{"id":202647,"date":"2020-06-30T09:58:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T14:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=202647"},"modified":"2020-07-03T09:02:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T14:02:37","slug":"writer-actor-director-carl-reiner-passes-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=202647","title":{"rendered":"Writer, Actor, Director, Carl Reiner passes, 98"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a \u201csecond banana\u201d to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy\u2019s front ranks as creator of \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show\u201d and straight man to Mel Brooks\u2019 \u201c2000 Year Old Man,\u201d has died. He was 98.<\/p>\n

Reiner\u2019s assistant Judy Nagy said he died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California.<\/p>\n

He was one of show business\u2019 best liked men, the tall, bald Reiner was a welcome face on the small and silver screens, in Caesar\u2019s 1950s troupe, as the snarling, toupee-wearing Alan Brady of \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show\u201d and in such films as \u201cThe Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, he was part of the roguish gang in the \u201cOcean\u2019s Eleven\u201d movies starring George Clooney and appeared in documentaries including \u201cBroadway: Beyond the Golden Age\u201d and \u201cIf You\u2019re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tributes poured in online, including from actor Josh Gadd, who called Reiner \u201cone of the greatest comedic minds of all time,\u201d and writer Bill Kristol, who said: \u201cWhat a life!\u201d Actor Alan Alda tweeted: \u201cHis talent will live on for a long time, but the loss of his kindness and decency leaves a hole in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Films he directed included \u201cOh, God!\u201d starring George Burns and John Denver; \u201cAll of Me,\u201d with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin; and the 1970 comedy \u201cWhere\u2019s Poppa?\u201d He was especially proud of his books, including \u201cEnter Laughing,\u201d an autobiographical novel later adapted into a film and Broadway show; and \u201cMy Anecdotal Life,\u201d a memoir published in 2003. He recounted his childhood and creative journey in the 2013 book, \u201cI Remember Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But many remember Reiner for \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show,\u201d one of the most popular television series of all time and a model of ensemble playing, physical comedy and timeless, good-natured wit. It starred Van Dyke as a television comedy writer working for a demanding, eccentric boss (Reiner) and living with his wife (Mary Tyler Moore in her first major TV role) and young son in suburban New Rochelle, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Van Dyke show is probably the most thrilling of my accomplishments because that was very, very personal,\u201d Reiner once said. \u201cIt was about me and my wife, living in New Rochelle and working on the Sid Caesar show.”<\/p>\n

Reiner is the father of actor-director Rob Reiner. The younger Reiner starred as Archie Bunker\u2019s son-in-law on \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d and went on to direct such films as \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally …\u201d and \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d Carl Reiner would praise Rob as his favorite director, and Rob would speak with open admiration, and some trepidation, about his famous dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the nicest man, a decent man, an intelligent man, and talented, and everybody liked him,\u201d Rob Reiner told The Associated Press in 1992.<\/p>\n

Rob Reiner said in a tweet Tuesday that his \u201cheart is hurting. He was my guiding light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Reiner won multiple Emmys for his television work. In 2000, he received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor. When the sound system failed at the start of the ceremonies, Reiner called from the balcony, \u201cDoes anybody have four double-A batteries?\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides \u201cAll of Me,\u201d Reiner directed Martin in \u201cDead Men Don\u2019t Wear Plaid,\u201d \u201cThe Man With Two Brains\u201d and \u201cThe Jerk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Reiner was born in 1922, in New York City\u2019s borough of the Bronx, one of two sons of Jewish immigrants: Irving Reiner, a watchmaker, and his wife, Bessie. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood, where he learned to mimic voices and tell jokes. After high school, Reiner attended drama school, then joined a small theater group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a terrific experience, but I wasn\u2019t getting any money for it,\u201d he told the Akron Beacon Journal in 1963. \u201cI got uppity one day \u2014 after all, the audience was paying from 22 to 88 cents for admission \u2014 and I demanded to be paid. They settled for $1 a performance and I … became their highest-priced actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

During World War II, Reiner joined the Army and toured South Pacific bases in GI variety shows for a year and a half. Back out of uniform, he landed several stage roles, breaking through on Broadway in \u201cCall Me Mister.\u201d<\/p>\n

He married his wife, Estelle, in 1943. Besides son Rob, the couple had another son, Lucas, a film director, and a daughter, Sylvia, a psychoanalyst and author. Estelle Reiner, who died in 2008, had a small but memorable role in Rob Reiner\u2019s \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally…\u201d \u2014 as the woman who overhears Meg Ryan\u2019s ersatz ecstasy in a restaurant and says, \u201cI\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reiner’s death was first reported Tuesday by celebrity website TMZ.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a \u201csecond banana\u201d to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy\u2019s front ranks as creator of \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show\u201d and straight man to Mel Brooks\u2019 \u201c2000 Year Old Man,\u201d has died. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202672,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202647\/revisions\/202672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/202671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}