Carl Reiner, the writer, producer, director and actor who was part of the legendary Sid Caesar team and created “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and directed several successful movies, died. He was 98 years old.
He died of natural causes Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills, confirmed his assistant Judy Nagy. Variety.
Reiner, the father of filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, was the winner of nine Emmy Awards, including five for “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. His most popular directorial films included “Oh God,” starring George Burns, in 1977; “The Jerk”, with Steve Martin, in 1979; and “All of Me” with Martin and Lily Tomlin in 1984.
In his later years, Reiner was an elder statesman of comedy, revered and respected for his versatility as a performer and multi-script. He was also an expert in social media. He maintained a live presence on Twitter until the last day of his life. He was vocal in his opposition to President Donald Trump.
Reiner remained in the public eye until the 80s and 90s with roles in the popular trio of films “Ocean’s Eleven” and on television with recurring roles in the comedies “Two and a Half Men” and “Hot in Cleveland”. He also did voice work for shows like “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “King of the Hill” and “Bob’s Burgers.”
In 2017, Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and frequent comedy partner Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Kirk Douglas, and other non-Hollywood Hollywood legends appeared in the HBO documentary “If You’re Not on the Obit, Eat Breakfast” , examining the secrets to longevity in a fickle industry.
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Reiner first stood out as a member of the regular cast for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows”, for which he won two Emmy Awards in 1956 and 1957 in the Support category. He met Brooks during his time with Caesar. The two had a long friendship and a comedy partnership through the recurring sketches of “2000 Year Old Man”.
Before creating the CBS hit “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which he sometimes appeared, Reiner and “Show of Shows” writer Mel Brooks crafted an elongated parody in which Reiner played a direct man-interviewer for Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man”; A recording of the 1961 parody was an immediate success and spawned several sequels, the latest of which, “The 2000-Year-Old Man in the Year 2000” in 1998, earned the couple a Grammy.
Producer and director Max Liebman, who cast him on the 1950 Broadway show “Alive and Kicking,” also hired Reiner as the emcee and performer on the NBC comedy / variety show “Your Show of Shows.” .
Later, Reiner worked as a panel presenter on “Keep Talking,” as a guest television star, and in featured movie roles on “The Gazebo,” “Happy Anniversary,” and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” Reiner’s 1958 novel “Enter Laughing”, loosely based on his own experiences, was chosen for the stage by producer David Merrick. Reiner made a legitimate adaptation in 1963 and then directed the film version in 1967, marking his debut as a film director.
For Broadway, he wrote and directed the farce “Something Different”, which ran for a few months in 1967-68; directed “Tough to Get Help” in 1972; wrote the book for the musical “So Long, 174th Street”, which had a brief career in 1976; and directed “The Roast” in 1980.
In 1961, Reiner drew on his experiences with Caesar to create and produce “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” a cornerstone of CBS’s ratings for the next five years. Reiner made special appearances as the irascible host of variety show Alan Brady. The show won Emmys for writing its first three years and for producing the last two. In 1967, Reiner picked up another Emmy for his writings on a reunion variety show with César, Coca, and Morris.
Although the movie “Enter Laughing” was modestly received, Reiner continued to direct steadily for decades to come. “Where’s Poppa?”, An unconventional comedy that he directed in 1970, became a cult favorite. Similarly, two other Martin vehicles, the gumshoe parody “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” and “The Man With Two Brains,” found a larger audience after their release in theaters.
There were also several unsuccessful films, such as “The Comic” from 1969, to which Reiner also contributed part of the script; two similar failures in the mid-1980s, “Summer Rental” and “Summer School”; “Bert Rigby, you are a fool”; 1990 “Sibling Rivalry”; and a parody of “Basic Instinct” from 1993 called “Fatal Instinct.” He also appeared in most of these photos.
While the last film he directed was the 1997 romantic comedy “That Old Feeling,” starring Bette Midler and Dennis Farina, Reiner had an active presence in guest roles on television and in supporting roles in movies during the 1990s and 2000s, even as he got closer and then passed his 90th birthday.
Guessed on “Frasier” in 1993; he reprized the role of Alan Brady in an episode of “Mad About You” in 1995 and won an Emmy for it; and guessed at “Ally McBeal”, “Boston Legal” and “House”.
Large-screen appearances included “The Spirit of ’76” from 1990, directed by his son Lucas; “Beverly Hills Slums” (1998); and the three films in the “Ocean’s Eleven” series.
Born in the Bronx, he graduated from high school at age 16 and worked as a machinist while studying acting. After brief stints in the summer stock and on the Borscht Belt circuit, he entered the Army during World War II. His acting talent caught the attention of Maurice Evans’ special services unit, where Reiner met future “Show of Shows” cohort Howard Morris. During the rest of the war, he toured the bases of the South Pacific in GI magazines.
He started running in New York after the war, landed a role in the GI magazine “Call Me Mister” and in 1948 appeared in the Broadway musical magazine “Inside USA”, starring Beatrice Lillie and Jack Haley. At the same time, he appeared on television as a fashion photographer on ABC’s “Fashion Story”.
In the early 1950s, Reiner became part of the team working in front of and behind the camera on Caesar’s NBC variety show “Your Show of Shows”, a 90-minute comedy variety show that was broadcast live on Staurdays night. The writers’ room was filled with future show business legends like Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Lucille Kallen.
After “Your Show of Shows” ended in 1954, Reiner and the show’s regular Howard Morris moved in with Caesar to star in another NBC variety show, “Caesar’s Hour,” which aired on NBC from 1954 to 1957. When Reiner decided to shepherd his own sitcom, he teamed up with producers Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard to produce “Dick Van Dyke Show”.
Van Dyke was the fourth partner in the production company Calvada, which long held ownership of the classic comedy. “Dick Van Dyke Show” featured Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore as Rob and Laura Petrie, a version of Reiner and his wife Estelle living in the New Rochelle suburbs while Reiner traveled to Manhattan to work on Caesar’s shows.
In 1995, Reiner received the Writers Guild Laurel Award, a lifetime achievement award for a career in television writing. In 2000 he won the Mark Twain Prize for Humor presented by the Kennedy Center. In 2009, she received the WGA Valentine Davies Award, recognizing both her writing heritage and her valuable service to the guild, the entertainment industry, and the community at large.
Reiner’s wife Estelle, whom he had married since 1943, died in 2008. In addition to Rob Reiner, survivors include his daughter Sylvia Anne and son Lucas.
– Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report.
