Ben Stiller remembers touching childhood story about Jerry Stiller’s generosity

Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

Since Jerry Stiller’s death on May 11th, his son Ben Stiller has been sharing stories about his much beloved father. During his appearance on Tuesday’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Ben shared a touching story from his childhood about Jerry trying to retrieve a stolen bike from a thief. When Ben was about 11-years-old, he claims another boy stole his bike from New York’s Riverside Park. A few days later, while shopping for a second-hand bike with Jerry, Ben saw the thief riding his bike and alerted his father. Jerry chased the boy several blocks and into a walk-up apartment. He told Ben to wait outside and 10 minutes later he emerged without the bike. “He goes, ‘We're going to let him keep the bike,’” recalled Ben, “He needs it. I'll go get you another one.’”

Video Transcript

BEN STILLER: I saw the kid who took my bike riding on my bike. And I said, that's-- dad, that's the kid! That's the kid! And he started running after the kid, and I ran--

JIMMY FALLON: No.

BEN STILLER: --after my dad.

KYLIE MAR: Since Jerry Stiller's death on May 11, his son, Ben Stiller, has been sharing stories about his much-beloved father. And on Tuesday's "Tonight Show," Ben shared a touching story from his childhood about Jerry trying to retrieve his stolen bike from a thief.

BEN STILLER: The kid's riding the bike and saw that my-- you know, my dad was running after him. The kid went into, like, this, like, lower level of a walk-up on 86th Street. And my dad said, all right. Wait here. I'm going to go in. And he went in--

JIMMY FALLON: [INAUDIBLE]

BEN STILLER: Yeah.

KYLIE MAR: While Jerry was a very successful actor, Ben revealed that when it came to catching thieves, sometimes his big heart got in the way.

BEN STILLER: 10 minutes go by, and he comes out. And he doesn't have the bike. I said, what's going on? He goes, we're going to let him keep the bike. We're going to let him keep the-- he needs it. I'll go get you another one. And he--

JIMMY FALLON: Oh.

BEN STILLER: --admittedly let the kid keep the bike, 'cause he felt-- felt bad.

JIMMY FALLON: Oh, that's a great story.