A FRANK CHAT WITH STILLER : ACTOR ENJOYS NEWFOUND FAME WITH RECURRING `SEINFELD' ROLE.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

After more than 40 years in show business, which included many more appearances on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' than the Beatles made, Jerry Stiller can certainly be considered a legend of comedy.

But, the onetime half of the famed Stiller and Meara comedy combo is known by an entire generation more for being Ben's pop and George's dad and, to one small group in Wisconsin, as one of the fathers of modern football strategy.

Jerry Stiller, the real-life father of actor-director Ben Stiller (``The Cable Guy,'' ``Reality Bites''), and fictional father of George Costanza on ``Seinfeld,'' also plays the legendary former Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi on Nike commercials.

Incidentally, Nike keeps sending him sneakers. Some fit his size-12 feet, others don't.

After a prosthetic nose, some fake teeth and a pair of horn-rim glasses, it's hard to believe the sneaker salesman is the same as the other two men.

Stiller has also filmed an episode of ``Law & Order,'' which will air on Nov. 13, right in the heart of sweeps season.

``It's a career, anyway,'' Stiller said during a recent phone interview. ``When I think about it I have to ask, `How did you maintain it?' It's something I always wanted to do. I never learned anything else, any skills, like typing. I thought it was below me. It was my stupidity, or call it my doggedness, that I learned one skill and little things broke here and there.''

At 69, Stiller is as hot as ever. No - hotter.

His character of the bellowing, staccato, easy-to-irk Frank Costanza - a consistent success on ``Seinfeld'' - is in stark contrast to the the soft-spoken, humble Stiller.

Now Stiller is leaving his Manhattan home - which is on the Upper West Side of the island, walking distance from ``Seinfeld's'' fictional apartment - for England. He was flown out on the Concorde on Tuesday, and is spending a few days in Britain before returning on the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner, on which he and his wife, actress Anne Meara, have been hired to host a panel discussion on their careers for the other passengers.

``Frank Costanza hangs out at the Royal Gardens,'' Stiller said. ``The character has become so popular that I get a trip to Europe, so to speak.''

Stiller said that he doesn't know how he was selected for his ``Seinfeld'' role. He had read a play with Jason Alexander (his TV son, not to be confused with his son who is often on TV); maybe that was it. He and his wife had also done a television pilot a few years back and Julia Louis-Dreyfus was to be their daughter. So, in some sick and twisted way, George Costanza and Elaine Benes are siblings.

At first, Stiller turned down the role of the patriarch of the Costanza crew. He was working on Broadway in ``Three Men on a Horse'' at New York's National Actor's Theater with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall when he got the call. But because of his commitment to the play, he turned it down.

But they called again and Stiller took the job, not knowing exactly what he was getting into.

``I had watched the show on a couple of occasions,'' he said. ``But, like a lot of TV, I flipped around during it. After a while, when I started getting connected with it, now I think it's really remarkable. I laugh even when I'm not on it. Sometimes I watch the reruns at 11 o'clock and laugh.''

Stiller said that he looks forward to every call he gets to play Frank. Each time, he learns something new, whether it be that he can speak fluent Korean, has foot odor or an obsession with collecting TV Guide.

``I feel like Pavlov's dog every time I get a call from them,'' he said. ``I find out another part of the character five minutes before I go on the set.''

And working with Alexander and Michael Richards (who plays Cosmo Kramer) has been enjoyable as well.

One time, Alexander told Stiller not to be afraid to smack him. Stiller at first resisted, saying that he didn't want to smack a grown man, let alone a fellow actor. After a short discourse, a smack on the bald pate of Alexander was deemed acceptable.

``Estelle Harris (who plays George's mom, Estelle Costanza) said, `Can I hit him, too?' '' Stiller said. ``The director said no, that one person hitting him was enough.''

It was Alexander who came up with the bit that Frank should walk around with a rubber inner tube to use as a cushion after he sat on Fusilli Jerry, a statuette of the lead character made out of harder-than-al dente pasta.

Stiller says he has met the real-life Kramer and tooled around New York in his car, although he has not stepped foot in Tom's Restaurant, the New York joint that is used for the exterior shots of ``Seinfeld's'' hangout.

It was Stiller who came up with the idea that he had a cousin in Tuscany, Italy. He was in the city when he saw a mailbox with the name Vera Costanza on it. He took a photo, sent it to the producers and another layer of the man who is Frank Costanza was born.

These days, Stiller fancies himself more an actor than a comedian. And, the disparity between the Frank Costanza character and that of another Italian American, Vince Lombardi, certainly is evidence in his favor.

The first time you watch the Lombardi commercials for Nike, it almost seems as if the former Green Bay Packers coach is working the chalkboard. But at closer inspection, and when Stiller's mop of reddish hair becomes apparent, the deception becomes reality.

Stiller, much more of a basketball fan (specifically the New York Knicks), was not a Lombardi expert by any means. He studied tapes of the coach and read books to find out what motivated the man he was to play.

Stiller said it was the fact that he didn't give himself any options by doing something crazy like learning a backup trade that led to his success in show business. He was going to be an actor or continue selling Nedick's hot dogs outside of Penn Station.

He met Meara in 1953 when he was 25 and she was 23, ``and we started doing a thing we called an act.''

The act got them the national exposure via ``Sullivan'' - 36 times. Meara eventually left the act to raise her two children, Ben and Amy, also an actor-comedian. Meara eventually got back into the business and even appeared in son Ben's ``Reality Bites.''

Some have even made the mistake of calling Jerry Stiller ``Ben,'' but that doesn't bother him. He doesn't even correct them and explain that he wasn't the guy behind ``The Cable Guy'' and that he never had a show on Fox or MTV.

Stiller said that when he and his son talk, they generally leave out work and talk about regular father-son stuff.

``People keep complimenting me on things he has done and (saying) how much they enjoyed it,'' Stiller said. ``Of course, I'm in total shock. Where does your kid get off doing something like that?''

It's the genes, man. It's gotta be the genes.

``My father was a bus driver. I should be driving a bus, then,'' said Stiller, whose father is still alive at 100. ``I can still drive very well, and I tell people it's because I've got my father's genes.''

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Photo: ``I laugh even when I'm not on it,'' says Jerry Stiller, who plays George's father, Frank Costanza, in ``Seinfeld.'' He and wife Anne Meara met and began their comedy act in the 1950s.