to the praise.

Athough Harris’ shrill has become famous, she chose not to scream when she auditioned for “Seinfeld.” When she debuted in 1992, she understood at once that Mrs. Constanza’s response to her son’s sexual self-indulgence was a brilliant sarcasm that didn’t need her vocal amplification.

“Too bad you can’t do that for a living. You’d be very successful at it,” Mrs. Constanza quipped at George, the perennial, hapless failure.

Harris says her greatest desire is to be a regular on a TV series.

“People think I’m a regular on ‘Seinfeld’ but I’m not,” she stresses, pointing out that she’s appeared on only three episodes this past season.

In 1993 she did secure a regular slot as the receptionist in the sitcom “Good Advice” with Shelley Long and Treat Williams. That quickly ended, however, when she fell and injured herself in the basement of her Port Washington home.

Her character was written out of the CBS series, which was short-lived anyway.

Harris had hankered to act during what she calls an unhappy childhood in Pennyslvania. She had put that desire on hold when she moved to Brooklyn, married and began raising her family.

Once her children were grown, she began to work in community theater. Her acting career was launched from an amateur production of “Come Back, Little Sheba” in Long Island.

She proudly describes how a local impresario approached her after a performance, kissed her hand and exclaimed, “My dear, what … are you doing here?” His interest led to a professional staging of “Little Sheba.”

Harris still believes in working on the stage whenever possible. During this summer hiatus she plans to work on the summer theater circuit, possibly in “Barefoot In The Park” in Cape Cod.

How much Mrs. Constanza will show up on next season’s “Seinfeld” Harris can’t say.

She is scheduled to be seen in January on “Fallen Angels,” a classic detective series on the cable channel Showtime. She plays the backroom madame in a ‘40s dance hall.

When she’s not working, Harris shops for collectibles at auctions, thrift shops, antique markets and wherever she can find a bargain. Showing off some of the period jewelry she is wearing, she lingers a while on the importance of “beauty” in everyone’s lives.

She recalls that it was the awesome view of the mountains in Pennsylvania that gave her hope and comfort as a child.

But most of all what she’d really like to collect is that regular role. That would definitely be an object of beauty in her opinion.